Sifting Through Garbage from the End of the Ice Age: It's a Living for Frontier Scientists

Frontier Scientists blog ^ | Wednesday, June 1, 2011 | Liz O'Connell (contact)

[SunkenCiv]

This summer, archaeologists are continuing work at a 12,000-year-old prehistoric site which is yielding evidence of generations of wandering hunters who camped on a bluff overlooking the Kivalina River... The Raven Bluff site was discovered in 2007 by BLM archaeologist Bill Hedman and a crew conducting an archaeological site survey in the far northwest corner of Alaska. The Bering Land Bridge between Russia and North America may have still existed -- or had just submerged for the last time -- when hunters first frequented Raven Bluff...

Essentially the remains of a garbage dump, the dig has offered up the oldest preserved animal bone site in the American Arctic... twelve thousand years ago, what is now moist tundra was a drier, grassier, landscape grazed by animals that included bison, but caribou bones are what scientists are finding at Raven Bluff so far.

Another established scientific hypothesis being tested is how the use of certain stone tools spread in North America. The lower levels of the site produced a very significant find of a roughly 12,000 year-old fluted projectile point base, marking the first time such a tool has been definitely dated in the north.

"The idea for decades has been that fluted projectile point technology originated in Alaska or perhaps Siberia and was carried south into the Americas," explains Rasic. This model suggests that the Raven Bluff tool should be older than similar points found further south on the continent. "We're finding the opposite of what people expected. The Raven Bluff points are younger than Clovis, so it may be that they did not originate in the north, but came from the south. So the question now is, does this represent a migration of people, or the spread of an idea from the south?"

[SunkenCiv]

Aerial view of Raven Bluff and the Kivalina River: Source -- Bureau of Land Management/photo by Craig McCaa

[freedumb2003]

And, when finding the 12,000 year old Sunday comics, the researchers are wondering how anyone found “Family Circus” funny back then either...

[SunkenCiv]

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[redpoll]

Simply too beautiful for words. I’m glad that I’m living about 150 miles southwest of there. Except for the mosquitoes. LOL

[layman]

I heard they found a rough stone carving of four dogs playing poker.

[SERKIT]

Maybe THEY will be successful in digging up dirt on Sarah Palin. Archaeological paleontology vs Archaeological Palinology.

[bunkerhill7]

Q. The Raven Bluff points are younger than Clovis, so it may be that they did not originate in the north, but came from the south. So the question now is, does this represent a migration of people, or the spread of an idea from the south?"

A. ATF gave Clovis Points to arrowhead dealers in Alaska to sell to Vancouver caribou cartels who crossed the Canadian border into Alaska,

bought the Points,

returned to Canada,

then recrossed the border back into Alaska to buy the bows, feathers and arrowshafts they forgot to purchase.

[SunkenCiv]

;’)

[SunkenCiv]

Ah, the Cloviswalker program.

[SunkenCiv]

That’ll work assuming they dig into an underground lair where the stuff is being faked.

[SunkenCiv]

:’)

[beebuster2000]

still hunting caribou there today. kind of cool.

[ExCTCitizen]

The Bering Land Bridge between Russia and North America may have still existed -- or had just submerged for the last time -- when hunters first frequented Raven Bluff...

If they find the FLINTSTONE'S car, they'll say the land bridge submerging was because of that!! :-)