Roger Lee
Tue, Jan-16-07, 17:17
-------- Original Message -------- Subject: PRE-CLOVIS TOOLS
IN MINNESOTA? Date: Fri, 12 Jan 2007 16:36:57 -0600 From:
Topiltzin-2091@webtv.net Organization: WebTV Subscriber
Newsgroups: sci.archaeology.mesoamerican
Tools Found In Walker, May Be 14,000 Years Old (AP) Walker,
Minn. Archaeologists have discovered stone tools atop a
hill in this northern Minnesota town that may be 13,000 to
14,000 years old, according to a published report. From the
rough stone tools, archaeologists are speculating that
"we're looking at certainly the relatively earliest
occupants of the North American continent," biologist and
archaeologist Matt Mattson said in a Star Tribune of
Minneapolis report Thursday night. He worked on the project
for the Leech Lake Heritage Sites Program, which is based
near Cass Lake. Britta Bloomberg, Minnesota's deputy
historic preservation officer, said it may be among the
oldest known archaeological sites in North and South
America. A half-dozen archaeologists, soil scientists and
others who have examined the site all said the artifacts
are genuine, she said. The stone tools were found while
archaeologists were investigating the path of a road where
the city is planning to expand for a community center,
housing and businesses. Archaeologists found 50 or more
objects while digging through an area of about 50 square
yards. The artifacts ranged from large hammer stones to
small hand-held scrapers. Mattson said the objects were
found underneath a band of rock and gravel that appeared to
have been deposited by melting glaciers and then covered by
windblown sediment, Mather said. David Mather, state
archaeologist for the National Register of Historic Places,
said the find "is something off our radar. We didn't think
it was even possible in Minnesota." "(This) could be a real
watershed for understanding Minnesota's history," he said.
Mather said the site appears to be "much older" than the
Clovis era of finely made spear points that defines the
paleo-Indian period. The find is "startling enough that
appropriate response from every archaeologist and glacial
geologist is skepticism." But, he added, a half-dozen
archaeologists, soil scientists and others who have
examined the site all say the artifacts are genuine. Human
remains, wood or textiles, if there were any, would have
dissolved long ago in the acidic soil. The oldest human
remains found in Minnesota belonged to the Browns Valley
Man, who lived about 9,000 years ago. His remains were
discovered in 1933 in a gravel pit near the town of Browns
Valley in western Minnesota. Walker is about 190 miles
northwest of the Twin Cities.
(© 2007 The Associated Press. Topiltzin-2091@webtv.net wrote:
Another news article: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/2007011-
3/ap_on_sc/archaeological_find Ancient stone tools found
in N.America
By STEVE KARNOWSKI, Associated Press Writer Sat Jan 13,
1:39 AM ET
MINNEAPOLIS - What appear to be crude stone tools may provide
evidence that people lived in Minnesota 13,000 to 15,000 years
ago, which if confirmed would make them among the oldest human
artifacts ever found in North America, archaeologists said
Friday. ADVERTISEMENT
Archaeologists in the northern Minnesota town of Walker dug up
the items, which appear to be beveled scrapers, choppers, a
crude knife and several flakes that could have been used for
cutting, said Colleen Wells, field director for the Leech Lake
Heritage Sites Program.
"They don't look like much," Wells acknowledged. "They don't
look pretty."
Several archaeological experts who weren't involved with the
dig expressed a healthy dose of skepticism, but they
acknowledged they were also intrigued.
Wells and other archaeologists discovered around 50 objects
this past year while investigating a route for a planned road
that would serve a major community development project in
Walker. The items were found beneath a layer of glacial
deposits that had been covered by windblown deposits. Based on
what's known about the geology of the area, they believe the
objects are between 13,000 and 15,000 years old.
"The finding is intriguing but it really needs to have its
precise age nailed down and more needs to be known of the
artifacts," said David Meltzer, an archaeologist at Southern
Methodist University in Dallas.
Much more research needs to be done to allow firm conclusions,
Wells and her colleagues acknowledged. "It's bound to be
controversial," said Matt Mattson, another archaeologist on
the project.
Not only do the age of the items and the soil in which they
were found need to be confirmed, it must also be determined
whether the objects are really human-made artifacts or merely
rocks that were chipped in interesting ways by glaciers
during the Ice Age. And it's not yet certain if the items
were left at the site by humans, or carried there by glaciers
or flowing water.
Other researchers have found that that part of Minnesota
apparently was something of an "oasis" around 13,000 years
ago, an area free of ice cover with shifting glaciers on most
sides but with an access route to the southeast, Mattson said.
Tom Dillehay, chairman of the anthropology department at
Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tenn., was intrigued by
the edge he saw on a photo of one of the objects found in
Walker, saying it could have been chipped by a human.
"It's probably worth protecting the site and going back in and
more systematically excavating with the geologists and other
disciplines to see if it's a real site," he said.
Pat Everson, head of archaeology for the Minnesota Historical
Society, said she hadn't been to the site or seen the
artifacts personally, but she'd read the reports, knows the
archaeologists involved and considers them "perfectly
credible." Still, she counted herself among the skeptics.
"It's an extraordinary claim and it requires some
extraordinary evidence," Everson said. "But it's certainly
worth pursuing."
Several experts agreed it is possible people were in Minnesota
that long ago.
"It seems to be there is an increasing body of science that
there were stone stools and people here in that time period in
North America," said Dan Rogers, chairman of the anthropology
department at the National Museum of Natural History at the
Smithsonian Institution in Washington.
The long-accepted theory was that people first arrived in the
Western Hemisphere 11,200 years ago — corresponding with the
age of arrowheads found in the 1930s near Clovis, N.M. — via a
land bridge from Asia over what is now the Bering Strait.
But a consensus is emerging that some humans arrived thousands
of years earlier, even if scientists disagree on just how much
earlier. And several agreed that if the Minnesota objects do
turn out to be 13,000- to 15,000-year-old tools, they'd be
among the oldest human artifacts ever found in North America.
That's why the local archaeologists are hoping to get back
into the site after this winter, and hope to work out a way
with the city of Walker to preserve it for sometime in the
future when more advanced testing methods might be available.
"Once it's gone it's gone," Mattson said. "We're looking at
absolutely irreplaceable links in human history here. Once
it's gone there's no retrieving it."
IN MINNESOTA? Date: Fri, 12 Jan 2007 16:36:57 -0600 From:
Topiltzin-2091@webtv.net Organization: WebTV Subscriber
Newsgroups: sci.archaeology.mesoamerican
Tools Found In Walker, May Be 14,000 Years Old (AP) Walker,
Minn. Archaeologists have discovered stone tools atop a
hill in this northern Minnesota town that may be 13,000 to
14,000 years old, according to a published report. From the
rough stone tools, archaeologists are speculating that
"we're looking at certainly the relatively earliest
occupants of the North American continent," biologist and
archaeologist Matt Mattson said in a Star Tribune of
Minneapolis report Thursday night. He worked on the project
for the Leech Lake Heritage Sites Program, which is based
near Cass Lake. Britta Bloomberg, Minnesota's deputy
historic preservation officer, said it may be among the
oldest known archaeological sites in North and South
America. A half-dozen archaeologists, soil scientists and
others who have examined the site all said the artifacts
are genuine, she said. The stone tools were found while
archaeologists were investigating the path of a road where
the city is planning to expand for a community center,
housing and businesses. Archaeologists found 50 or more
objects while digging through an area of about 50 square
yards. The artifacts ranged from large hammer stones to
small hand-held scrapers. Mattson said the objects were
found underneath a band of rock and gravel that appeared to
have been deposited by melting glaciers and then covered by
windblown sediment, Mather said. David Mather, state
archaeologist for the National Register of Historic Places,
said the find "is something off our radar. We didn't think
it was even possible in Minnesota." "(This) could be a real
watershed for understanding Minnesota's history," he said.
Mather said the site appears to be "much older" than the
Clovis era of finely made spear points that defines the
paleo-Indian period. The find is "startling enough that
appropriate response from every archaeologist and glacial
geologist is skepticism." But, he added, a half-dozen
archaeologists, soil scientists and others who have
examined the site all say the artifacts are genuine. Human
remains, wood or textiles, if there were any, would have
dissolved long ago in the acidic soil. The oldest human
remains found in Minnesota belonged to the Browns Valley
Man, who lived about 9,000 years ago. His remains were
discovered in 1933 in a gravel pit near the town of Browns
Valley in western Minnesota. Walker is about 190 miles
northwest of the Twin Cities.
(© 2007 The Associated Press. Topiltzin-2091@webtv.net wrote:
Another news article: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/2007011-
3/ap_on_sc/archaeological_find Ancient stone tools found
in N.America
By STEVE KARNOWSKI, Associated Press Writer Sat Jan 13,
1:39 AM ET
MINNEAPOLIS - What appear to be crude stone tools may provide
evidence that people lived in Minnesota 13,000 to 15,000 years
ago, which if confirmed would make them among the oldest human
artifacts ever found in North America, archaeologists said
Friday. ADVERTISEMENT
Archaeologists in the northern Minnesota town of Walker dug up
the items, which appear to be beveled scrapers, choppers, a
crude knife and several flakes that could have been used for
cutting, said Colleen Wells, field director for the Leech Lake
Heritage Sites Program.
"They don't look like much," Wells acknowledged. "They don't
look pretty."
Several archaeological experts who weren't involved with the
dig expressed a healthy dose of skepticism, but they
acknowledged they were also intrigued.
Wells and other archaeologists discovered around 50 objects
this past year while investigating a route for a planned road
that would serve a major community development project in
Walker. The items were found beneath a layer of glacial
deposits that had been covered by windblown deposits. Based on
what's known about the geology of the area, they believe the
objects are between 13,000 and 15,000 years old.
"The finding is intriguing but it really needs to have its
precise age nailed down and more needs to be known of the
artifacts," said David Meltzer, an archaeologist at Southern
Methodist University in Dallas.
Much more research needs to be done to allow firm conclusions,
Wells and her colleagues acknowledged. "It's bound to be
controversial," said Matt Mattson, another archaeologist on
the project.
Not only do the age of the items and the soil in which they
were found need to be confirmed, it must also be determined
whether the objects are really human-made artifacts or merely
rocks that were chipped in interesting ways by glaciers
during the Ice Age. And it's not yet certain if the items
were left at the site by humans, or carried there by glaciers
or flowing water.
Other researchers have found that that part of Minnesota
apparently was something of an "oasis" around 13,000 years
ago, an area free of ice cover with shifting glaciers on most
sides but with an access route to the southeast, Mattson said.
Tom Dillehay, chairman of the anthropology department at
Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tenn., was intrigued by
the edge he saw on a photo of one of the objects found in
Walker, saying it could have been chipped by a human.
"It's probably worth protecting the site and going back in and
more systematically excavating with the geologists and other
disciplines to see if it's a real site," he said.
Pat Everson, head of archaeology for the Minnesota Historical
Society, said she hadn't been to the site or seen the
artifacts personally, but she'd read the reports, knows the
archaeologists involved and considers them "perfectly
credible." Still, she counted herself among the skeptics.
"It's an extraordinary claim and it requires some
extraordinary evidence," Everson said. "But it's certainly
worth pursuing."
Several experts agreed it is possible people were in Minnesota
that long ago.
"It seems to be there is an increasing body of science that
there were stone stools and people here in that time period in
North America," said Dan Rogers, chairman of the anthropology
department at the National Museum of Natural History at the
Smithsonian Institution in Washington.
The long-accepted theory was that people first arrived in the
Western Hemisphere 11,200 years ago — corresponding with the
age of arrowheads found in the 1930s near Clovis, N.M. — via a
land bridge from Asia over what is now the Bering Strait.
But a consensus is emerging that some humans arrived thousands
of years earlier, even if scientists disagree on just how much
earlier. And several agreed that if the Minnesota objects do
turn out to be 13,000- to 15,000-year-old tools, they'd be
among the oldest human artifacts ever found in North America.
That's why the local archaeologists are hoping to get back
into the site after this winter, and hope to work out a way
with the city of Walker to preserve it for sometime in the
future when more advanced testing methods might be available.
"Once it's gone it's gone," Mattson said. "We're looking at
absolutely irreplaceable links in human history here. Once
it's gone there's no retrieving it."