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Submitted by coldrum, a another article about the 2009 diving season --
Onerous searches often are compared with finding needles in haystacks. But two Mercyhurst College archeologists are involved in a search dramatically more challenging. That's because they've had to find the proverbial haystacks long before even thinking about finding the proverbial needles.
James Adovasio, director of the Mercyhurst Archaeological Institute, and C. Andrew Hemmings, a Mercyhurst research associate, plan next summer to dig for evidence of prehistoric humans about 130 feet underwater in the Gulf of Mexico sea bed.
As far back as 22,000 years ago, a substantial portion of Earth's water was in the form of glacial ice atop the continents. Much shallower oceans meant coastlines extended hundreds of miles onto the continental shelves. So what once was dry coastline now is 130 to 160 feet underwater. --- More than 9 million square miles of what used to be the coastlines of the world now are underwater.
That left the research team a 350,000-square-kilometer area of the gulf to locate target spots, where they could dig through sediment and silt to turn up evidence of prehistoric humans.
Based on settlement patterns in Australia, people tend to live along coastlines, sometimes for millennia, before venturing inland.
"In the grand scheme of things, the last chunk of land colonized by humans is the New World," Dr. Hemmings said. "The honest answer in my opinion is, we can't say within 5,000 years when people got here. We don't know."
Using a side-scan sonar device and a sub-bottom profiler aboard the research vessel Weatherbird II, the team traced the ancient river bed of the Suwannee River from near Tampa, Fla., 100 miles into the gulf.
Next they pinpointed the ancient confluence of the Suwannee and St. Marks-Aucilla rivers, which represent a coveted haystack where they hope to find human artifacts. Such a confluence likely would lure prehistoric humans, especially if it had an outcrop of chert -- the hard stone from which prehistoric people made tools and weapons.
Dr. Hemmings' expertise is underwater archeology.
Last summer, he and three other divers went down 130 feet to the target site, where they found chert. But with only nine minutes of air available, they had neither the time nor a dredge necessary to dig for artifacts. They will present their findings in upcoming presentations and papers with plans to reapply for NOAA funding to extend their project and dig for artifacts.
"We found the haystacks," Dr. Hemmings said. "Now we have our hands on the needle cases.
Excavation at the site, he said, could turn up leaves, shells, seeds, wood and cordage, bone, ivory and tools that early humans left behind. If so, the location could prove that humans lived in North America as many as 26,000 years ago.
"We are missing the first chapter of archeology if we are not looking underwater," Dr. Hemmings said. "There are good reasons specifically to be in this place."
Read more at the Pittsburgh Post Gazette: http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09266/1000076-115.stm.
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