Ancient Relics of First Californians Discovered

We're learning more about the people who lived here thousands of years ago. For one thing, they were slobs, leaving their stuff lying all over the place.

But a more important discovery indicates that settlers 13,000 years ago arrived from up north, not from back east. That's counter to prevailing theories about California's original first settlers.

A collection of relics was found near the Channel Islands by an archaeology team, and recently documented in the journal Science and the SF Gate.

It was originally thought that such tools would have come from people who migrated from Russia to Alasks and then down the coast. But that group fashioned cruder tools than the ones recently unearthed, which have delicate features.

In addition, the new artifacts are suited from marine hunting, indicating a group that hugged the shore.

These first inhabitants may trace their roots back to Japan, where similar artifacts from the same time period have been found. But such a trek would be unthinkably difficult, leaving archaeologists to argue endlessly over whose tools they were, how they got here, and who we should be annoyed at for not picking up after themselves.