Featured: Ark of Secrets - Neolithic spirit alive in the Middle Ages

Ark of Secrets - Neolithic spirit alive in the Middle Ages

The Ancient Celts, Barry Cunliffe

The Ancient Celts, Barry Cunliffe

Who's Online

There are currently, 338 guests and 3 members online.

You are a guest. To join in, please register for free by clicking here

Sponsors

<< Other Photo Pages >> Alpena-Amberley Ridge Game Drives - Ancient Mine, Quarry or other Industry in United States in Great Lakes Midwest

Submitted by bat400 on Thursday, 19 June 2014  Page Views: 13724

Multi-periodSite Name: Alpena-Amberley Ridge Game Drives Alternative Name: Six Fathom Shoal
Country: United States
NOTE: This site is 184.794 km away from the location you searched for.

Region: Great Lakes Midwest Type: Ancient Mine, Quarry or other Industry
 Nearest Village: Apena, MI
Latitude: 44.450000N  Longitude: 82.45W
Condition:
5Perfect
4Almost Perfect
3Reasonable but with some damage
2Ruined but still recognisable as an ancient site
1Pretty much destroyed, possibly visible as crop marks
0No data.
-1Completely destroyed
1 Ambience:
5Superb
4Good
3Ordinary
2Not Good
1Awful
0No data.
no data Access:
5Can be driven to, probably with disabled access
4Short walk on a footpath
3Requiring a bit more of a walk
2A long walk
1In the middle of nowhere, a nightmare to find
0No data.
1 Accuracy:
5co-ordinates taken by GPS or official recorded co-ordinates
4co-ordinates scaled from a detailed map
3co-ordinates scaled from a bad map
2co-ordinates of the nearest village
1co-ordinates of the nearest town
0no data
2

Internal Links:
External Links:

Alpena-Amberley Ridge Game Drives
Alpena-Amberley Ridge Game Drives submitted by dodomad : Divers examining boulders at the bottom of Lake Huron that served as caribou drive lanes for prehistoric hunters. Photo courtesy of Tane Casserly via University of Michegan News, http://ns.umich.edu/new/multimedia/9-videos/20120-u-m-divers-retrieve-prehistoric-wood-from-lake-huron (Vote or comment on this photo)
University of Michigan researcher John O'Shea has led archeological studies of the Great Lakes region both on land and underwater. The study of the Apena-Amberly ridge structures has included sidescan sonar, a small remote operated vehicle (ROV,) and archaeology trained divers. He and others in this research effort have demonstrated the existence of stone arrangements that are consistent in size and placement with drive lanes used in the Arctic for caribou hunting. Work is ongoing to document the structures and identify associated features.

Hunting site: Proposed game drive lanes of stone. The Apena-Amberly ridge is a 16 km wide outcrop of limestone and dolomite that formed a dry land corridor 9800 to 7000 years ago, dividing the modern Lake Huron basin into two distinct lakes. It linked what is now northeast lower Michigan with southwest Ontario. It is hypothesized that during this period of low lake levels the 160 km long ridge would have provided a natural migration route of caribou which would have in turn been exploited by ancient hunters.

Note: An update on this site: "Chipped stone debris for repairing stone tools, now provide unambiguous evidence for intentional human construction and use..." of underwater structure.
You may be viewing yesterday's version of this page. To see the most up to date information please register for a free account.


Alpena-Amberley Ridge Game Drives
Alpena-Amberley Ridge Game Drives submitted by dodomad : Divers examining boulders at the bottom of Lake Huron that served as caribou drive lanes for prehistoric hunters. Photo courtesy of Tane Casserly via University of Michegan News (Vote or comment on this photo)

Do not use the above information on other web sites or publications without permission of the contributor.


Click here to see more info for this site

Nearby sites

Click here to view sites on an interactive map of the area

Key: Red: member's photo, Blue: 3rd party photo, Yellow: other image, Green: no photo - please go there and take one, Grey: site destroyed

Download sites to:
KML (Google Earth)
GPX (GPS waypoints)
CSV (Garmin/Navman)
CSV (Excel)

To unlock full downloads you need to sign up as a Contributory Member. Otherwise downloads are limited to 50 sites.


Turn off the page maps and other distractions

Nearby sites listing. In the following links * = Image available
 82.7km WSW 255° Ottawa Point Mound* Artificial Mound
 100.0km SSW 207° Sanilac Petroglyphs Historic State Park* Rock Art
 143.0km SSE 162° Davidson Ancient Village or Settlement
 159.7km S 179° Mound at Head of St Clair River* Artificial Mound
 172.4km NW 313° Ocquecoc River Mound* Artificial Mound
 201.6km S 189° Riviere Au Vase Artificial Mound
 233.0km NW 310° Old Fort Mackinac Mounds* Artificial Mound
 236.3km S 191° The Manitou Idol Sculptured Stone
 244.7km SSW 193° Fort Wayne Mound Site Artificial Mound
 245.6km SSW 193° Great Mound, River Rouge* Artificial Mound
 253.6km W 279° Underwater Stone Circle nr Traverse City Stone Circle
 263.9km E 79° Lewiston Mound State Park* Artificial Mound
 280.7km WNW 302° Beaver Island Mound* Artificial Mound
 282.1km WNW 300° Beaver Island Stone Circle Stone Circle
 312.6km WSW 239° Norton Mounds Barrow Cemetery
 315.7km E 88° Jacob's Island Mound Barrow Cemetery
 330.4km S 185° Danbury Site Ancient Village or Settlement
 342.7km E 93° Serpent Mound, Keene* Misc. Earthwork
 350.0km E 86° Petroglyphs Provincial Park (Ontario)* Rock Art
 374.7km S 171° Paleo Crossing Ancient Village or Settlement
 395.3km WNW 284° Chambers Island Mounds* Artificial Mound
 397.7km NW 306° Grand Island Ancient Village or Settlement
 407.5km SSE 168° Nobles Pond* Ancient Village or Settlement
 407.5km SSE 147° Indian God Rock Rock Art
 420.3km SE 129° Stone of Rock City Park Natural Stone / Erratic / Other Natural Feature
View more nearby sites and additional images

<< La Florida (Zacatecas) Shaft Tomb

Wari - Vegachayoq Moqo >>

Please add your thoughts on this site

The Henge Monuments: Ceremony and Society in Prehistoric Britain

The Henge Monuments: Ceremony and Society in Prehistoric Britain

Sponsors

Auto-Translation (Google)

Translate from English into:

"Alpena-Amberley Ridge Game Drives" | Login/Create an Account | 6 News and Comments
  
Go back to top of page    Comments are owned by the poster. We aren't responsible for their content.
Re: Divers Retrieve Prehistoric Wood from Lake Huron by Anonymous on Sunday, 08 March 2015
You should look at the Nub-Cow-Zo-Win disks found in Alpena Michigan. They might have been done by the same people who made the ridge.
[ Reply to This ]
    Nub-Cow-Zo-Win disks by bat400 on Sunday, 08 March 2015
    (User Info | Send a Message)
    These carved discs are fascinating. Thanks for commenting!
    See the Besser Museum collection and the Michigan Archaeological Society.

    However, if the discs were made by the same culture as the ridge game runs, the discs would have been made by the far descendants of the people who hunted game on the exposed ridge. For the discs found in context there is a 5000+ year separation.

    "The Hampsher site (20 AL 44) .... has been described as a small village occupied sometime between 1250-1400 CE.
    The discs themselves are of Devonian limestone. The authors [Charles E. Cleland, Richard D. Clute and Robert E. Haltiner] hypothesize that the discs were manufactured at the Hampsher site as discs were discovered in all stages of manufacture."
    [ Reply to This ]

More on Prehistoric caribou hunting structure discovered beneath Lake Huron by bat400 on Wednesday, 11 June 2014
(User Info | Send a Message)
Underwater archaeologists have discovered evidence of prehistoric caribou hunts that provide unprecedented insight into the social and seasonal organization of early peoples in the Great Lakes region.
An article detailing the discovery of a 9,000-year-old caribou hunting drive lane under Lake Huron appears in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

"This site and its associated artifacts, along with environmental and simulation studies, suggest that Late Paleoindian/Early Archaic caribou hunters employed distinctly different seasonal approaches," said John O'Shea, the Emerson F. Greenman Professor of Anthropological Archaeology (University of Michigan,) lead author of the article.
"In autumn, small groups carried out the caribou hunts, and in spring, larger groups of hunters cooperated."

According to O'Shea, who is also Curator of U-M's Great Lakes Division of the Museum of Anthropological Archaeology, the site was discovered on the Alpena-Amberley Ridge, under 121 feet of water, about 35 miles southeast of Alpena, Mich., on what was once a dry land corridor connecting northeast Michigan to southern Ontario.

The main feature, called Drop 45 Drive Lane, is the most complex hunting structure found to date beneath the Great Lakes. Constructed on level limestone bedrock, the stone lane is comprised of two parallel lines of stones leading toward a cul-de-sac formed by the natural cobble pavement. Three circular hunting blinds are built into the stone lines, with additional stone alignments that may have served as blinds and obstructions for corralling caribou.

Although autumn was the preferred hunting season for caribou, the orientation of Drop 45 shows that it would only have been effective if the animals were moving in a northwesterly direction, which they would have done during the spring migration from modern day Ontario.

"It is noteworthy that V-shaped hunting blinds located upslope from Drop 45 are oriented to intercept animals moving to the southeast in the autumn," O'Shea said. "This concentration of differing types of hunting structures associated with alternative seasons of migration is consistent with caribou herd movement simulation data indicating that the area was a convergence point along different migration routes, where the landform tended to compress the animals in both the spring and autumn."

The structures in and around Drop 45, and the chipped stone debris for repairing stone tools, provide unambiguous evidence for intentional human construction and use of the feature, O'Shea said. And they also provide important insight into the social and economic organization of the ancient hunters using this area.

"The larger size and multiple parts of the complex drive lanes would have necessitated a larger cooperating group of individuals involved in the hunt," he said. "The smaller V-shaped hunting blinds could be operated by very small family groups relying on the natural shape of the landform to channel caribou towards them."

Thanks to coldrum for the link. More more, see: http://www.eurekalert.org
[ Reply to This ]

Scientists explore land bridge and petrified trees in Lake Huron by Andy B on Monday, 02 January 2012
(User Info | Send a Message)
Scientists explore land bridge and petrified trees in Lake Huron. They hope to learn more about what the Great Lakes' shorelines looked like about 10,000 years ago. They explored a limestone land bridge that went from Alpena, Mich., to Goderich, Ontario - a distance of about 125 miles - and an underwater forest of petrified trees in Lake Huron.

The 2006 research, in which more than 500 dives were made, is the subject of a documentary film, "Great Lakes, Ancient Shores, Sinkholes." It premiered recently at the Cranbrook Institute of Arts in Bloomfield Hills, The Oakland Press reported.

Another study is planned for 2007 and should result in a second film, "Great Lakes, Ancient Shores," said Luke Clyburn, lieutenant commander of the Great Lakes Division of the U.S. Naval Sea Cadet Corps and a Great Lakes ship captain.

"What we are learning about the Great Lakes of several thousand years ago may change the way we think of this area," Clyburn said.

Clyburn and other scientists have been filming in the Great Lakes for at least 25 years.

There is a petrified forest in 40 feet of water in Lake Huron about two miles offshore from Lexington, Mich., he said. Some of the trees have been carbon-dated to indicate they are 6,980 years old.

Source: South Bend Truibune, 21 December 2006 and see also this report from 2009.
[ Reply to This ]

Divers Retrieve Prehistoric Wood from Lake Huron by Andy B on Monday, 02 January 2012
(User Info | Send a Message)
Under the cold clear waters of Lake Huron, University of Michigan researchers have found a five-and-a-half foot-long, pole-shaped piece of wood that is 8,900 years old. The wood, which is tapered and beveled on one side in a way that looks deliberate, may provide important clues to a mysterious period in North American prehistory.

"This was the stage when humans gradually shifted from hunting large mammals like mastodon and caribou to fishing, gathering and agriculture," said anthropologist John O'Shea. "But because most of the places in this area that prehistoric people lived are now under water, we don't have good evidence of this important shift itself- just clues from before and after the change.

"One of the enduring questions is the way the land went under water. Many people think it must have been a violent event, but finding this large wood object just sitting on the bottom wedged between a few boulders suggests that the inundation happened quickly but rather gently. And this in turn suggests that we'll find more intact evidence of human activity in the area."

With support from the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), O'Shea and U-M colleague Guy Meadows began exploring the area in the middle of modern Lake Huron several years ago. In 2009 they reported finding a series of stone features that they believe were "drive lanes" used by ancient PaleoIndian hunters to funnel caribou to slaughter, a technique still used today by the Inuit. These drive lanes were located on the Alpena-Amberley Ridge, a land connection across the middle of modern Lake Huron that linked northern Michigan with central Ontario during the low-water periods of the Pleistocene and early Holocene ages.

Since that discovery, O'Shea and Meadow have worked on identifying human campsites, which are typically located away from hunting areas. Piloting their 25-foot boat, the S/V Blue Traveler, about 40-60 miles out into Lake Huron from Alpena, Michigan, the researchers first spotted the ancient wood object using a small hand-deployed remote operated vehicle (ROV) equipped with a video camera. Then a team of divers -- including O'Shea -- went down about 100 feet to retrieve it.

Initially stored in a PVC tube filled with lake water, the specimen's age has now been fixed using carbon dating. It is currently undergoing more detailed analyses to determine whether there has been human modification, which visual examination suggests. "The first thing you notice is that it appears to have been shaped with a rounded base and a pointed tip," O'Shea said. "There's also a bevel on one side that looks unnatural, like it had to have been created. It looks like it might have been used as a tent pole or a pole to hang meat."

In addition to the wood specimen, the U-M researchers have collected many other samples from the bottom of the lake that they hope will provide clues about the environment before it was submerged by the rising lake water. Some of the samples are now being analyzed at U-M, while others are being analyzed by a Canadian expert on submerged site reconstruction and microdebitage -- the examination of flakes of stone that are less than one millimeter in diameter, produced in large quantities when stone tools were made.

So far, according to O'Shea, quantities of pine pollen and charcoal have been found. "Slowly, the environmental picture is filling in," he said. "There was a marsh close by this site. It seems we're narrowing in on people, but of course forest fires could have created the charcoal as well as cooking fires. So we need to wait for the analyses to be sure about what we've got here."

O'Shea and colleagues will also need to wait for calmer weather before they can resume their search for evidence of human life under the great lake.

This research was carried out in collaboration with NOAA's Thunder Bay National Marine Sanctuary and with the Great Lakes

Read the rest of this post...
[ Reply to This ]
    Possible lost world found in Lake Huron by bat400 on Monday, 09 January 2012
    (User Info | Send a Message)
    Another similar article from Randy Boswell, Postmedia News.

    "The recovery of a mysterious wooden pole at the bottom of Lake Huron is fuelling excitement among U.S. and Canadian researchers that they have found more evidence of a "lost world" of North American caribou hunters from nearly 10,000 years ago.

    "The scientists believe that these prehistoric aboriginal people - who would have been among the earliest inhabitants of the continent - had a "kill site" along a ridge straddling the present-day U.S.-Canada border that was eventually submerged by rising waters when the glaciers melted at the end of the last Ice Age.

    "The theory that the Alpena-Amberley Ridge was an ancient hunting ground was first announced in 2009 after the discovery of lake-bottom rock features that appeared to have been arranged by human hands to herd migrating caribou into narrow corridors ideal for spear hunting. These "drive lanes" are still used by some Inuit hunters in Northern Canada to funnel caribou and make hunting them easier. Other groups of boulders mapped by the Lake Huron researchers are thought to have been "blinds" meant to conceal hunters before they sprang out to attack passing caribou.

    "The two-metre-long piece of wood, found amid such a rock assemblage during a summer search of Huron's floor for traces of human activity, was later dated to 8,900 years ago, the researchers revealed last month. O'Shea's principal research partner, University of Michigan marine engineer Guy Meadows, told Postmedia News last March that the Lake Huron rock formations constituted "promising" - but not definitive - evidence of an ancient human presence, and that the team was keen to gather more compelling proof.

    "'We really want to produce an artifact, and not just these rock structures that look very promising,' he said at the time.
    'But the area is obviously enormous - it's a proverbial needle-in-a-haystack problem.' The large, wooden "needle" found last summer is still undergoing tests to determine precisely how it might have been modified by prehistoric hunters.

    "Meanwhile, other material gathered from the bottom of the lake is being analyzed by experts, including Canadian researcher Lisa Son-nenburg, a McMaster University paleo-ecologist who specializes in studying "microdebitage" - stone flakes left at archeological sites by ancient toolmakers. Meadows and O'Shea have also teamed with Wayne State University computer scientist Robert Reynolds to create a three-dimensional, virtual model of the ridge."

    Source: Canada.com.
    [ Reply to This ]

Your Name: Anonymous [ Register Now ]
Subject:


Add your comment or contribution to this page. Spam or offensive posts are deleted immediately, don't even bother

<<< What is five plus one as a number? (Please type the answer to this question in the little box on the left)
You can also embed videos and other things. For Youtube please copy and paste the 'embed code'.
For Google Street View please include Street View in the text.
Create a web link like this: <a href="https://www.megalithic.co.uk">This is a link</a>  

Allowed HTML is:
<p> <b> <i> <a> <img> <em> <br> <strong> <blockquote> <tt> <li> <ol> <ul> <object> <param> <embed> <iframe>

We would like to know more about this location. Please feel free to add a brief description and any relevant information in your own language.
Wir möchten mehr über diese Stätte erfahren. Bitte zögern Sie nicht, eine kurze Beschreibung und relevante Informationen in Deutsch hinzuzufügen.
Nous aimerions en savoir encore un peu sur les lieux. S'il vous plaît n'hesitez pas à ajouter une courte description et tous les renseignements pertinents dans votre propre langue.
Quisieramos informarnos un poco más de las lugares. No dude en añadir una breve descripción y otros datos relevantes en su propio idioma.