Archaeologists from the University of Victoria ratify the authenticity of the 14,000-year-old village found in Canada. The ancient town was found in the Heiltsuk First Nation territories along the British Columbia coast. Experts claim that humans lived there way before the existence of the Roman Empire and the pyramids of Giza.

According to the Independent, the exact location of the discovered early civilization sits under a rocky spit on Triquet Island. That is about 500 kilometers northwest of Victoria, Canada. Some of the artifacts collected from the area include fire tools, fish hooks, and spears dating back to the Ice Age.

One of the researchers, Alisha Gauvreau, said that the latest discovery changes the current ideas on the way in which North America was firs occupied. The main theory is that the first people in America crossed a long-vanished land bridge that once linked Siberia and Alaska over the Bering Strait, which was frozen at that time. For the record, Gauvreau is an anthropology PhD student at the University of Victoria.

Per eOntario Now, the theory of a land bridge over a frozen Bering Strait is pretty much questionable. For one, new evidence shows that two great ice masses merged into one around 21,000 years ago. This means that the corridor - in the Cordilleran and Laurentide ice sheets- was blocked earlier than previously thought. The earliest evidence of human occupation dates about 15,000 years ago but the new discovery reveals that the corridor was not fully open until about 13,000 years ago.

Therefore, the researchers believe that the first American settlers arrived by boat from Asia through a Pacific coastal route. Fortunately, the latest excavation findings prove this model.

Gauvreau said in earlier media interviews that a lot of hunting tools found in Canada appears to be meant for marine mammals. Thus, these people could have discovered a way to traverse the sea. Oral accounts of the Heiltsuk Nation also prove this theory. The stories say that "ancient coastal villages" existed for generations.

Topics Archaeology, Canada