>>If they find a huge yellow beak and yellow feet with blue feathers
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Archeologists are struggling to explain the decorative footware . . . |
Posted on 02/15/2005 12:14:05 PM PST by blam
Source: University of Kansas
Released: Sat 12-Feb-2005, 09:00 ET
Embargo expired: Tue 15-Feb-2005, 00:00 ET
Discovery Could Change Dates for Human Arrival on the Great Plains
Dated by carbon-14 methods at 12,200 years old, recently discovered bones could be the oldest evidence of human occupation in Kansas, and they may be the oldest evidence of humans on the Great Plains.
For photos related to the story, go to http://www.kgs.ku.edu/General/News/2005/kanorado.html
Newswise — Bones of now-extinct animals and a rock fragment discovered last summer in northwestern Kansas could rewrite the history of humans on the Great Plains.
The bones, which appear to have been fractured by humans, were collected from a site in Sherman County and studied by scientists at the Kansas Geological Survey, the University of Kansas and the Denver Museum of Nature & Science. Dated by carbon-14 methods at 12,200 years old, the bones could be the oldest evidence of human occupation in Kansas, and they may be the oldest evidence of humans on the Great Plains.
The research was conducted by archaeologist Steven Holen at the Denver Museum, archaeological geologist Rolfe Mandel at the Kansas Geological Survey and archaeologist Jack Hofman at the KU anthropology department.
Scientists previously dated the earliest confirmed evidence of humans on the Great Plains at 11,000 to 11,500 years ago. That was based on mammoth kill sites in western North America, including the first find near Greeley, Colo., excavated by the Denver Museum of Nature & Science.
The new discoveries could challenge that benchmark.
“If we have evidence of people here more than 12,000 years ago, we have to rethink our ideas about human colonization of North America,” said Hofman.
The finds include bones from a now-extinct Ice Age camel and two mammoths. In addition, a rock fragment found with the bones might be a piece of a stone hammer.
“Fracture patterns on the bones suggest they were broken by humans who may have been processing them for marrow or to make bone tools,” said Holen. “The radiocarbon dating shows that these finds are a thousand years older than the best documented evidence of humans on the Great Plains.”
The location was probably a camp site that was occupied for a few days or weeks by a small group of nomadic peoples.
“This location has the potential for shedding new light on the timing of human entry into the Western Hemisphere,” said Mandel. “This could be the oldest site of human activity on the Great Plains.”
In addition to the older material, the site has produced artifacts that are about 10,900 to 11,000 years ago, which scientists refer to as Clovis Age. Those artifacts include stone flakes, tools and pieces of mammoth bone. The material probably represents a hunting camp. Some of the tools were made of stone from the Texas panhandle, suggesting the group was highly mobile.
“Clovis materials have been found in Kansas before, but usually on gravel bars along streams,” said Mandel. “This site represents the first central Great Plains discovery of Clovis-period stone tools that are still in place.”
The fact that both Clovis-age material and possible pre-Clovis material were found at the same location is probably no accident, say the scientists.
“Something, probably water, kept attracting people back to this location,” said Mandel. “There were likely seeps and springs here that attracted game animals, and then people, to this spot.
“These people were always on the move. That's why archaeological material from them is so sparse, and why this location is so important.”
Mammoth bone at the site was originally discovered in 1976 and excavated in the 1970s and 1980s by the Denver Museum of Nature & Science. The recently discovered materials were recovered during digs in the summers of 2003 and 2004, conducted jointly by the Kansas Geological Survey and the Denver Museum of Nature & Science.
The work was supported by the Odyssey Archaeological Research Fund, an endowed program at KU with a directive to search for the earliest evidence of humans in the Great Plains.
Additional excavations are scheduled for summer 2005.
GGG Ping.
12,000 or 11,000...it was a helluva long time ago...
I hope that they are doing a better job than the bunch that came up with "Nebraska Man" which turned to be one "pig" tooth!
If they find a huge yellow beak and yellow feet with blue feathers Jayhawkers will be more insufferable than ever.
When I moved here, everyone in my hometown of Seattle assumed I was the first.
B.C.
Fargo, ND
12,000 or 11,000 years ago is impossible. God created the Earth only 6000 years ago. This is more proof that liberal colleges are corrupting society with their blatant falsehoods. This is also proof that C-13 dating doesn't work.
</ creatoid sarcasm >
Seriously, this is a very cool find.
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Archeologists are struggling to explain the decorative footware . . . |
Just out of idle curiosity, sir, what was the "Nebraska man" that turned out a fraud?
Pretty neat. They don't find any Clovis-age material in France until the 480s A.D.
Nebraska man's tooth was the blunt instrument with which Darrow killed Bryan.
I was wondering, because I never heard of the "Nebraska man" before; do not recall it being mentioned in any books about the Scopes trial that I read.
Please FREEPMAIL me if you want on, off, or alter the "Gods, Graves, Glyphs" PING list --
Archaeology/Anthropology/Ancient Cultures/Artifacts/Antiquities, etc.
The GGG Digest -- Gods, Graves, Glyphs (alpha order)
Good Lord! I have a copy of that picture in an old text book!
My California grammar school was discarding (sacrilege: BURNING!) out-dated texts, back in the 50's, and I "rescued" a few that looked interesting. I was in 6th or 7th grade at the time.
The one that had that picture was a late 1800s/early 1900s "natural science" text. It is still packed away, in one of the many boxes of books.
I am sure that they will eventually discover even older sites.
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