| Author | North American Finds Discovered by Development |
Andy B
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|  Posted 25-01-2011 at 19:42
Artifacts dug up in Ewing - Native American remains found
A $1.1 million archeological dig that has been under way for months as part of the proposed Scudder Falls Bridge replacement project has turned up evidence that Native Americans lived at the site as long ago as 500 B.C. and as recently as 1500 A.D.
"The most intriguing evidence (in Ewing) are the physical remains of a large number of hearths," said John Lawrence, a senior archeologist with AECOM, the Trenton-based engineering firm hired by the Delaware River Joint Toll Bridge Commission, which owns and operates the Scudder Falls Bridge and is paying for the dig.
"They are the remains of where the Native Americans would have been cooking food for storage and for daily meals," Lawrence said of the hearths.
In Ewing, the dig is under way on Interstate 95 along the Route 29 interchange. In Yardley, Pa., the archeological work will begin soon on River Road.
AECOM is conducting the dig with the New Jersey and Pennsylvania historic preservation offices to determine if any artifacts might be affected by the proposed bridge project, said Joe Donnelly, a spokesman for the commission.
The dig started at the beginning of October, with 10 people in the field and two in the laboratory working 40-hour weeks in all kinds of weather.
Lawrence said archeologists should be done digging in Ewing this week. The dig on River Road in Yardley is projected to take three to four months, once it begins, which could happen within a month, Lawrence said.
At the quarter-acre Ewing site, archeologists have dug up to 6 feet deep. In Pennsylvania, where a new bridge pier is planned, archeologists may dig as deep as 12 feet, Lawrence said.
In Ewing two weeks ago, the archeological team found the charred remains of nut shells that might be evidence of the Native Americans' diet.
Other artifacts found so far include little chips of stone that the Native Americans might have used to create a tool, such as an arrowhead.
"Many of the artifacts would just be a piece of stone to a layman, but information about the technology being employed by Native Americans to make their tools tells us about their ways of life," Lawrence said.
About 10 percent of the artifacts are tools, including projectile points, pottery, markers used for drawings, kemp materials and hammer stones, Lawrence said.
The artifacts are taken from the site to an off-site lab where they are cleaned, processed and cataloged.
Some objects, such as ceramics that may contain plant or animal residue, are sent to a specialized lab for analysis, Lawrence said.
When the project is done, the artifacts will be taken to the New Jersey State Museum, where researchers and others who are interested can look at them and analyze them.
The archeologists said they expect to find some of the same types of artifacts on the Pennsylvania side of the Delaware River.
Donnelly said archeological digs like this are standard procedure when large-scale public projects such as bridges or highways are proposed.
Archeologists first do a survey, in which they study documents and maps and perhaps go to the site and do some very superficial testing to determine if there are potential artifacts there, Donnelly said.
That phase of the Scudder Falls Bridge project was completed in 2004.
The second phase of an archeological project like this attempts to determine whether the site is eligible for listing on the National Register of Historic Places.
If it is not eligible, the investigation ends. But if it is determined to be a significant site, work begins on the third phase -- the archeological dig, Donnelly said.
If the site has been determined to contain significant information about the past, the archeologists will recover that information before the project moves ahead and affects the site, Donnelly said.
"We conducted Phase 2 last year, and confirmed that these sites are eligible for the National Register, and here we are," Donnelly said.
The Scudder Falls Bridge carries Interstate 95 across the Delaware River between Mercer County and Bucks County in Pennsylvania.
It extends 4.4 miles along I-95 -- from Route 332 interchange in Lower Makefield, Pa., to Bear Tavern Road in Ewing.
The Delaware River Joint Toll Bridge Commission is working with transportation departments in New Jersey and Pennsylvania to advance a $310 million I-95/Scudder Falls Bridge improvement.
The proposed project would replace the shoulderless four-lane 50-year-old bridge with a new bridge that would have six through lanes and two auxiliary lanes, Donnelly said.
The commission still does not know how the project will be financed, he said, but there is a possibility that a public/private partnership could be established for the project.
Construction is set to begin in 2013.
http://www.nj.com/mercer/index.ssf/2011/01/artifacts_dug_up_in_ewingnativ.html
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bat400
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| Posted 22-02-2011 at 04:44
Kanata Beaver Pond supporters see hope in 10,000-year-old tools found near Ottawa Canada.
Opponents of development in the Beaver Pond forest of Kanata (near Ottawa) say they have found new tools for the fight -- stone tools carved about 10,000 years ago and found in an archeology survey.
The area's councillor isn't so sure these artifacts will help them, but she's going to do some legal checking.
The newest wrinkle is based on a 2005 survey of nearby land -- not the Beaver Pond forest itself, but a neighbouring site at the same elevation.
After the last ice age, when most of Ottawa was under the Champlain Sea, the South March Highlands formed a rocky island. Early hunters are believed to have lived there, possibly hunting seals and whales in the shallow sea.
Urbandale Corp. and Richcraft Homes, which own the land as a partnership called KNL, did an archeological survey that concluded there was nothing special about the site. KNL filed that with the provincial government, and got permission to build homes there.
Not so fast, says Steve Hulaj, president of the Kanata Lakes Community Association. He says the thousands of sharpened stones found on the nearby Broughton Lands show the Beaver Pond's archeological significance was dismissed too quickly. And he points to a written opinion this year from prominent archeologist Robert Mc-Ghee, which concludes that "the rocky upland areas of the proposed development ... should be considered to be of high potential" as a site of early human settlement.
"Archeology 101 class would have told (the developers) that it's above the Champlain Sea level, and you need to look," he said. The Broughton Lands survey shows more than 16,000 artifacts "only a few hundred yards away."
Those artifacts are classed as cutting tools, scraping tools, adzes and also thousands of fragments left from shaping the sharp edges.
Now Hulaj says it's the city's obligation to approach the provincial Ministry of Citizenship and Culture and suggest that the original archeological survey was incomplete, and the site should be surveyed again before any trees are cut.
The city can ask for another survey, "but it won't save the land," said Councillor Marianne Wilkinson, who represents the area. "They (the landowners) are required to do an archaeological survey prior to developing, but once they've got it and it's approved, they can develop.
The developer says another survey is not necessary.
KNL completed a "very detailed" survey that found nothing significant, though it is still responsible for reporting artifacts if it finds something major, said Mary Jarvis, Urbandale's director of planning, land development.
"The standard practice for the archeologist is to walk the site in a very detailed and controlled manner. They're looking for stuff, so they wouldn't walk as you and I would, just sauntering through a field."
She said the author of that survey will return to the site -- although the conditions in winter are not good -- and have another look.
"I want to make clear we're not ignoring it."
Thanks to coldrum for the link. Read more at http://www.ottawacitizen.com.
[ This message was edited by: bat400 on 2011-02-22 04:48 ]
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bat400
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| Posted 21-03-2011 at 02:54
INAH Researchers Find 8 Camps Occupied by Nomadic Groups, Some of Them, 8,000 Years Ago
Eight archaeological sites, some of them occupied 8,000 years ago by nomadic groups, were discovered by archaeologists from the National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH) in the municipality of Ensenada, Baja California. Lithic tools were found at the settlements mainly made out of obsidian, similar to those discovered in Riverside County, California.
The last would verify obsidian exportation conducted by ancient dwellers of Baja California with exchange purposes, informed archaeologist Antonio Porcayo, coordinator of the excavation project at Ensenada, mentioning that several of these sites are located inside caves and were discovered during the recent archaeological salvage work conducted due to the remodeling of San Felipe-Laguna Chapala highway.
Camps are distributed throughout 9 kilometers to the east of Santa Isabel Mountain Range and correspond to 3 different occupation stages: the earliest is related to fishermen groups that went from the mountain range to the coast of the Sea of Cortes, at least 8,000 years ago.
The archaeologist, who works at the Baja California INAH Center, mentioned that the names given to these sites are: Puertecitos, El Regino, El Huerfanito, El Juanjo, Caro´s Cave, Paido’s Cave, El Zacateco and Los Pescadores.
“Among the most relevant aspects of the camps’ information is the obsidian exchange they had with other cultural regions, having rock from the nearby deposits found in archaeological sites at Riverside; places where the people that exploited the deposits had never been studied until now”.
Porcayo explained that the ancient indigenous dwellers of what today is Baja California did not build constructions; they slept and ate inside the caves, where intact vestiges of the last nomadic groups that dwelled them have been found.
Among discovered material are pipe fragments; lithic artifacts like arrowheads; ceramics, and remains of animals consumed by the early South Californians, such as mollusks, sharks, dolphins, deer, wild sheep and pronghorns. Hearths were found –up to nine in a 6 by 2 meters area- that correspond to different ages. Carbon was collected from different contexts to conduct dating studies that will accurately determine the different occupation moments.
According to preliminary studies, the archaeologist proposes 3 different temporalities for the vestiges: the earliest could be between 8,000 and 9,000 years ago, corresponding to the Paleo-Indian period; other material, around 3,000 years old, would correspond to the Archaic age, and the latest could correspond to Cochimi Culture, being approximately 1,000 years old.
Antonio Porcayo commented that the caves have different sizes, being the most important Caro’s Cave, measuring approximately 20 square meters, where a lot of material was found. It has been calculated that each rocky shelter was used by families of 5 to 7 members.
To verify possible exchange of obsidian with regions where artifacts made out of Baja California raw material were found, the lithic objects undergo chemical studies conducted in the University of California, Berkley, while dating of carbon samples is still taking place at the INAH Radiocarbon Laboratory.
For more, see http://www.artdaily.org. Thanks to coldrum for the link.
[ This message was edited by: bat400 on 2011-03-21 02:56 ]
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bat400
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| Posted 27-07-2011 at 01:00
Mammoth bones and Clovis Points Found in Chihuahua, Mexico.
Paleontologists found mammoth bones and a Clovis point, made by the oldest culture in the Americas and dating back at least 11,500 years, in northern Mexico, the National Anthropology and History Institute, or INAH, said.
The discovery was made in 2008 south of Ciudad Juarez, a border city in the northern state of Chihuahua, but researchers did not conclude that the site was rich in remains of different animals and contained evidence of a human presence until this year, the INAH said in a statement.
The paleontological site was found by accident when residents of the town of ]Villa Ahumada spotted large bones while getting water from a well for cattle.
The work at the El Abrevadero site is being directed by archaeologist Enrique Chacon, who is working with paleontologist Felisa Aguilar under the Paleontological Recovery Program.
Different types of tools, including blades, were found at the site and a Clovis point, "a type of tool associated with the human group considered the oldest in North America up to now, and whose materials are very hard to find," was discovered nearly 500 feet from the site, the INAH said.
Only 10 Clovis points have been found in the past 50 years in Chihuahua, which is Mexico's largest state and borders the United States, Chacon said.
Clovis points can date back up to 12,000 years, the archaeologist said.
Researchers have not been able, however, to link the Clovis point to the mammoth bones since "they were not found in the same deposit, but instead 150 meters away," Chacon said.
"More research is needed to assert that the Clovis people interacted with the El Abrevadero paleontological site," Chacon said.
Thanks to coldrum for the story and link: latino.foxnews.com
[ This message was edited by: bat400 on 2011-07-27 01:03 ]
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bat400
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| Posted 27-09-2011 at 02:51
Irene uncovers Native American burial site
When the powerful Tropical Storm Irene swept through, the storm unearthed a mystery in Branford, Connecticut. Part of Linden Avenue collapsed from the storm and neighbors of a beach there found what they believed were human bones protruding from the embankment that the storm eroded and called Branford police.
Those bones, experts have determined, likely came from an ancient Native American burial site.
Police responded to the eroded area on August 29 and brought the bones to the Connecticut State Medical Examiner�s Office, who determined the bones were human, and possibly of Native American origin.
"They were femurs, some rib bones, parts of the pelvis," said Running Fox, a member of the Quinnipiac Tribal Council. He said the unearthed bones were remains of two members of the Totoket Quinnipiac Tribe.
Over the years, ancient arrowheads and stone tools have been found in Branford. Over the last few weeks, Branford Police and the town�s engineer, Janice Plaziak, have worked closely with archaeologists and members of the Native American Heritage Advisory Council to maintain the integrity and security of the site until a proper method of returning the area back to its pre-storm condition could be determined.
"Our major concern during these preceding weeks was to maintain the honor and respect of those Native Americans who may have been laid to rest in this area and work closely with their ancestors to maintain the dignity they deserve," Police Chief Kevin Halloran said.
A special burial ceremony was held Thursday to return the remains to their rightful place.
"It gives us an opportunity to thank the creator and ask him to watch over them so they will never be disturbed again," Fox said.
Thanks to coldrum for the link: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/44640880/#.TnzKNtTJai8
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coldrum
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| Posted 23-10-2011 at 21:40
Science explains ancient copper artifacts
Researchers reveal how prehistoric Native Americans of Cahokia made copper artifacts
EVANSTON, Ill. --- Northwestern University researchers ditched many of their high-tech tools and turned to large stones, fire and some old-fashioned elbow grease to recreate techniques used by Native American coppersmiths who lived more than 600 years ago.
This prehistoric approach to metalworking was part of a metallurgical analysis of copper artifacts left behind by the Mississippians of the Cahokia Mounds, who lived in southeastern Illinois from 700 until 1400 A.D. The study was published in the Journal of Archaeological Science in May.
The researchers were able to identify how the coppersmiths of Cahokia likely set up their workshop and the methods and tools used to work copper nuggets into sacred jewelry, headdresses, breastplates and other regalia.
See site and this news story at: http://www.megalithic.co.uk/article.php?sid=25073.
Story source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2011-06/nu-sea061311.php?
[ This message was edited by: bat400 on 2011-10-24 03:43 ]
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coldrum
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| Posted 23-10-2011 at 21:42
9,000 year-old artifacts found near Thunder Bay
Another Thunder Bay-area archaeological site has bitten the dust.
“We were hoping that we would have been notified that this site was here before it happened,” said Red Rock Chief Pierre Pelletier June 16 at an archaeological site that is scheduled for excavation this summer near Thunder Bay. “They dug up a major portion of the site that should never have been hauled away in gravel trucks.”
Pelletier said First Nation communities need to be notified about any archeological sites that are scheduled for excavation.
“They have to give us notification so that we can make sure that the history is saved and everybody knows what is going on,” Pelletier said. “What I heard is this site was supposed to be left alone until the archaeologists finished off, but apparently it wasn’t.”
The site was intended to be completely avoided by the construction work, a Ministry of Transportation Ontario spokeswoman said in an e-mail message.
“As soon as it became apparent that construction would impact the site, a licensed archaeologist was contacted,” said Annemarie Piscopo, regional communications officer with the Ministry of Transportation Northwestern Region.
Piscopo said the archaeologist contacted area First Nations advising them of the situation.
“Ontario remains committed to meeting its constitutional obligations to consult with Aboriginal peoples where proposed activities might adversely affect an existing or asserted Aboriginal or treaty right,” she said.
Piscopo said local area First Nations and both the Anishinabek Nation head office and Thunder Bay office were contacted early in 2010 after preliminary archaeological investigations and have been kept informed and involved as the project has continued over 2010 and 2011.
Pelletier, the first First Nation person to find out about another archaeological excavation site at McKenzie Bay last summer, said his community was notified about this site in 2010 after finding out about the McKenzie Bay site. Thousands of 9,000 year-old artifacts were shipped last summer from that archaeological site to Lakehead University.
Pelletier, Biinjitiwaabik Zaaging Anishinaabek (Rocky Bay) Chief Bart Hardy and a group of First Nation members and archaeologists met June 16 at the site to conduct a traditional smudging ceremony prior to any further excavation of the archaeological artifacts.
“It’s to honour the site, that First Nations people were here from 9,000 years ago,” Pelletier said. “This is First Nations land and it shows it right now.”
Pelletier said the remaining artifacts will be removed from the site by the archaeologists to provide future generations with this knowledge.
Both sites are being excavated to make way for the new four-lane Highway 11/17 route east of Thunder Bay.
Archaeologists have been working on the new archaeological site for the past two weeks.
“We got a call (about three weeks ago) that they (construction workers) were encroaching on the site,” said David Norris of Western Heritage, a Saskatchewan-based archaeological firm. “They wanted a further assessment done. There had been an earlier assessment done in the 1990s and 2006, so they knew the site was here.”
Piscopo said the intact archaeological site on the ridge, associated with a post-glacial shoreline or beach, has not been impacted by construction.
“Artifacts that may have been dispersed away from the intact site through wave action, flooding or other natural erosion processes have been identified by the archaeologist and have been recovered below the ridge on which the site is located (i.e. towards the construction zone),” Piscopo said. “The Ministry will continue to work with First Nations to ensure that the site is mitigated in the appropriate manner, and with full First Nations participation in the process.”
Norris found lots of artifacts at the site made from taconite, an iron-bearing sedimentary rock, including stone tools, a knife, cores and flakes.
“We did find a knife, which is pretty cool,” Norris said. “And we found a lot of bifaces, which are rocks that have been sharpened on either side to an edge.”
Norris said that taconite was being used by people in the Thunder Bay area about 9,000 years ago.
“The water would have been up a lot higher essentially because of the glaciers retreating,” he said. “I think this would have been a long ridge that was surrounded by water and people were here because of the taconite and the water.”
http://www.wawataynews.ca/archive/all/2011/6/24/9000-year-old-artifacts-found-near-thunder-bay_21588
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coldrum
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| Posted 23-10-2011 at 21:42
Archaeology Site at Pig Point Continues to Yield Ancient Treasures
Lothian site yields artifacts from 8 to 10,000 years ago.
The archaeological dig site at Pig Point near the Jug Bay Wetlands Sanctuary, has continued to yield incredible artifacts and other evidence of human activity since its initial discovery in 2009.
The dig began that same year and there have been a number of very interesting things found, including evidence of Algonquin wigwams, projectile points, ancient pottery and other artifacts dating back thousands of years further than anyone expected. Now that so many artifacts have been collected, archaeologists working the site are beginning to formulate theories about how people have lived here for thousands of years.
Volunteers, interns and archaeologists with The Lost Towns Project make up the work force excavating the site and processing the artifacts found. In addition to the dig site they also operate an archaeology lab at Historic Londontown and Gardens in Edgewater.
The Dig Site
Anne Arundel County archaeologist and leader of the dig, Dr. Al Luckenbach described why the site was such a significant find and pointed out some of the most interesting artifacts found so far during a recent tour of the dig site. He said they have dug down to prehistoric bedrock in a few locations and have found artifacts nearly the entire way down.
“The oldest artifact we’ve found ‘in situ,’ the Latin word for ‘in place,’ was 10,000 years old,” he said. “There have been Clovis points found in the field and that’s the style that is 13,000 years old, the oldest accepted age, but we have not yet found 13,000 year old points in place.”
Luckenbach said that this site has been home to various groups of humans for thousands of years. “It’s been occupied pretty continuously,” he said. “This is actually seven feet of one continuous occupation after another.”
He said typical archaeological sites often yield artifacts from deep within the soil with deep layers in between findings. Pig Point, on the other hand, has yielded artifacts from top to bedrock. The site gets its name from the colonial community here and, before that, the Algonquians. Before that, evidence of continuous human habitation continues.
Luckenbach explained that winds and erosion of the sandy soil from a nearby hill has contributed greatly to how well the site is layered with artifacts.
“We’re figuring a combination of those two things [wind and erosion] somehow set up this unique situation where we’re getting the deepest intact stratography ever found in the state.”
It's difficult to determine exactly why humans seem to have been drawn to this place for thousands of years but Luckenbach said he has a few theories.
“It could be trading, feasting or finding a mate, all of those things can only be done where you have enough food,” he said. “Here with this huge freshwater marsh, there’s fish, shellfish, ducks, turtles, geese, plus there’s woods to your back so there’s acorns and deer and things. You couldn’t have starved here if you tried.”
A Destructive Process
One of the archaeologists working the site is Stephanie Sperling. She was mapping evidence of wigwam post holes discovered the morning of our visit. The small brown stains in the soil prove where saplings were once driven into the ground to support a shelter commonly associated with the Algonquin people who occupied this area before European settlement. She explained that the mapping and other data recording are extremely important to making sense of the many artifacts being found.
“The thing you have to understand is that archaeology is a destructive process,” she said. “We are destroying this site with every shovel full and trowel scrape, and that’s just the nature of archaeology. In an effort to mitigate that that’s why we take all these pictures and make sure to map everything we can.”
Archaeologist and Lost Towns Project education and volunteer coordinator, Jessie Grow agreed and said that artifacts are interesting themselves but without knowing where they were found it’s difficult to learn much from the discovery.
“It’s really important to me to get people to understand why archaeology is necessary and how to be a better steward,” she said. “You don’t want to just take a shovel to a field because you’re removing the objects from their context and were not going to be able to learn as much as we could.”
Getting Others Involved
Grow also said they teach the volunteers and interns at the site to be mindful of things like that so that more people can learn about archaeology. “That’s part of our mission at Lost Towns Project is to be a community outreach for archaeology,” she said. “You also don’t have to have any previous experience, its sort of up to you and your comfort level and how much time you’re willing to give us,” she said.
Volunteers make up a good majority of the crew working the dig site alongside the archaeologists making discoveries. Pat Melville has been a volunteer at the site for over a year. She said as a history buff, its very interesting to be able to be a part of making new discoveries.
“Right now we’re not finding too much of significance here because we’re in the modern area and it’s all disturbed soil,” she said, working a bucket full of dirt through a quarter inch mesh screen and looking for artifacts. “But the most significant thing I have found was a gorget [prehistoric decorative necklace]. I found one of those last year and it was a fairly large one.”
Steve Tourville is an archaeologist working at the site and said that getting volunteers like Mellville involved is an important element to the project. “As far as out here goes our main goal is to not only excavate right but we like to get people involved,” he said. “It’s not like we want to do less work, we want to teach people about the site.”
He said it’s particularly important at the Pig Point site because there is so much to learn here. “A site like this has just an overabundance of unlearned knowledge that’s waiting to be absorbed,” he said. “it’s like finding a tomb that hasn’t been robbed, it needs to be shared.”
http://edgewater.patch.com/articles/part-i-archaeology-site-at-pig-point-continues-to-yield-ancient-treasures
Pig Point Artifacts May be Helping to Re-Write History
A look at some of the most interesting items found and archaeologists explain why they are finding many things in unexpected places.
To archaeologists, every artifact tells a story. Even some of the smallest items found can tell archaeologists a lot about how the people may have lived during that time period. The discoveries at the Lothian's Pig Point archaeological dig site have been providing fodder for all kinds of interesting stories about how the many people who have occupied this location for thousands of years may have lived their lives.
A projectile point made from Ohio stone found the first year has leader of the dig and chief archaeologist for Anne Arundel county, Dr. Al Luckenbach, theorizing that perhaps the Hopewell tribe of that area may have traded with the Algonquin tribes that inhabited this site just a few hundred years ago—a relationship that was not previously thought to exist.
“All of a sudden we’re getting these little pulses, these clues all over the place here that there’s some kind of connection between here and the mound building cultures of Ohio and that’s kind of revolutionary for Maryland,” he said.
Another interesting element to this site are the apparent abundance of wigwams, or early shelters made by Native Americans throughout the area, that once stood here. Today the only evidence archaeologists find are small circular stains in the soil were a sapling had been drove into the ground to support the structure. What is so interesting about the evidence of wigwams at Pig Point said Luckenbach is that they find evidence for them further back in time than they would have expected.
“When we first found them we knew they were from the 1300’s, and they’ve only ever seen this [wigwams] two other times in Maryland and both of those were from the 1400‘s,” he said.
Luckenbach explained that as they continued to explore the site the evidence of wigwams continued to appear in the layers of soil called stratographic layers, or ‘strats’ for short.
“As we dug down through these strats, we still kept finding wigwams,” he said. “We were able to date one to 520 AD and another one came back 210 AD.”
Another interesting find at the site are the gorgets, pieces of ancient decorative necklaces.
“The necklaces are made from stone found in the mountains in what is today Frederick County,” said Luckenbach. “They would occasionally decorate them so they were important things,” he said. “We keep finding broken ones up here, a bunch of them. What we’re finding is that after they’re broken they’re marking little designs on them and then tossing them.”
He said it is very difficult to determine exactly what these marking mean but he believes they are significant.
"One theory would say that it's just doodling,” he said. “But another theory would say this thing had power to them, it was an important object and when it’s broken you can’t just throw it away.”
Much of the work is speculative, but he believes the artifacts had some kind of significance to the people living here and it is just another of the sites mysteries. “That’s one of those things where there trying to tell us something and we’re not quite sure what it is,” he said.
“None of them seem to be from the same thing, they’re all different,” said archaeologist Jessie Grow who was also perplexed by what the discovery tells us about the people living at the site thousands of years ago.
Many of the artifacts discovered here are pottery shards, or in a few lucky cases, a complete pot. One style of pot looks like a small painters cup made from a ball of clay that was fired by burying it in smoldering embers. One such pot was discovered completely undisturbed leading the archaeologists to believe it was never removed from the ground after being put there to cure.
“Finding this pot exactly where they made it and it had never even been used because it had never been pulled out of the ashes,” said Luckenbach.
Grow explained that there were clues in the surrounding soil that lead them to believe the pot was never actually used. “In that same area we found fire rings where it looked like there may have been others being made and maybe they just forgot about this one,” she said.
Grow said they are not usually so lucky to find a piece of pottery that is completely intact. Most of the pottery is broken into small pieces and must be painstakingly put back together in the lab. “It’s like taking a hundred jigsaw puzzles and removing 75 percent of each piece and then trying to put them all back together,” she said.
She also said they have also found tiny pots that are highly decorated. They are not sure what that means but it’s not likely a functional piece. “Unfortunately this one came from a section of disturbed area so we don’t know exactly what time period it comes from,” she said. “But this is just a tiny sample of what we have, we have tens of thousands of archives from this site,”
Projectile Points are another common discovery at the site and these have yielded interesting results as well. Grow explained that where they are finding these points in proving to be highly significant.
“Triangle points are typically considered to be arrowheads but we’re finding them way farther down than the arrow was supposed to be invented,” she said. “Either they had the arrow much earlier than we originally thought, or they we’re using triangle points for spear tips as well.”
Fire pits can be very valuable to archaeologists because they contain a large amount of artifacts that are clearly all associated with a single time period. Archaeologist Steve Tourville found a fire pit with several different waste items contained inside along with the charcoal. From fish bones, freshwater mussels charred hickory nuts to stone chips from tool making and pottery shards, these collections tell us a lot about the people who lived there. That particular pit dated back 8500 years ago said Tourville.
“It’s cool finding a date that old but it’s much more important finding it in such good context” he said. “We can associate all that stuff with 8,500 years ago.”
Grow added that the most significant artifacts may still be waiting for them to discover. “There are still a lot of questions that are yet to be answered here,” she said.
http://edgewater.patch.com/articles/part-ii-pig-point-artifacts-may-be-helping-to-re-write-history
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coldrum
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| Posted 23-10-2011 at 21:44
Kodiak archaeology project unearths prehistoric questions
Going into the community archaeology dig this summer, Alutiiq Museum curator Patrick Saltonstall hoped to find one of the oldest inhabited sites on the Kodiak archipelago.
What Saltonstall and a team of volunteers unearthed this year at the Amak site, near the Salonie Creek Rifle Range, was something different but no less important for understanding the people who lived on Kodiak Island thousands of years ago.
While the ocean is about a mile away from the site today, 3,000 years ago Womens Bay extended farther inland. The Amak site would have been overlooking a beach area at the head of the bay.
Saltonstall said instead of encountering a fishing camp or a winter site as he expected, the artifacts gathered at the site suggest a temporary hunting camp. It offers a glimpse into an aspect of the seasonal life of prehistoric Alutiiq people that has not been well understood or documented.
"We found almost nothing but hunting tools - just big lances," Saltonstall said. "It looks like people were going there with finished tools and hunting something. They weren't living there, really, so it was a very distinctive site assemblage that says something. A very different assemblage than any of our other sites."
Instead of finding flakes created in the production of hunting tools, the assemblage contained just completed blades, both broken and whole.
So while not as many artifacts were uncovered this year as at previous excavations, the site yielded more hunting bayonets than all other excavations combined, in Saltonstall's estimation.
Yet, with the excavation season over and lab work in progress, some large questions remain in Saltonstall's mind about the site.
The excavation uncovered a huge pile of rocks and noted that a large amount of dirt had been moved from part of the site and piled elsewhere. This represents a great deal of work in a time before shovels. The reason behind so much effort isn't completely clear.
Another mystery came near the last day of the excavation as the community archaeology team discovered a structure that didn't match the rest of the hunting camp. However, without time to do a thorough excavation of that structure, it was reburied.
And then there are signs that the hunting camp site is associated with older settlements from thousands of years earlier - but those signs have been obscured by later activity at the site.
The Amak site will likely be the subject of a community archaeology program again next year to answer the remaining questions.
By 3,000 years ago, Saltonstall estimates, the Amak site was no longer in use. Geological clues at the site suggest a tsunami 4,000 years ago may have washed away structures. After that, a large ash fall some 3,800 years ago contributed to the bay receding toward its current location and the Amak site no longer being used in the same way.
"Our whole purpose of our community archaeology is we're looking at Womens Bay through time," Saltonstall said.
Read more: Fairbanks Daily News-Miner - Kodiak archaeology project unearths prehistoric questions
http://www.newsminer.com/view/full_story/15562363/article-Kodiak-archaeology-project-unearths-prehistoric-questions?instance=home_news_window_left_bullets
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coldrum
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| Posted 23-10-2011 at 21:45
UAF archaeologist excited by discovery of clay disks in Noatak National Preserve
Scott Shirar headed to Noatak National Preserve in July with petroglyphs and boulders on his mind. But when the University of Alaska Museum of the North archaeologist left the Northwest Alaska preserve two weeks later, four small clay disks had stolen his attention.
The biggest of the disks is only about the size of a silver dollar, but they’re a big discovery, Shirar said. Similar disks have been found on St. Lawrence and Kodiak islands but never before in Arctic Alaska.
See site and news at: Feniak Lake.
Read more: Fairbanks Daily News-Miner - UAF archaeologist excited by discovery of clay disks in Noatak National Preserve
http://www.newsminer.com/view/full_story/15496938/article-UAF-archaeologist-excited-by-discovery-of-clay-disks-in-Noatak-National-Preserve?
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| Posted 23-10-2011 at 21:47
Lake Victoria bones likely part of bison kill site in Alexandria
As if the summer sun and breath of breeze roused them once more, the bones crackled softly in the morning light. One could almost glimpse ancient bison rising to their feet, scraping their hooves across the dirt and rotating their mighty heads toward the sky, while their tails flickered rat-a-tat through the dust.
By: Wendy Wilson, Alexandria Echo Press
Alexandria fishing guide Roger Van Surksum and divers Wayne Wagner and Wesley Torgrimson recovered about 275 bones from Lake Victoria this summer.
* bison bones
image
Minnesota Historical Society’s National Register Archeologist David Mather visited Alexandria Friday to study bones found by Roger Van Surksum, Wayne Wagner and Wesley Torgrimson at the bottom of Lake Victoria in Alexandria.
* bison bone
image
National Register Archeologist David Mather held a bison bone with a spiral fracture indicative of human activity.
Talk about it
As if the summer sun and breath of breeze roused them once more, the bones crackled softly in the morning light.
One could almost glimpse ancient bison rising to their feet, scraping their hooves across the dirt and rotating their mighty heads toward the sky, while their tails flickered rat-a-tat through the dust.
Alexandria fishing guide Roger Van Surksum and divers Wayne Wagner and Wesley Torgrimson recovered the bones from Lake Victoria’s depths this summer after Van Surksum hooked and reeled in a bone while fishing June 14.
On Friday, they hoped to gain insight that might shed light on the lives of the great creatures found at the bottom of the lake.
That morning, Van Surksum and wife, Becci, daughter-in-law Amy, Torgrimson and Wagner waited at the Van Surksum home for the state archeologist to arrive.
The bones, about 275 in all, were carefully displayed across the concrete driveway, gleaming in the bright sun.
They were grouped according to skeletal anatomy – mandibles in one section, scapulas in another, metacarpals, vertebrae, ribs, atlases, axises and more.
ARCHEOLOGICAL
PERSPECTIVE
As Minnesota Historical Society National Register Archeologist David Mather studied the bones, a cautious look of intrigue passed over his face.
Mather explained that Minnesota had several bison finds throughout the state. Many had been preserved in peat bogs.
He examined the bones for visible cut marks or breaks that might have been made by humans while butchering the animals for food and resources.
Parallel lines would likely represent marks made by the gnawing of rodents, Mather explained.
In this case, that was unlikely. The water, if present at the time, would have kept them away.
Something caught his eye.
The group drew closer.
“These sure could be butchering marks,” he said in a low voice.
AGE
“Getting dates from these bones might be kind of tricky,” Mather said. “Lake water kind of changes the equation of how that is done.”
Radiocarbon dating would bring more information about the age of the bones, but the results could be skewed by as many as 500 to 600 years. And the process is costly – about $3,000 to $5,000.
“And I can’t even make soup out of it,” Van Surksum quipped.
Mather said he believed the bones were between 200 and 6,000 years old and classified them as modern bison. Ancient bison are more than 6,000 years old and considerably larger in size.
The last modern bison sighting in Minnesota occurred in the 1880s, according to Mather and they had been very rare since the 1850s and 1860s.
“The[se] are far older than that,” Mather said.
BUTCHERING MARKS
Bison was a staple food for many prehistoric people. They used other parts of the animals as well, using their hides for warmth, clothing and shelter and their bones as tools or weapons.
“Most of it is going to rot before you are going to eat it,” Mather said and noted the methods employed to dry it. “Probably the whole village or extended family would be trying to work with it before it went bad.”
Native inhabitants often split bison bones to scoop out nourishing marrow.
Mather cradled a bone in his hands that had been crushed in its center.
“This bone was broken when it was fresh,” he said. “The most likely reason was that it was smashed open…It couldn’t break open like that.”
The group grew quiet and waited, awed by the enormity of the information.
“I think, from this alone, that it is an archeological site,” he said. “That’s pretty cool.”
Mather showed the spiral fracture of the bone, indicative of possible human activity.
The group began to search through the bones for others with similar fractures.
After careful observation, Mather discovered a gouge mark on a scapula, showing where a human had used a tool.
Another spiral fracture was spotted – and then another.
“There is just nothing else that would explain that,” Mather said of the unique fractures.
“That’s a spiral fracture, too,” he said, analyzing another bone. “It is snapped right off and that’s an incredible amount of force.”
MODE OF DEMISE
Van Surksum brought Mather to the sunny site located at the top of a small cliff that overlooked the water where the bones were found.
The bison might have been forced over the cliff to their deaths, Mather speculated.
“It is hard to say for sure,” he said after studying the location. “I like the idea of the bison drive over the edge…It would be a logical place up here for where the processing would happen afterwards.”
A KILL SITE
The fact that the complete skeletal remains of each animal were not found all together in one compact space was significant.
“You normally find its bones all together in a bog,” Mather said.
Torgrimson recalled the dives along the lake’s floor.
“We never found a complete animal,” he said.
Mather said, “That’s an important part of the puzzle.”
The large quantity of bones were the remains of a Native American kill site, Mather believed, where people had killed and processed the bison for food, tools and weaponry.
No skulls were found at the dive site either. Bison brains were used to tan hides.
Mather explained a kill site generally would not contain human artifacts.
“The bones, themselves, are the artifacts,” he said.
He said the people could have lived on top of the hill. The hill may have been a prairie at that time.
“One thing that is interesting is that there are not that many kill sites in Minnesota,” he said.
Only three other such potential sites have been discovered in the state, according to Mather.
He pondered whether it was one event or if the site had been used for thousands of years.
“I think it is a very significant find,” he said. “This is a big deal, I think.”
THE BISON
Mather studied the long stretch of a mandible and described its historical importance.
“They are like rings,” he said. “You could, in theory, learn about a bison’s life year by year.”
Mather also noted something unusual about the bison’s teeth. It appeared the bison had possibly been eating trees. Traditionally, bison are known as grazing animals that eat grass.
He noted the bones were in fairly good condition with mineral deposits from the water, but were not yet fossilized.
“It would take millions of years to do that,” he said.
Mather confirmed that all the bones were bison.
THE NATIVE PEOPLE
While the group wondered about the bison, they thought of the people, their lives, what they ate, the language they spoke, their rituals and their dreams.
Mather said the native inhabitants who lived in the area and had contact with these bison were most likely Dakota, or possibly Sioux who had lived within the past 2,000 to 3,000 years – or perhaps their ancestors.
He described their crucial search for food. During wintertime, they likely traveled across the crusted snow wearing snowshoes to reach the animals.
“A lot of times, that stuff would be life or death,” he said.
THE NEXT STEP
“From studying this, we can learn a lot about what it was like to be here at this time in the past,” Mather said. “The assemblage [of bones] has scientific and historical value.”
He recommended keeping the collection together and asked the men to cease diving until an archeological team was assembled.
“It is best to leave as much in place as we can,” he said. “They would love for you guys to help if you would want to.”
The men responded enthusiastically.
“We know there’s more down there,” Van Surksum said.
Mather said he planned to register the location as an official archeological site.
“This is a fantastic site,” he said. “There is definitely enough evidence here.”
Mather recommended contacting a local organization that could apply for Legacy Amendment funding to further the archeological study.
“I really like the local connection for archeology everywhere,” he said.
The study may include underwater excavations with divers as well as an archeological dig on the nearby land.
People in the area would likely be invited to participate in the excavation after undergoing training.
“It gives people that personal connection and [shows] how fragile it is,” Mather said.
After Mather left, Van Surksum carefully reloaded the bones into 12 boxes.
On Monday, he was on his way to discuss the news with the Douglas County Historical Society and the Runestone Museum.
And so the adventure continues.http://www.echopress.com/event/article/id/87914/group/News/
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| Posted 23-10-2011 at 21:48
BLM archaeologists unearth significant find in NCA
The Gunnison Gorge National Conservation Area (NCA) — a popular destination for hikers, hunters and fishermen — also contains a number of prehistoric sites that have excited BLM archaeologists Glade Hadden and Carol Patterson. One of those sites, the Gunnison River Rock Art Site, is tucked into the rocky ledges overlooking the Gunnison River.
The overhang downstream from the Gunnison River Pleasure Park is covered with archaic rock art. The deer and elk scratched into the sandstone are like a big sign that says, "Stop, eat here," Hadden says.
"This is where ancient people went to hunt," he says, "because it's the only place the herds of deer can cross the Gunnison River for miles in either direction."
Beneath the overhang, Hadden and Patterson have been unearthing archaeological treasures for five years.
a10_blm2
Glade Hadden
BLM archaeologists had been aware of the site for some time, but feared looters had beaten them to the most interesting finds.
Then professors from Western Wyoming College visited the area, looking for a place to host a field school for their students. With the promise of free labor, BLM archaeologists decided to start digging through the layers of earth beneath the overhang.
"When we started digging, we had no idea what we were going to find," said Hadden. "We just knew it was a jumbled mess." After the looters disturbed the area, packrats went to work, carrying off much of what was left. Hadden thought digging through the looted site would be a good exercise for the college students.
Soon they discovered what Hadden describes as possibly one of the most important archaeological sites in western Colorado. The first find was a 4,000-year-old rock-lined hearth.
"That's pretty rare in this country so we kept digging, and we found a 6,000-year-old hearth. Beneath that one we found a 7,000-year-old hearth. We thought we were done but then we found signs of human occupation from over 8,000 years ago."
Among those findings are Fremont-style basketry, projectile points, beads and bones which served as tools.
The Fremont were a Caucasian agricultural people who lived in this area from 300 to 1300 A.D. Hadden says they've uncovered what appear to be two distinctive Fremont age levels. He's hopeful that evidence of even older occupations may be contained deeper within the stratified layers, but that exploration will have to wait. The archaeologists are closing up the site for the summer and, because of budget concerns, aren't sure when they'll be able to resume digging.
While Hadden is aware of similar sites in the area, he believes the Gunnison River Rock Art Site is one-of-a-kind in terms of the information it's revealed.
a10_blm3
Photo by Pat Sunderland
Through carbon dating, BLM archaelogists have dated hearths (note the rock ring in the upper right) from 7,000 years ago.
"I'm a garbalogist more than anything," he explained. "You can find out more about people by looking at their garbage than you can find out by asking them questions. That's what we do as archeologists. We look at the garbage, what they left behind."
By separating seeds from the soil, for example, archaeologists can determine what the people ate. If the occupants were indeed Fremonts, it's likely they raised corn, beans and squash in the area. Bone fragments indicate what kind of animals they consumed. Protein residue analysis can determine what kind of animals were killed by a particular point.
"By itself, it's just trash, but by looking at the trash you can learn a lot about people's lifestyles, their daily routines."
Hadden said the Utes likely used the site as well, but any remnants they left behind have been carted away.
Because of continuing concerns about vandalism, the BLM has not marked the Gunnison River Rock Art Site on any maps. Uncompahgre Field Office personnel also ask that directions not be published in the newspaper because visitors might inadvertently disrupt the security measures which are in place.http://www.deltacountyindependent.com/news/delta-area/23246-blm-archaeologists-unearth-significant-find-in-nca.html
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| Posted 23-10-2011 at 21:48
Nebraska Archaeological Survey continues project at Hugh Butler Lake
The University of Nebraska State Museum’s Nebraska Archaeological Survey began investigating several prehistoric sites at Hugh Butler Lake in Frontier County last September.
Test excavations were conducted at five sites within the boundaries of the reservoir, which is held by Red Willow Dam. This testing program was built upon recent archaeological surveys within the reservoir area carried out by the Nebraska Archaeological Survey in 2007 and the Denver Museum of Nature and Science in 2005. The sites chosen for investigation probably range in age from 700 to 5,500 years old.
“The purpose of this program is to obtain sufficient information about these archaeological resources in order to evaluate their scientific potential for further research and to make recommendations to the Bureau of Reclamation for protecting these sites in the future,” said Alan J. Osborn, research associate professor and curator of anthropology at the museum, and director of the Nebraska Archaeological Survey.
Past archaeological investigations at Red Willow and Medicine Creek reservoirs and neighbouring lands administered by the Bureau of Reclamation have made significant contributions to knowledge and understanding of Native American life throughout the Great Plains region. The Nebraska Archaeological Survey is conducting further archaeological investigations this year as funds were granted recently to continue fieldwork under a new five-year cooperative agreement. These investigations will enable archaeologists to assess the scientific potential of cultural resources within this area of the Great Plains.
Sieving on one of the site. Image: Nebraska Archaeological Survey
Sieving on one of the sites. Image: Nebraska Archaeological Survey
One of the sites being examined in greater detail contains bison bones, chipped stone tools and several small cooking pits. This site may represent a small meat and plant processing location near Red Willow Creek. Evidence suggests that Plains people visited this location several times between 200 BC and 1200 AD.
Read more >> http://www.pasthorizonspr.com/index.php/archives/09/2011/nebraska-archaeological-survey-continues-project-at-hugh-butler-lake#ixzz1YUBRq32A
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| Posted 23-10-2011 at 21:49
Rare Clovis artifacts document Boulder's prehistory
T hirteen thousand years ago, Clovis people roamed The Hill, and there are 83 stone age tools to prove it. Archaeologists now believe the prehistoric people may have had an ice age megafauna butchering station along the banks of Gregory Creek, where the tools were discovered.
In May of 2008, landowner and biotechnology entrepreneur Patrick Mahaffy hired landscapers to excavate part of his yard to create a pond. When one of the crew members heard an unusual chink, he stopped to investigate. They had stumbled upon a collection of 83 stone implements.
Mahaffy was curious about the implements, which he thought might be Native American and possibly a few hundred years old. He telephoned the University of Colorado's anthropology department. Luckily, he reached Dr. Douglas Bamforth, an expert on ancient people and their use of stone tools. Bamforth walked over to take a look.
He was astounded at what Mahaffy had discovered. Experts at the Laboratory of Archaeological Science at California State University, Bakersfield were consulted. Analysis to determine the age of the implements would be costly, but Mahaffy gladly paid out of his own pocket.
After some months, the unprecedented results of the protein residue analysis were made public. The results were international news. The tools contained the blood of prehistoric mammals including camel, bear, horse and sheep, the megafauna that roamed over North America 13,000 years ago during the Pleistocene.
It was the first analysis to identify protein residue from an extinct camel on North American stone tools and only the second to identify horse protein on Clovis-age tools, according to Bamforth. The rare find, which was officially named the Mahaffy Cache, is one of only a few Clovis artifact group discoveries in North America.
The Clovis people mysteriously disappeared from the earth about the same time as the ice-age mammals also became extinct.
One scientific theory is that a group of comets exploded over North America, creating massive heat that caused the extinction of ice age mammals, and perhaps the Clovis people, too. Clovis people were once thought to be the first human inhabitants of the New World, but new archaeological discoveries have called that belief into question.
The 83 tools of the Mahaffy Cache themselves are made of Kremmling chert, rock material found on Colorado's Western Slope. They are not hunting tools, but were probably used for butchering the animals for food.
Mahaffy described the tools as perfectly ergonomic, fitting beautifully into a human hand.
In 2009, Patrick Mahaffy was recognized with a special project award, given by the Boulder Heritage Roundtable, for his dedication to preservation of the ancient historic materials.
Shortly after the discovery, the biopharmaceutical entrepreneur named his new company Clovis Oncology.
Although Mahaffy intended for most of the tools to be on exhibit for the public, they have not yet been made available. http://www.dailycamera.com/ci_18863516?source=rss
Blast From the Past. Message from rbatham.
News item turned up on 'facebook' .
http://www.thevintagenews.com/2015/10/13/amazing-13000-year-old-stone-tools-unearthed-in-colorado/?utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=postplanner&utm_source=facebook.com
[ This message was edited by: bat400 on 2017-08-08 19:50 ]
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| Posted 23-10-2011 at 21:50
Archaeologist brings history to life with re-creation of prehistoric tools
As an archaeologist, Terry Powell often wondered how effective the tools made by prehistoric man really were.
"I was just real curious how they worked," Powell said. "Did they work? I assume they did. They made them."
Unable to test-drive valuable artifacts, Powell started re-creating those tools as a hobby and found they did function.
Today he's making that interest work for him as owner of Tools From the Earth, producing replicas of ancient tools for museums, personal collectors and others.
Most recently, he shipped a hoe made from a bison scapula to the Indiana State Museum, which is staging an exhibit on the history of corn. That led to requests for more replicas. Powell ended up sending several tools, including a corn- husking peg, stone hoe, and mortar and pestle.
Powell, who has a master's degree in anthropology from Southern Illinois University, worked as an archaeologist for 30 years before forming Tools From the Earth a year ago. He moved to Wichita from St. Petersburg, Fla., with his wife, Jan Luth, when she took a job as director of Exploration Place. His workshop is located beside their home in east Wichita.
Powell makes his replicas from the same materials — wood, stone, shells, bones, hide — the originals utilized. He works from a variety of sources: photographs, diagrams and first-hand knowledge of prehistoric tools that have been found whole or partially preserved; written accounts from early explorers about what they found in the Americas; even oral histories from Native Americans made during the last century.
In addition to buying materials from suppliers around the country, he finds much of what he uses — for instance, following tree trimmers to look for branches whose shapes might lend themselves to certain uses.
When a particular material isn't available, Powell finds a substitute that he thinks the original toolmakers might have used if available. For a rake that early inhabitants of South Dakota made with willow saplings, Powell substituted false indigo, which looks like willow and bends nicely.
"If they had it up there, they probably would have used it," he said.
The tools range from the simple — a hairpin made of bone — to the complex, such as a fish trap made of bent, intertwined branches that fish swim into, but not out of. It's opened by loosening twine.
Powell said 90 percent of the tools he makes are functional. He has replicated hundreds of tools, from beaver-tooth chisels to coastal axes made of conch shells to a sickle that he said cut tall grass better than anything in his garage.
Powell sells kits that include the tools and background information that teachers and others can use to make presentations. Some of the kits show tools in various stages of completion, or allow students to participate in the process.
"Nowadays museums and everybody else want to do interpretation," he said. "It used to be they just put stuff on display."
Although Powell uses the same materials as prehistoric man, he works with modern tools.
"Nobody wants to pay you for 30 hours for something you can make in a few hours with modern tools," he said.
Replicating and using prehistoric tools has given Powell several insights that simply finding them might never have generated. For instance, archeologists were puzzled as to why a small shark-tooth knife — probably used as a finishing tool for making bowls and other objects — had such a long handle. Powell thinks it was to allow the user to get both hands on the handle at once.
Despite his admiration for ancient tools and their makers, the implements definitely had limitations. With stone axes, for instance, "you have to learn from trial and error how much pressure you can put on them" before breaking.
"It's easy to see why natives went to metal as soon as it was available," he said.
Read more: http://www.kansas.com/2011/09/08/2006415/archaeologist-brings-history-to.html#ixzz1YUHIG6w2
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| Posted 23-10-2011 at 21:50
Alaskan archaeologists find ancient artefacts.
A team from the University of Alaska Museum of the North expected to find more boulders etched with petroglyphs during an expedition to further explore the remains of three prehistoric lake-front dwellings in Northwest Alaska’s Noatak National Preserve this summer.
However, when archaeologist Scott Shirar and members of his team began small-scale excavations at two of the sites, they made a fascinating new discovery: four decorated clay disks that appear to be the first of their kind found in Alaska.
See site and news at: Feniak Lake.
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| Posted 23-10-2011 at 21:52
Artifacts found at metro-east site might solve prehistoric mystery
The largest excavation of a prehistoric site in the country is poised to solve a riddle about Illinois prehistory that has lingered for a century -- where did the Mississippians go?
And why?
An enormous dig of a village site first inhabited about 1050 A.D. on 78 acres of what used to be the National Stockyards is providing so much data and so many artifacts that archaeologists are daring to speculate that basic questions about the Mississippians will finally be answered.
The Mississippians, or Native Americans, whose pottery and building styles identify them as a single cultural group, lived in or near the Mississippi Valley more than 1,000 years ago. They erected complex cities, built enormous mounds for ritualistic purposes and disappeared in the space of about 200-300 years.
But the stockyards dig, known as the "East St. Louis site," was abandoned after only 150 years.
This site is 5 miles west of the region's main group of mounds, now the grounds of the Cahokia Mounds State Historic Site in Collinsville, which was occupied for about another 150 years. However, less than 1 percent of the Cahokia Mounds site has been excavated because of a policy that the area should be reserved for future study.
But the village site will be fully excavated.
"By 1200, the Mississippians are gone from this site with no evidence of any other occupation," said archaeologist Patrick Durst about the dig at the old stockyards. Durst, of the Prairie Research Institute of the University of Illinois at Champaign, supervises 90 hired diggers.
"What happened to them is one of the research questions we're hoping to answer. Having an opportunity to completely investigate a major portion of a site this large is almost unheard of. When we are finished with this project more of the East St. Louis mound group and the complex associated with it will have been excavated than all of Cahokia."
One of the questions is whether the people who lived in the East St. Louis village site were the same people who lived at the much larger Cahokia Mounds site.
"We're trying to identify how this community, and its large mound center, relates to Cahokia, the largest mound center," Durst said, "We don't know exactly the direct relationships between these groups. It could be different groups that didn't necessarily work together. We don't necessarily think they were enemies, but they may not be the exact same cultural groups."
For residents of Southern and central Illinois, the ancient Mississippians represent a presence that turns up in daily life, from the "birdman" symbol etched into state highway overpasses to the term "Cahokia."
But what is still unknown is: Where did they come from, and what happened to them? Did they die off or did they become the "Indians" of more modern times?
The small army of diggers has been working since 2008 to finish this excavation by the end of the year. This area, once home to 3,000 people who lived 500 years before Columbus, lies in the path of the New Mississippi River Bridge Project and must be excavated or lost to bulldozers. Less than a mile away near St. Clair Avenue, construction crews are already repaving roads that will lead to the bridge.
For archaeologists, this location is significant because it would have been the first habitation seen by visitors in prehistoric times to this region as they cruised down a much wider and shallower Mississippi in dugout canoes. The village would have been in the path of native people headed for the Cahokia Mounds ritual center 5 miles further inland.
Durst speculated that from the river, the village would have been an awesome sight easily visible because the years of habitation would have deforested the slope leading from the beach. Hundreds of smoke plumes from campfires would have filled the horizon. And marker poles, which were tree trunks set upright in the ground and possibly containing forbidding carvings of gods or animals, warned visitors that they were entering a place where highly civilized people ruled.
Artifacts usually found in other states, including pieces of finely decorated pottery from Arkansas, Missouri and Iowa and beads carved from shells from the Gulf of Mexico, are being found almost daily. These discoveries support a long-held theory that the entire Cahokia area was the center of a culture that built mounds throughout the Midwest and southeastern United States.
A 6-inch high stone statue of a kneeling woman holding a conch shell was found last year. It is believed to be one of only a few that are known to exist.
Durst said that the sheer amount of data being collected all from one place is likely to lead to answers to basic questions about the Mississippians.
A smaller, but very artifact-rich, nearby site just east of Brooklyn called "Janey B. Goode," was excavated a few years ago. Durst said that it contained about 800 features. A feature can be the remains of a dwelling or communal structure, a waste pit, fireplace or hearth or the dark stains in the earth where large, log-like poles were placed upright in the ground.
But the larger East St. Louis site has more than 2,500 features, including the remains of 500 dwellings, although that many more ancient homesites might remain buried, he said.
"How and when this urban commercial and ritual center all came together and what caused it to fall apart is what we want to answer," said Brad Koldehoff, an archaeologist and cultural resources director for the Illinois Department of Transportation. The dig is a joint effort by the Illinois State Archaeological Survey and IDOT.
Koldehoff said that the village's abandonment might have been a result of over exploitation of animals and plants. While the Mississippians depended on fishing and growing a primitive type of corn and other vegetables, like squash and beans, they needed firewood and meat from game animals to augment their diet.
"Staying in one place too long almost sets you up to fail," Koldehoff said.
"There is always the environmental factor," said Durst. "This is in a flood plain. There might have been an extended flood or a drought. Agriculture failed and they could no longer sustain a population. And there are also the more extreme views including that it was warfare. We do have a number of burned houses here. We don't know if they're burning them intentionally as a kind of ceremonial abandonment or potentially people are attacking the area."
The evidence turns up through careful digging. And even though a deadline is fast approaching, each feature is sketched on graph paper for later study in the lab.
Digger Justin Wallace, of Millstadt, said the atmosphere at the East St. Louis site is one of high enthusiasm.
"As far as the Cahokia culture in this area, this is one of the biggest things that's ever been done," he said.
"We're getting more information now really, than we been able to get from Cahokia Mounds. This was a mecca. All the waterways coming together here. The fertile soil."
August Traeger, an excavator from St. Louis, said, "This is a rare opportunity to get this kind of information because over in St. Louis it was just covered up and lost."
For archaeologist Douglas Jackson, who helps supervise the dig, finding artifacts like carved shell beads means an opportunity to find out about the elite or the rulers of the village society.
"When we start seeing these exotic items. Would the average Joe get the access to these items?" Jackson asked. "Or would it be somebody who is in charge, the elite or whatever? That's what makes it so interesting."
Read more: http://www.bnd.com/2011/09/05/1847284/local-artifacts-might-solve-prehistoric.html#ixzz1YUJAEOfT
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coldrum
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| Posted 23-10-2011 at 21:54
Dropping Lake Levels Expose Ancient Artifacts And Looters Have Noticed
Low lake levels have exposed several ancient Native American sites, but removing artifacts could lead to serious criminal charges.
Looters are taking advantage of dropping area lake levels to find long hidden artifacts are that’s creating big problems for authorities.
Since Lake Whitney's water level dropped, five sites full of Native American artifacts are now accessible for the first time in decades.
Click here to find out more!
Some of these sites date back more than 8,000 years.
State and federal law protect the artifacts.
It’s against federal law to remove any Native American artifact from government property and in Texas, doing that also violates the state Antiquities Code.
But in the past few months, authorities say more than thirty people have been caught digging illegally.
Authorities say the looters could also be disturbing ancient burial grounds.
"A lot of Native American tribes and cultures buried their family members and loved ones where they lived so it’s all intertwined," said Brady Dempsey, of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
Once the damage has been done to these sites, the effects are nearly impossible to reverse, Dempsey said.
In one area, he said, looters broke concrete open, burrowed in under it and then sifted through the dirt, taking what they could and leaving the arrest behind.
“They've just scrambled the archeological record," Dempsey said.
The damage looters leave behind is becoming increasingly expensive.
Recently a dig site had to be repaired at Lake Whitney at a cost of more than $30,000. http://www.kwtx.com/news/headlines/Dropping_Lake_Levels_Expose_Ancient_Artifacts_And_Looters_Have_Noticed_130746858.html?ref=858
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coldrum
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| Posted 23-10-2011 at 21:55
First nations take government to court to save ancient burial sites from road
A hearing to stop construction of a road through two first nations burial sites in Delta was postponed Tuesday, but it will be heard in B.C. Supreme Court in the coming weeks.
The 40-kilometre South Fraser Perimeter Road, which is under construction, is a planned fourlane highway running along the south side of the Fraser River from the Delta port in Tsawwassen to the Golden Ears Bridge.
Plaintiffs Bertha Williams and William Burnstick, represented by lawyer Jay Straith, charge that the government has known since 2006 that the road could damage ancient burial grounds dating back as far as 8,000 years, and yet it is proceeding anyway.
"Construction of the SFPR will impact both intact and disturbed archeological deposits. ... The potential to encounter both intact and disturbed cultural deposits, including human remains, is high," states a government archeology and environmental assessment report prepared in September 2006.
Straith says the government buried the report.
"When they find out they've got something politically inconvenient, what do they do? ... They just give themselves a permit and start barrelling through," Straith said.
Williams is a member of the Tsawwassen First Nation, and Burnstick is a member of the Cree Sioux First Nation.
A spokeswoman for the Ministry of Transportation said in the five years since the report was written, archeological work has "informed the alignment of the SFPR to avoid the further degradation of the site and almost entirely avoids intact deposits.
"Before any constructionrelated work begins, archaeological work will be completed to ensure that the location and protection of important artifacts are appropriate," the spokeswoman said in an email.
Tony Hardie, a North Delta resident interested in the burial sites, said an archeological dig has been going on there for about 10 days. He said he's relieved that excavating is taking place before the new road is built, but he would like to know what the plans are for the sites and anything that is found.
Straith wants to know what's happening with the burial sites.
The two affected sites - St. Mungo and Glenrose Cannery - are on the south shore of the Fraser River, just east of the Alex Fraser Bridge in North Delta.
"We've got to start thinking of these sites and comparing them to other national treasures that people are fighting to save like Stonehenge, or the pyramids," said Eliza Olson, president of the Burns Bog Conservation Society. "We're not opposed to the road, we're opposed to where it is."
The St. Mungo site was a large fishing village, and archeological digs have found remains from about 5,000 years ago, the report states.
Remains at the Glenrose Cannery site are as old as 8,000 years, and show a settlement where people were dependent on elk and deer, and where seal hunting and fishing also played a role.
Straith said the goal of the lawsuit is to have the road moved further from the shore of the Fraser River, thus preserving the sites.
The B.C. Supreme Court hearing is a civil suit against the minister of transportation and infrastructure, the minister of the environment, and the minister of forests, lands and natural resource operations.
Read more: http://www.vancouversun.com/technology/First+nations+take+government+court+save+ancient+burial+sites+from+road/5332284/story.html#ixzz1YUNg45Ml
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coldrum
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| Posted 23-10-2011 at 23:06
Archaeologists discover 8,000 year-old stone shelter
GRAND JUNCTION, CO (KKCO/NBC) - Archaeologists may have discovered evidence of people living in Colorado's Grand Valley 8,000 years ago.
During a recent dig, researchers with the Dominguez Anthropological Research Group (DARG) uncovered a prehistoric stone shelter.
Due to an agreement with the Bureau of Land Management, which oversees the land where the shelter was found, the group could not disclose its exact location, but says it was north of Grand Junction, CO, near the Bookcliffs.
After nearly two years of background work and two months of in-ground work, DARG researchers say they made quite the find.
"We found fire pits and storage features," said James Miller, research director for DARG. "We also collected all the lithic artifacts, or stone tools."
The group says it also found remnants of posts where a wall would have gone.
At first glance, they might not look like anything exciting, but when you find out how old they are, they become much more interesting.
"The oldest one is about 8,000 years old," Miller said.
Miller says the small stone shelter was likely built by a culture called the Foothills-Mountain people, who lived in North America 8,000 to 10,000 years ago.
"Between the geology and the artifacts, we have a good idea of the age of the deposits right now," Miller said.
Crews had to dig about 10 feet into the ground to uncover most of the artifacts they collected.
Based on those items, experts believe the site was just a temporary shelter rather than a permanent home.
"It was a place where smaller task groups, just a small segment of the population would go and stay for a few days or a week," Miller said. "In most cases, they'd collect vegetable foods and process them before transporting them back to the base camp."
The group says it has sent about a dozen samples away for radiocarbon dating, and is doing further analysis to support their findings.
Last year, DARG researchers discovered evidence near Battlement Mesa of a culture that is 13,000 years old.http://www.kplctv.com/story/15281377/archaeologists-discover-8000-year-old-stone-shelter
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