Oldest human remains in North America
The following are based on dating of actual human remains and not estimates from ancient DNA.
All info is cribbed from Wikipedia.
Note that Spirit Cave mummy, Anzick 1, and Tuqan Man show evidence of burial and not just remains that were found where the person died. However, that may not be counted as a “monument”.
L’Anse Amour Historic Site – 6100 and 6600 B.C.E. See previous page.
Kennewick Man – 6,900 BC
A prehistoric Paleoamerican man found on a bank of the Columbia River in Kennewick, Washington, United States, in 1996.It is one of the most complete ancient skeletons ever found. Radiocarbon tests on bone have shown it to date from 8.9k to 9k calibrated years before present. This is the one that when reconstructed looked like Captain Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart). Later ancient DNA analysis did confirm the close affinity of the skeletal remains to Native Americans, however.
Brooks Falls remains. – 7,000 BC
Brooks Falls is a waterfall located within Katmai National Park and Preserve in Alaska. The site’s archaeological human remnants date back some 9,000 years, some of the oldest human remains in North America.
Spirit Cave mummy – 7,400 BC
The Spirit Cave mummy is the oldest human mummy found in North America. It was discovered in 1940 in Spirit Cave, 13 miles east of Fallon, Nevada. The remains of two people were wrapped in tule matting. Using mass spectrometry dating indicated that the mummy was approximately 9,400 years old (uncalibrated Radio-Carbon Years Before-Present (RCYBP); ~11.5 Kya calibrated) — older than any previously known North American mummy.
On Your Knees Cave – 7,730 BC
On Your Knees Cave (49-PET-408) is an archaeological site located in southeastern Alaska (Prince of Wales Island). Human remains were found at the site in 1996 that dated between 9,730 ±60 and 9,880±50 radiocarbon YBP (Years Before Present) or a calendrical date of 10,300 YBP. In addition to human skeletal remains, stone tools and animal bones were discovered.
Tlapacoya – 7,730 BC
Tlapacoya is an important archaeological site in Mexico, located at the foot of the Tlapacoya volcano, southeast of Mexico City, on the former shore of Lake Chalco. Tlapacoya was a major site for the Tlatilco culture. Silvia González et al. have published research claiming that “one Tlapacoya skull is the first directly dated human in Mexico with an age of 9730 ± 65 years BP” (before present).
Tuqan Man – 7,800 BC
The skull and bones of a man buried between 9,800 and 10,200 years ago on San Miguel Island, in California’s Channel Islands, were exposed by beach erosion and discovered and preserved in 2005 by University of Oregon archaeologists. The remains were dated by way of radiocarbon dating and evaluation of artifacts which had been intentionally buried with him.
Leanderthal Lady – 8,000 BC
Discovered in January 1983, is the skeletal remains of a prehistoric woman found at the Wilson-Leonard Brushy Creek Site in the city of Cedar Park, Texas. Carbon dating and stratigraphic analysis showed the remains to be 10,000 to 13,000 years old.
Marmes Rockshelter – 8,000 BC
The Marmes Rockshelter (also known as (45-FR-50)) is an archaeological site first excavated in 1962, near the confluence of the Snake and Palouse Rivers, in Franklin County, southeastern Washington. Radiocarbon dating indicated that the human remains were about 10,000 years old.
La Brea Woman – 8,220 BC
The only human whose remains have ever been found in the La Brea Tar Pits in Los Angeles. The remains, first discovered in the pits in 1914, were the partial skeleton of a woman. At around 18-25 years of age at death, she has been dated at 10,220–10,250 cal yr BP.
Buhl woman – 8,675 BC
Buhla is the name for a skeleton of a prehistoric (Paleo-Indian) woman found in a quarry near Buhl, Idaho, United States, in January 1989. The skeleton’s age has been estimated by radiocarbon dating at 10,675 ± 95 BP, which confirms this as one of the oldest sets of human remains found in the Americas.
Peñon woman – 8,755 BC
Peñon Woman is the name for the human remains, specifically a skull, of a Paleo-Indian woman found by an ancient lake bed near Mexico City in 1959. Peñon Woman was found on an island in the middle of Lake Texcoco. The skeleton’s age has been estimated by radiocarbon dating by Silvia Gonzalez of Liverpool John Moores University. Her 14C date is 10,755±55 years (12,705 cal years) BP.
Naia – 10,000 BC
Naia (designated as HN5/48) is the name given to a 12,000–13,000 year-old human skeleton of a teenage female that was found in the Yucatán, Mexico. Her bones were part of a 2007 discovery of a cache of animal bones in an underwater chamber called Hoyo Negro in the Sistema Sac Actun. Multiple methods used to date her teeth and bones suggests that she lived between 12,000 and 13,000 years ago, making her one of the earliest humans ever found in the Americas.
Anzick Clovis Burial (Anzick-1) – 10,707 BC
The Anzick Site (24PA506) in Park County, Montana, United States, is the only known Clovis burial site in the New World. Anzick-1 is the name given to the remains of Paleo-Indian male infant found in south central Montana, U.S. in 1968 that date to 12,707–12,556 years BP. The child was found with more than 115 tools made of stone and antlers and dusted with red ocher, suggesting an honorary burial.
Arlington Springs Woman – 11,000 BC
Partial skeletal remains of an ancient woman unearthed in 1958 at Arlington Springs on Santa Rosa Island, one of the eight Channel Islands off the southern California coast.
Eve of Naharon – 11,600 BC
Eve of Naharon (Spanish: Eva de Naharon) is the skeleton of a 25- to 30-year-old human female found in the Naharon section of the underwater cave Sistema Naranjal in Mexico near the town of Tulum, around 80 miles south west of Cancún. The skeleton is carbon dated to 13,600 years ago, which makes it the oldest in the Americas.