despite my archaeology professor’s insistence to the contrary, one can say broadly that the totality of the archaeological evidence (we will examine recent evidence from genetics in detail in chapters 5–8) indicates that humans were in the Americas by (at the most conservative estimate) 15,000–14,000 years ago, more likely between 17,000 and 16,000 and perhaps even as early as 30,000–20,000 years ago (if you accept the evidence from some of the sites in Central and South America) (19).
