10 Sept 2025 · North America & Syria
Authors from the impact-hypothesis camp reported shock-fractured quartz in Younger Dryas boundary layers at several sites, arguing for cosmic airbursts about 12,800 years ago.
Why it matters: It was the most prominent pro-impact paper of 2025, and it was retracted in February 2026 (see next entry).
Randall Carlson, Graham Hancock · Source: PLOS ONE 2025 (now marked retracted) ↗
16 Oct 2026 · Shég’ Xdaltth’í’, Tanana valley, Alaska, United States
Kelly Graf, Ted Goebel and colleagues report on Shég’ Xdaltth’í’ (formerly McDonald Creek), 55 km south-southeast of Fairbanks. It has three Late Pleistocene occupation layers dated to about 13,800, 13,000 and 12,700 years ago. The oldest layer holds more than 80,000 specimens, including a distinctive hafted biface, bone and antler tools, animal remains and well-preserved activity areas.
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Graham Hancock · Source: Graf et al. 2026, Science Advances ↗
16 Oct 2026 · Kikai caldera & southern Kyushu, Japan
Enrico Crema and colleagues used statistical models of radiocarbon and site data to track Jomon forager populations around the Kikai-Akahoya eruption about 7,300 years ago, one of the largest of the Holocene (VEI 7). They find a major population collapse in regions next to the volcano, but some nearby populations grew after the disaster, and some distant communities were hit by environmental effects that had been overlooked.
16 Oct 2026 · White Sands National Park, New Mexico, United States
Kathleen Springer, Jeffrey Pigati, Jessica Tierney and colleagues expanded the excavations at White Sands and found 20 stratigraphic layers with human footprints in place, alongside megafauna trackways and drag lines made by travois. New radiocarbon dates on conifer pollen, combined with dates on aquatic seeds, put the footprint sequence between 23,500 and 21,700 years ago. Pollen, biomarker and sediment data record the lake turning into a playa during a dry spell that matches Dansgaard-Oeschger event 2, about 23,200 years ago.
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Graham Hancock · Source: Springer, Pigati, Tierney et al. 2026, Science Advances ↗
15 Oct 2026 · Sacsayhuamán, Cusco, Peru
A Science news feature reports that Andean archaeologists are replacing the traditional Inca chronology (empire from 1438) with radiocarbon dates. At Saqsaywaman, dated charcoal suggests the site began to be remodelled with fitted masonry around 1400, with construction peaking from about 1418; the first results are in press at Antiquity.
Site guide: Sacsayhuamán & Cusco · Brien Foerster · Source: Science news feature, 15 Oct 2026 ↗