Europeans' First Contact With Iroquois Happened up to 100 Years Later Than Expected

Scientists excavate the "Mantle" Native American settlement, a key archaeological site in Ontario, Canada. A new set of radio carbon dates questions the historical accounts of when Europeans made first contact with Native Americans. (Credit: Archaeological Services Inc.) A new study shows the historical dates of key archaeological sites associated with Europeans’ first contact with indigenous communities are off by nearly 100 years. The discovery “dramatically rewrites” the history of northeastern North America, researchers report today in the journal Science Advances. “It will really change how we understand the history ... of this entire period, just before and during early contact with European civilization,” Sturt Manning, a paleoclimate scientist at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, who led the new research, said.