What Were People Doing High In The Beartooths 13,000 Years Ago?

Archaeological Discovery Challenges Early Montana History

What if there were people living high in the Beartooth Mountains of Montana around 13,000 years ago?

That's the question archaeologists are now trying to answer after new discoveries were made high in the Beartooths.

Montana Archaeologist Finds Ancient Artifacts High In The Beartooths

For years, scientists have generally believed that the earliest people in this part of North America stayed at lower elevations because there was easier access to food and wildlife.

So 13,000 years ago, the Beartooth Mountains didn't exactly seem like a great place to set up camp. But recent archaeological discoveries suggest people may have been up there anyway.

Archaeologist Scott Dersam has identified multiple high-elevation sites in the Beartooths containing artifacts associated with some of the earliest people in North America, as reported by the Montana Free Press.

That includes Clovis-era artifacts, which could be more than 13,000 years old. Researchers are still working to determine the exact ages of the sites, though, and the findings will need to go through additional testing and peer review.

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The Discovery Could Change What Scientists Know About Early Americans

But if the evidence holds up, it could change what scientists thought they knew about where these early people were willing and able to live.

And that's what makes this discovery so interesting. We're not talking about finding an old arrowhead in someone's backyard.

We're talking about evidence that people may have climbed high into the Beartooths thousands of years before anyone thought they were capable of doing it.

Thirteen thousand years ago. In the Beartooth Mountains.

That's a pretty incredible piece of Montana history that was hiding up in the mountains.