Clovis Spear Point

The Director of the British Museum, Neil MacGregor, retells the history of human development from the first stone axe to the credit card using 100 selected objects from the Museum. In this programme, Neil describes an object that dates from the earliest settlement of North America, around 13,000 years ago. It's a deadly hunting weapon, used by the first inhabitants of the Americas.

This sharp spearhead lets us understand how humans spread across the globe. By 11,000 BC humans had moved from north east Asia into the uninhabited wilderness of north America; within 2000 years they had populated the whole continent. How did these hunters live? And how does their Asian origin sit with the creation stories of modern day Native Americans?

Neil MacGregor tells the story of the Clovis Point, with contributions from Michael Palin and American archaeologist Gary Haynes