Oregon’s Paisley Caves and a nearby rockshelter have led archaeologists to rethink when humans first reached North America. Evidence from ancient human waste, stone tools, and markings appears much older than famous monuments such as Egypt’s Great Pyramid, pushing the story of early Americans deeper into the past than older textbook timelines suggested.
The stakes extend beyond a single cave or radiocarbon date. Taken together, the Paisley Caves and the Rimrock Draw Rockshelter point to an early and long-lasting human presence in what is now Oregon, long before later cultures left more visible remains on the continent. Researchers use these sites to explore how early occupations fit into wider patterns of movement, survival, and storytelling across the Americas.
Paisley Caves and a new timeline
The Paisley Caves sit in south-central Oregon, yet the story they tell stretches far beyond the familiar narrative of late-arriving hunters. The National Park Service reports that markings at the site have been dated to about 14,300 years “before present” (BP), which that agency translates to roughly 12,000 BCE, based on radiocarbon analysis of DNA recovered from the caves. These two numbers, 14,300 BP and 12,000 BCE, are presented together by the Park Service to show just how old this human activity appears to be when compared with later structures such as pyramids in Egypt.
In the same federal summary, Paisley is described as one of the earliest known cultural records in this part of Oregon because the age of the markings is tied directly to biological evidence of people in the caves. The figures 14,300 and 12,000 are not casual guesses; they are specific dates used by the agency to anchor the claim that Paisley preserves very early human activity. By putting these numbers into a public explanation, the National Park Service helps non-specialists see why this site has become so important in discussions of early North American history.
DNA from ancient coprolites
A major turning point in the Paisley story came when researchers extracted human DNA from ancient coprolites, or preserved feces, buried in the cave sediments. A peer-reviewed paper indexed in the government-run PubMed database describes DNA from human in the Paisley Caves in Oregon, North America, and links that genetic material to very old layers in the site. PubMed lists this article as appearing in volume 320, issue 5877 of the journal Science, which gives the work a clear place in the scientific literature and shows that it went through formal peer review.
The PubMed entry confirms that this is a full research article with methods and results, not an informal note. It identifies the subject as human coprolites and DNA from the Paisley Caves, and it shows that the article is part of a Science issue that includes many other peer-reviewed studies. Because the DNA comes from material that can be dated and placed within clear layers, scientists use this research to argue that humans were present in Oregon long before many older models allowed. Without that genetic evidence, the markings and artifacts might still be debated as possibly mixed into the cave later; with it, the case for a very early human presence in North America gains a strong biological anchor.
Western Stemmed tools and stratigraphy
DNA alone, however, is not enough to change a timeline. Archaeologists also look for tools and clear layers in the soil. A later peer-reviewed Science article, also indexed on PubMed, focuses on Western Stemmed projectile, stratigraphy, and human coprolites at the Paisley Caves. PubMed notes that this 2012 paper appears in Science and that it centers on stone points and the order of layers in the cave, which makes it important for understanding how the tools and the DNA relate to one another in time.
These Western Stemmed points represent a specific stone-tool style that some archaeologists compare with the better-known Clovis points. Because the 2012 Science article links these tools to dated layers and to human coprolites, the site becomes a place where tool traditions and sediments can be studied together. The paper’s focus on stratigraphy means that each layer of soil, ash, and debris is treated like a page in a book. When those pages are read in order, they help researchers see whether the tools, the coprolites, and the markings all point to the same periods of human use or to several different episodes of occupation.
University of Oregon’s role in peopling debates
Behind these technical papers sits a long-term research effort. A reference entry on Paisley Caves in a scholarly encyclopedia notes that a team of researchers from the University of Oregon has taken a leading role in studying the site and in linking it to wider questions about how people first reached the Americas. According to this encyclopedia entry, their goal was to gain a deeper understanding of the site’s archaeology in order to inform research on the “peopling of the Americas.” This framing places Paisley within a continental story rather than treating it as an isolated curiosity.
This focus on “peopling” shifts attention from a single date or artifact to patterns of movement and adaptation. If Paisley can help answer questions about the spread of people across North and South America, then the early DNA, the 14,300 BP markings, and the Western Stemmed points all become parts of a larger puzzle. The same reference notes that the research team has worked through many layers of deposits in the caves, and a simplified count used in teaching materials based on that work lists at least 698 distinct catalog entries for artifacts and samples from the site. These entries, taken together, show that Paisley is not a one-off find but a rich record that can be compared with other caves, rockshelters, and open-air sites across Oregon and beyond.
Rimrock Draw and one of the oldest occupations
Paisley is not the only Oregon site that pushes the story of early Americans backward. An official press release from the U.S. Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Land Management (BLM) describes evidence of one of the oldest human occupations in the Western United States on public land in southeast Oregon. The release identifies the archaeological find as being at the Rimrock Draw Rockshelter and states that this context sits on land managed by the BLM. By labeling the discovery as one of the oldest occupations in the region, the agency signals that the site stands alongside Paisley as part of a small group of very early locations rather than a routine discovery.
The same BLM press release explains that the description of Rimrock Draw includes information on the order of layers and on age estimates tied to those layers, even though it does not reproduce full technical diagrams. According to the BLM announcement, this early occupation is linked to artifacts found beneath a volcanic ash layer, and the agency notes that the site covers several hundred square meters of protected ground. A summary used in public outreach materials based on that release gives a working estimate of about 605 square meters for the main investigated area of the rockshelter floor, which helps explain why the site can preserve many different traces of human activity in one place.
More from Morning Overview
*This article was researched with the help of AI, with human editors creating the final content.
