Archaeologists excavating on Triquet Island—a remote island off the coast of British Columbia, Canada—uncovered a settlement dated to 13,600–14,086 years ago.
Because the Great Pyramid of Giza was built roughly 4,500 years ago, this coastal settlement is indeed about three times older than the pyramids, making it one of the oldest human settlements ever found in North America.
Key Discoveries at the Site
The Ancient Hearth: Buried 2.5 meters below layers of soil and peat, researchers found charred flakes from a hearth fire pit. Carbon dating of these charcoal flakes established the 14,000-year timeline.
Preserved Tools: The excavation team (led by researchers from the Hakai Institute and the University of Victoria alongside local First Nation members) unearthed a variety of preserved artifacts:
Bone fish hooks and spears
A wooden hand drill used for lighting fires
An atlatl (a wooden projectile-throwing device)
Sharp obsidian stone tools brought from over 200 km away through ancient trade networks
Why It Matters
1. Validating Indigenous Oral History
For generations, the Haíɫzaqv (Heiltsuk Nation) have passed down oral traditions (núyṃ) describing a coastal strip of land that never froze over during the last Ice Age, serving as a haven for their ancestors. The archaeological findings provided scientific proof for an oral history that had been preserved for over hundreds of generations.
2. Rewriting How the Americas Were Peopled
For decades, the dominant theory was the "Ice-Free Corridor" model, which proposed that early humans traveled on foot from Siberia through a land bridge into Alaska and down an inland ice-free valley. The 14,000-year-old Triquet Island site strongly supports the "Kelp Highway" (Coastal Migration) theory—showing that people were already traveling down the ice-free Pacific coast by boat long before the inland corridor opened up.
