Brief
Alaska site yields thousands of artifacts suggesting earlier Bering‑land‑bridge connections
A decade‑long dig at Shég’ Xdaltth’í’ near Fairbanks revealed a dense base‑camp layer dating to about 13,800 years ago.
By Felo News Desk · Published
Archaeologists have announced the discovery of thousands of artifacts at Shég’ Xdaltth’í’, a 13,800‑year‑old site in interior Alaska, indicating a more permanent settlement and a possible early link across the Bering Land Bridge, Gizmodo reported.
What happened
The research team, working for more than ten years, excavated a base‑camp layer that spans less than 11 square feet but contains an “exceptional quantity and diversity” of material. The layer dates to roughly 13,800 years ago, with some items possibly as old as 14,000 years. Among the finds are tools such as an anvil, hammerstones, animal bones, a pit, a hearth inside a dwelling, and thousands of stone implements.
What the reports add
Gizmodo notes that the most striking artifacts are diamond‑shaped projectile points, a style previously recorded only at two sites on the Russian side of the Bering Strait. The presence of these points at Shég’ Xdaltth’í’ suggests a cultural connection spanning the former land bridge. The article also emphasizes that most contemporary Alaskan sites of this age are interpreted as short‑term “special task” camps, whereas Shég’ Xdaltth’í’ appears to be a longer‑term “base camp” with evidence of daily life.
What was said
“There’s just so much stuff,” Kelly Graf, an anthropologist at the University of Kansas, told Gizmodo. “As soon as we knew how cool it was, in the first few years, we wanted to be able to write a paper about it. But we were like, ‘No, we need to do this right.’”
How it came about
The study, published in the journal Science Advances on Wednesday, is the culmination of more than a decade of fieldwork at the interior‑Alaska location, which lies near Fairbanks. Researchers have been searching for a larger, longer‑occupied settlement to complement the many short‑term hunting camps known from the same period. The discovery of a dense artifact assemblage, including the rare diamond‑shaped points, provides new evidence for early, possibly sustained, interaction between peoples on either side of the Bering Land Bridge during the last Ice Age.
Key facts
- The Shég’ Xdaltth’í’ site dates to about 13,800 years ago, with some material possibly 14,000 years old. (gizmodo.com)
- Thousands of artifacts were recovered from less than 11 square feet of excavation. (gizmodo.com)
- Diamond‑shaped projectile points, previously found only in two Russian sites, were among the artifacts. (gizmodo.com)
- The site is interpreted as a base camp rather than a short‑term hunting camp. (gizmodo.com)
- The findings were published in Science Advances on 2026‑10‑16. (gizmodo.com)
Sources
- [1] gizmodo.com — originally reported as “Thousands of Artifacts Unearthed in Alaska Hint at an Even Older Human Presence in the Americas”
