Whether the Anzick ochre was thermally processed is not definitively established, but the color and mineral composition are consistent with this practice, which is documented at other ancient ochre-using sites globally.

The Populations That Preceded Writing

One of the deepest implications of the Anzick-1 findings — and of the broader ancient genomics of the Americas — is the window it opens onto a period of human history that is almost entirely invisible in the traditional documentary record.

Writing was not invented until approximately 5,000 years ago, in Mesopotamia and Egypt, and did not reach the Americas until European contact.

The entire human history of the Americas before contact — stretching back to the founding of the hemisphere’s populations perhaps 18,000 to 23,000 years ago — is known only through archaeological and biological evidence.