The discovery of stone tools alongside mastodon bones in a Florida river shows that humans settled the southeastern United States as much as 1,500 years earlier than scientists previously believed, according to a research team led by a Florida State University professor.

1. THE TOOLS OF EARLY MAN
AUCILLA RIVER, FL
FSU RESEARCH

2. 45 minutes from Tallahassee is the Aucilla River - now the oldest known
site of human life in the southeastern United States.

3. FSU Assistant Professor of Anthropology Jessi Halligan and researchers
from Texas A& M and University of Michigan discovered evidence of human
activity dating back
14, 550 years

4. Divers excavated the site 30 feet below the surface of the Aucilla.

5. Stone tools and mastodon bones were recovered from the site.
One mastodon tusk bared cut
marks from a tool in a layer more
than 14, 000 years old.

6. Prior to this discovery, scientists
believed a group of people called
Clovis settled the area about
13, 200 years ago.

7. Using the latest radiocarbon techniques, researchers dated the
artifacts origins to about 14, 550 years ago.

8. " This is a big deal. There were people here. So
how did they live?
This has opened up a whole new line of inquiry
for us as scientists as we try to understand the
settlement of the Americas. "
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