Archaeologists have discovered a 15,000 year old knife in eastern Oregon.  The finding has yet to be published in a peer reviewed journal.  But it the research holds up, it will add to mounting evidence that humans migrated to North America much earlier than previously thought.

The discovery is a small, beautiful knife carved out of a clear orange agate. One side has a number of serrated points, like a saw. The other edge has a steep, flaked edge that could have been used to scrape hides and cut meat off of bones.

“Its kind of a neat little artifact, the prehistoric version of a Swiss Army knife,” says Scott Thomas, an archeologist for the Bureau of Land Management.

Thomas believes the knife was made more than 15,000 years ago.  He’s part of a team, led by Dr. Patrick O’Grady at the University of Oregon, that is excavating an ancient human camp sheltered by a rock overhang along a now-dry stream in Eastern Oregon.

The team has found many signs of human occupants, including dozens of stone points and an old fireplace, but it has just started exploring the oldest layers of the site.