BRITISH COLUMBIA, CANADA—According to a statement released by Simon Fraser University, dating of charcoal samples found on Curaçao indicates that humans began to settle the Caribbean island up to 850 years earlier than previously known. Researchers from Simon Fraser University and the National Archaeological Anthropological Memory Management Foundation in Curaçao excavated the samples at an Archaic-period rock shelter site called Saliña Sint Marie. Using accelerated mass spectrometry, they determined that humans occupied the site as far back as 5,735 to 5,600 years ago. Simon Fraser University archaeologist Christina Giovas explained that these dates also suggest that people began exploring the islands off the coast of Venezuela earlier than scholars had originally thought. “What this new information does is push the initial exploration in this region back to a time where other islands to the north of Curaçao are also being settled," she said. "This suggests that the movement of people from the continental mainland into those more northern islands might have entangled with some of the movement of the people into Curaçao." For more on the settlement of the Caribbean, go to "Around the World: Caribbean."