At the Bottom of Lake Huron, an Ancient Mystery Materializes

[Sometimes] Scientific American ^ | June 1, 2021 | Aaron Martin

[SunkenCiv]

The air was likely frigid as the hunter lit a small fire. The caribou would come in the morning—forced through the narrow strip of marshland where he camped. There was nowhere else to go. The land was flanked by water on both sides, and large stones had been laid out in slanting lines to funnel the animals into this bottleneck. The hunter struck his weapon to sharpen its edge in anticipation. In that moment, two glassy flakes splintered away from the point of impact and fell to his feet. They would be buried there for nearly 10,000 years.

In 2013 those two shards of obsidian, a natural volcanic glass, would be recovered from a sample of earth, roughly the volume of a quart of milk, that was pulled from the bottom of Lake Huron, under 100 feet of water. And the story the flakes would tell was one of an even longer journey...

Obsidian was highly prized by ancient stone toolmakers. The flakes identified by Brendan Nash, a member of O’Shea’s team at the University of Michigan, have strike marks and sharp, feathered edges—both telltale signs of human modification. This evidence, combined with the distance to the obsidian’s original source, paint a picture of an extensive trade or exchange network that spanned the continent nearly 3,000 years after the end of the last ice age.

Stone tools recovered from the Alpena-Amberley Ridge are much smaller than artifacts found nearby that date to the same time period. This suggests that a group of ancient people, with a different way of life and system of hunting, existed on the ridge around 9,000 years ago.

[mcshot]

Butter is better.

[M Kehoe]

Hi.

I’ll wager the Indians were obsequious with their obsidian.

Okay, I’ll go to the corner...

5.56mm

[Openurmind]

“The funny thing here is..they were but 40 to 50 miles from the largest deposit of iron ore in North America and did not know it.”

Because... Despite what the “impossible” narrative says... It was during the Bronze age before the Iron age. The Vikings were “floating” long before even the Bronze age, So were the Jomon in Japan, and the Oceanic peoples. Man first “Floated” across the Wallace line to Australia around 50,000 years ago. :)

Here is something you might find interesting about traces of Vikings in the northwest passage and even the west coast, Whole bunch of links about Vikings about half way down the page in the the “Last Viking” story:

http://www.spirasolaris.ca/index.html

But you are absolutely right, all they needed were axes and weapons to make and do anything they wanted. And I don’t even think sail canvas would have been needed, they had Native labor to row and furs in abundance. Everything they needed but the few tools were all there already. :)

[Openurmind]

I absolutely do believe there was a route to the gulf of Mexico also.along these rivers was where tons of copper pieces were found made of Great Lakes copper.

[SauronOfMordor]

As long as old scientists sit on the committees that decide grant funding, they will not tolerate research that will upend their careers.

[Openurmind]

Right on the nailhead... It all boils down to selfishness and egotism that is preventing very important discoveries.

[SauronOfMordor]

They would have had to tow extra boats from their home port “shipyards” and then would have had to portage/carry them to the lakes so it is impossible”.

The distinguished gentleman should read the chronicles of the Lewis and Clark expedition. They managed.

If the trade was a regular thing, then the boats/canoes/whatever, once built or otherwise gotten there, would have been making the back and forth trip regularly.

[Openurmind]

Absolutely and so did the natives long before...

That was one of the silliest things I have ever heard yet.

[colorado tanker]

Thanks for a fascinating post!

[Theophilus]

“tragic boating accident” now I call that settled science!

[whitney69]

You don’t understand my sense of humor, I guess.

wy69

[whitney69]

Not surprised. Both made money.

wt69

[Monkey Face]

Maybe so, but I never saw any of it!

‘Face

;o]

[SunkenCiv]

The long-used route between Lake Ontario (which receives the river waters via the Falls at Niagara, a bit of an obstacle to navigation) to Georgian Bay (basically Lake Huron) involved portaging, which was a skill well known to shipbuilding cultures of Eurasia, because, y’know, they were completely afraid of getting out of sight of land (/rimshot). The Varangians went upriver from the Baltic and portaged their ships across to descend other rivers to reach the Black Sea, for example.

[snip] History

Samuel de Champlain was the first European [known] to travel the network of inland waters from Georgian Bay to the Bay of Quinte with the Hurons in 1615. It was this same route that would later be canalized and become the Trent–Severn Waterway. [/snip]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trent%E2%80%93Severn_Waterway

[SunkenCiv]

Hey, headlines are supposed to grab attention, it’s just doin’ its job. :^)

[SunkenCiv]

:^) Colin Renfrew got his props early in his academic career via his work on the Aegean obsidian trade. Even today though, there are jokers who seem to think that the world’s waters were always obstacles to human movement, even though the British Isles are one of the most-invaded places on Earth.

https://www.google.com/search?q=colin+renfrew+obsidian+trade

[SunkenCiv]

Well, human feet and watercraft, anyway. :^)

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks sf!

[SunkenCiv]

My pleasure. TXnMA, flint-knapping is one term, what's the term for working with obsidian?

[sit-rep]

I guess there is no possibly of those pieces got out there on an ice float the broke or melted... And there was no distinct rock line up they mention. I think it’s just a fluke. They clearly just grabbed the top layer of sentiment. I would think 10k years they would be a touch deeper...