Mar 31, 2017 11:38 PM EDT By Francis Trance, UniversityHerald Reporter

Archeologists doing excavations in British Columbia have discovered a 14,000 year-old Heiltsuk settlement. This puts the Heiltsuk culture one of the oldest civilizations to occupy the west coast of North America roughly ten thousand years before the building of the pyramids in Egypt.

The Heiltsuk Is an aboriginal society in Canada, which is among the first nations in the North American continent. Their territory stretches most of the west coast of Canada and the United States and just under the arctic circle. As stated in the Heiltsuk nation website, the Heiltsuk is a society very fond of oral tradition and the discovery of the site in British Columbia somewhat proves the authenticity to some extent of the said Native American heritage.

The excavation was done by Alicia Gauvreau, a student of PhD, from the University of Victoria. She, alongside her team, which was funded mainly by the Heiltsuk foundation and the Hakai institute, made significant discovery of artifacts. According to CBC news, the excavation unearthed artifacts mostly stone tools and what's more surprising is that it reveals that the Heiltsuk were adept in sea navigation. This single discovery is remarkable as it opens another theory on the migration of people into North America.

Conventional explanation tells us that people migrated into North America from Asia via a land bridge that once joined Alaska to Siberia. However, because of the discovery in British Columbia, some experts now believe that people might have migrated to North America by boat. Though evidence is not yet concrete, the idea becomes plausible that the hypothesis isn't without merit.

This discovery has placed the Heiltsuk nation as among the vital societies in North America in Pre-columbian America. This will also give insight on the migration of people and how human civilization in the Americas started to develop.

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