The Clovis First theory is the idea that the Clovis culture was the first group of people to live in the Americas, around 13,000 years ago. This theory was the main explanation for how people first arrived in the Americas during much of the 20th century.

In the 1990s, many discoveries of older human activity began to question the Clovis First model. One important finding was at Monte Verde, Chile, where evidence showed humans lived there 14,500 years ago.

Early dominance

A study from Rutgers University in 2005 suggested that the native people living in the Americas before 1492 were descendants of about 70 individuals who traveled across the land bridge connecting Asia and North America.

Historically, theories about how people first arrived in the Americas focused on migration from a region called Beringia through the interior of North America. In the early 1930s, artifacts found near Clovis, New Mexico, along with remains of animals from the Pleistocene era, showed that humans had settled in North America earlier than previously thought, during a time when glaciers were still widespread. This led to a new idea about a migration path between the Laurentide and Cordilleran ice sheets to explain how people reached North America earlier.

The Clovis site was known for a type of stone tool technology that included spear points with a groove or notch where the point was attached to a spear shaft. This tool style, called the Clovis Point, was later found across much of North America and in South America. The connection between the Clovis tool technology and the remains of large animals from the late Pleistocene era led to the idea that these tools marked the arrival of big game hunters who moved from Beringia and spread throughout the Americas. This idea is known as the Clovis First theory.

Later challenges

In the 2000s, scientists used more accurate dating methods to study ancient sites in the Americas, finding evidence of human activity before 13,000 years ago. Recent carbon dating of Clovis sites shows ages between 13,000 and 12,600 years ago, which is later than earlier estimates. When scientists reviewed older carbon dating results, they found that 11 out of 22 Clovis sites had unreliable dates, including the original Clovis site in New Mexico. Comparing Clovis dates with other sites across the Americas and with the opening of the ice-free corridor has raised questions about the Clovis First theory. For example, the Monte Verde site in southern Chile is dated to 14,800 years ago, and the Paisley Cave in eastern Oregon has a 14,500-year-old sample with human DNA. Other layers in the cave show dates of 13,200 and 12,900 years ago, linked to tools that are not Clovis. In eastern North America, some sites with tools different from Clovis have dates older than Clovis, but these dates are not always clear.

Studies suggest the ice-free corridor, a possible path for early people, opened around 13,800 years ago, which is later than the oldest widely accepted sites in the Americas. This timing challenges the idea that the corridor was the main route for early migration.

An alternative to the Beringia route is the "stepping stones" hypothesis. This idea suggests that islands in the Bering Transitory Archipelago, which were sometimes underwater, forced early people to move across the islands until they reached the mainland.