For years, archaeologists thought they were a culture of prehistoric big game hunters that came over a land bridge from Asia and brought with them a spectacular spear, the Clovis Point. In an age defined by its most valuable resource - stone - the Clovis Point represented a technological breakthrough -- transforming rock into a killing machine.

But new clues are forcing scientists to rewrite an epic story that until now had been considered the gospel. The first Americans may have arrived thousands of years earlier than ever believed and the Clovis Point might have been introduced to America by Ice Age Europeans who crossed the Atlantic 17,000 years before Columbus.

"America's Stone Age Explorers" takes you to sites of stunning discoveries in North and South America; to the high arctic to learn the techniques that may have been used to cross the ice-encrusted Atlantic; and to southern France, where Stone Age artifacts have been found that resemble the famous Clovis points.

Then at a site in central Texas, new evidence reveals a more complex culture than scientists ever imagined and that the Clovis Point might have been invented by people who had long lived here. In fact, the Clovis Point may not be a foreign import, but rather the first technological breakthrough in the Americas.

Premiere broadcast November 9, 2004 on NOVA/PBS