Posted on 09/23/2010 1:32:37 PM PDT by decimon
Taking a new look at old digs: Trampling animals can alter muddy Paleolithic sites
Archaeologists who interpret Stone Age culture from discoveries of ancient tools and artifacts may need to reanalyze some of their conclusions.
That's the finding suggested by a new study that for the first time looked at the impact of water buffalo and goats trampling artifacts into mud.
In seeking to understand how much artifacts can be disturbed, the new study documented how animal trampling in a water-saturated area can result in an alarming amount of disturbance, says archaeologist Metin I. Eren, a graduate student at Southern Methodist University and one of eight researchers on the study.
In a startling finding, the animals' hooves pushed artifacts as much as 21 centimeters into the ground — a variation that could equate to a difference of thousands of years for a scientist interpreting a site, said Erin.
The findings suggest archaeologists should reanalyze some previous discoveries, he said.
"Given that during the Lower and most of the Middle Pleistocene, hominids stayed close to water sources, we cannot help but wonder how prevalent saturated substrate trampling might be, and how it has affected the context, and resulting interpretation, of Paleolithic sites throughout the Old World," conclude the authors in a scientific paper detailing their experiment and its findings.
(Excerpt) Read more at blog.smu.edu ...
Deep goat ping.
If they stepped in the right place we can find Roman pottery next to dinosaur bones. lol.
Simple answer, get in your way-back machine and kill all of those buffalo and goats.
That would leave us without goat curry. I'm not sure I'd want to live in a world without that.
saturated substrate trampling by goat PING
This is hilarious stuff.
Not just “deep goat” but “young Earth” ~ Personally I’d be looking for the haunches for signs of butchery and cooking, maybe a whiff of Rosemary or something.
Water buffalo? Cue the “THAT’S RACIST” pic . . .
maybe a whiff of Rosemary
...Nope, not gonna go there...
Colonel, USAFR
So startling that archeaologists are lining up for grant money to disprove this.
And of course, these folks who made the startling finds had to be out to make this particular find.
Half of these folks are not just grave robbers...they rob the taxpayers, too.
I find all kinds of "stuff" with my metal detector...and it didn't take an animal to shove it down in the ground...it just went a little teeney bit every year.
“maybe a whiff of Rosemary
...Nope, not gonna go there”
OK, I will. I would imagine that Rosemary was a bit more pungent back then.
I did my Archeo field school in Ireland, it was terrible chasing out sheep from the dig site every morning, especially after drinking too much jameson!
I thought that a Scots slur.
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That must be why they had the guy of Scottish heritage doing it, they thought i had prior experience!
Say what about Rosemary???
Oh, man - be still, my heart!
Colonel, USAFR
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