Some scientists have been skeptical about the age of this skeleton, known as Tepexpan Man, feeling that it may represent a more recent burial. Recently, however, another discovery has been made which adds strength to the belief that Tepexpan Man is ancient. Early in 1952, the skeleton of a mammoth was found only a mile from the place where the human skeleton had been discovered. With the mammoth bones were found six man-made stone implements. One of these, a spear or dart point, was between two ribs of the mammoth—in all probability the animal had been killed by man. Even more important, however, was the fact that the human skeleton and the mammoth skeleton were found in the same layer of earth.
The importance of these two discoveries is obvious. The mammoth skeleton and the accompanying man-made implements indicate that man and mammoth lived in the area at the same time. The fact that the human and mammoth skeletons were found in the same layer of earth indicates that they may be equally ancient, and geologists feel that layer of earth was deposited about 15,000 years ago.
Thus, Tepexpan Man, unless grave errors were made during excavation, may well be the oldest human skeleton yet found in America. And the important point is that there was nothing primitive about this ancient man. He was a fully developed human being—Homo sapiens. In appearance he was much like men of today and his brain was almost as large as that of the average modern man.
The search for America’s earliest inhabitants continues year after year. During the past twenty-five years many finds have been made but little has been learned about the people themselves. In each case, when an important find is made, it consists of spear points, dart points or other stone implements associated with the bones of extinct animals.
The Folsom Points, because of the importance of the original discovery, have received the greatest amount of publicity, but dart or spear points of many types have been found. Usually these projectile points are named because of the place where they are discovered and as a result there are Scottsbluff Points, Eden Points, Plainview Points, Sandia Points, and many more. The great need, at the present time, is for skeletal remains of the early men themselves. Some ancient human remains have been found but scientists are not in complete agreement as to their age. Even the Tepexpan skeleton, which may be the most important of all, has not been accepted by all of the men who are working on the problem of early man in America.
The story is being carried farther and farther into the past by stronger and stronger evidences. No one knows where it will end. Certain it is that America was discovered a great many thousands of years ago. Columbus was a late comer and he came the hard way. The real discoverers of America came the easy way: they just walked over.
All of the early inhabitants of America lived by hunting and fishing and by gathering the fruits, nuts, roots, berries and seeds which nature offered. Since they lived a roaming, drifting life, they built no permanent structures and as a result, their remains are not easily found. Because of this there are many question marks in the early part of the story and much is yet to be learned about the earliest inhabitants of the Americas.
As long as the early Indians lived a wandering, hunting life there was no real progress and we must come down to comparatively recent times in order to appreciate the greatest accomplishments of the American Indian. A short time ago, only a few thousand years at most, a very important thing happened. Somewhere in Mexico or Central America, perhaps in South America, the first farmers appeared. Some ancient Burbank produced corn, the plant which was responsible for all of the highest Indian cultures which the white man found when he blundered into America.
The origin of corn is still a mystery. For many years botanists have tried to trace it back to its wild plant ancestors but the entire story is still not known. Corn has moved so far and has changed so radically that there are gaps in the story and we may never know exactly how the Indians developed it. Certainly it was the most important food plant the Indians ever knew and because of it the lives of many Indians underwent a radical change.
Corn spread from one tribe to the next. One group after another found that farming was more dependable than hunting. Farther and farther it spread until large portions of North and South America were covered with farming Indians. With corn went other food plants which the Indians developed; beans, squash, potatoes, tomatoes, and many more. Farming was in America to stay.