Posted on 09/20/2024 9:48:59 AM PDT by SunkenCiv
Researchers have uncovered fascinating insights into the lives of prehistoric Native Americans who made camp in the Great Lakes region around 13,000 years ago.
The camp, now called the Belson site, was set up in what is now southwest Michigan by a small band of people from the Clovis culture, as first reported in a study published in 2021.
But now a new study, authored by the same team and published in the online journal PLOS One, has shed new light on the site. The work reveals, among other discoveries, that the Clovis people likely returned to the site annually over several years, while also providing information on what they were eating...
Until recently, there was no evidence of Clovis settlement in the Great Lakes region. During the latter part of the Pleistocene, the Earth experienced its most recent ice age. In North America, this was characterized by an event known as the Wisconsin glaciation, which began between around 100,000 to 75,000 years ago and ended roughly 11,000 years ago.
...the Clovis camp is thought to be the earliest archaeological site in the state.
In the latest study, the researchers found that Clovis people made multiple visits to the site, traveling there annually—probably in the summer—for as little as three, but likely up to five, consecutive years. An analysis of protein traces found on some of the stone tools—known as Clovis points—from the site also demonstrated that the diet of this group included... musk ox, caribou or deer, hare and an extinct peccary—a pig-like animal...
"Our findings are contrary to the popular notion that Clovis people were strictly big game hunters, most often subsisting on mammoths and mastodons."
(Excerpt) Read more at archaeology.org ...
Some of the prehistoric stone tools found at the Belson Clovis Site in St. Joseph County, Michigan. Analysis of the tools has shed light on the lives of people who made camp in the area around 13,000 years ago.Photo credit: Daryl Marshke/Michigan Photography
barely related sidebar:
...Historically, microtextural analysis has been done by hand and eye, using magnifying glasses and microscopes to attempt to draw inferences about sand grains’ histories. Modern science has validated the approach, showing that transport mechanisms do indeed impart telltale signatures – for example, grains that traveled farther often appear more rounded because they’ve had their sharp corners dulled; waves and wind also leave distinctive abrasion patterns.
However, traditional microtextural analysis is highly subjective, time-consuming, and scattershot across different studies. Thanks to the new tool, which leverages the power of machine learning to deeply scrutinize microscopic images of sand grains, microtextural analysis can now be far more quantitative, objective, and potentially useful across a wide range of applications. It also analyzes individual sand grains instead of lumping multiple grains into a single category, offering a more complete evaluation.
https://scitechdaily.com/images/Ancient-Sand-Ripples-scaled.jpg
The SandAI neural network was trained using modern quartz sand and can help unravel the histories encoded in ancient rocks. Shown here are ancient ripples formed by water currents being reworked by modern wind-blown sediment in Oman.
Credit: Mathieu Lapôtre/Stanford University
Hello, Mudda,
Hello, Fadda,
Here I am at
Camp Grenada..............
What is the big deal about “Clovis” people?
The oldest American cultural group for which there’s ample artifacts is the Clovis culture. There are those who say they were the first in and no one came in later, those are the “Clovis-first-and-only” folks.
Bookmark
“and an extinct peccary—a pig-like animal...”
Pig men!
Oh, and all that barbecuing? They single-handedly caused global warming and ended the glacial age.
I checked the article to see what season they spent in Michigan. It was summer. Did the Clovis people have canoes? That would make the trip easier.
From the article:
Nash thinks that some of the Clovis travelers may have wintered in central Indiana and summered at Michigan’s Belson site, while others may have migrated between western Kentucky and central Indiana.
Because they were total badasses. They thrived in the world of MEGAfuana.
The Pre-Historic Secrets Frozen for Thousands Of Years | Secrets From The Ice | Real History
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jKZyrdIdUHc
10 Most Amazing Prehistoric Big Cats
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zzShcS9AWkA
17 Most Amazing Permafrost Discoveries From Siberia & Alaska
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BA1BKkwcjGg
I read somewhere that it is thought the Clovis people came from Europe, where similar stone tools, arrowheads, spearheads, etc. have been found, cut {or chipped) in the same fashion.
Thanks. I’m a snow guy since a kid. I think fondly of the many times I went snow skiing in the bush. I used wooden skis, cable bindings, and mountaineering boots. The wax to be used for different conditions was a science in itself. I remember my first time ice fishing. After a six pack I was no longer scared.
:^) I read a local tale years ago — a guy was ice fishing and had his dog in his shanty. He got a good bite and was pulling up his catch. It was a monster pike which managed to bite itself free just as its head emerged, and the already excited dog jumped right down the hole after it!
The fisherman was devastated and couldn’t figure out what to do. He had a big light in his truck and headed out the door to get it thinking he could guide the dog back to the opening.
As he left the shanty, there was a commotion not far away. Another fisherman was yelling and running out the door of his own shanty, and right behind him, chasing him off, was the missing dog.
[it may or may not be a tall tale, but it is one of those which should be true if it isn’t]
In addition to what others have said, their points were very sophisticated. The bi-faced, fluted points would have taken a ton of skill and when the Clovis people stopped making them, the technology that came after was far less sophisticated.
Think of Roman tech compared to dark ages tech.
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