Search for first Americans to plunge underwater

Before heading inland, paleo-Indians probably hugged the American coastline, congregating around freshwater rivers, Adovasio said. At the time, much of the world's water was locked up in glaciers, causing ocean levels to be lower and exposing more of the continental shelf.

As the earth warmed and water levels rose, evidence of such settlements fell deeper and deeper below water...

Dredging and storms have turned up tantalizing clues -- spearheads, bone tools -- that such sites are just waiting to be found in the Gulf of Mexico, said C. Andrew Hemmings, a University of Texas at Austin archaeologist who is leading the expedition with Adovasio...

The team hopes to find a freshwater spring that once was part of the Aucilla River, which flows out of Florida's panhandle and into the Gulf. Animals would have gathered near the watering hole, making it a good place for people to find food. It is now 120 to 360 feet underwater...

From July 30 to Aug. 12, the 12-member research crew will survey the seabed, first with tools that use sound waves to map the Gulf's topography and then with a suitcase-sized diving robot fitted with cameras. If something interesting is found in shallower water, scuba divers might be sent to explore it.

But the real work will begin next year, if the team finds enough evidence to convince someone to fund a longer expedition.

They’re not looking for a specific spring. They are looking for a spring as in “any spring,” though probably they would hope to find a large one because it would offer the most hope of success in finding archaeologically significant site. They can follow an old riverbed because the erosive effects of running water leave evidence. If you follow any Forida watercourse you’re going to run onto a spring sooner or later, probably several, perhaps even large sinkholes even if you extend the search out along its old bed, now submerged in the sea.

It is interesting to hear about Dr Adovasio working so far away from home. I live in Pittsburgh Pennsylvania which is very near to the scene of his most famous discoveries. Adovasio is responsible for proving that ancient Native Americans inhabited this continent much earlier in pre-history than was previously believed by the so-called “Clovis First” archeological establishment. At first, back in the 1970’s when he began to suggest that, based on his research at the Meadowcroft Archeological site in southwestern Pennsylvania, humans had existed in North america as early as 16000 years ago and even earlier the “experts” ridiculed him. It was a long-running controversy.
http://www.mnsu.edu/emuseum/archaeology/sites/northamerica/meadowcroft.html

Some Native Americans have laid to rest the long-running antagonism that we naturaly have toward archeologists and their grave-robbing ways, to appreciate the contribution that Dr. Adovasio has made toward proving what we have been saying all along; NATIVE AMERICANS HAVE BEEN HERE A LOT LONGER THAN NON-NATIVES USED TO GIVE US CREDIT FOR!

On June 17 we here in western Pennsylvania experienced quite an unlikely scenario. We witnessed the amiable meeting of a contingent of radical American Indian Movement activists and an archeologist. The LONGEST WALK II prayer and protest demonstration made their way all the way from San Francisco California to Pittsburgh on their way to Washington DC to drive home their message of concern for the environment and places in the US that Native Americans consider sacred sites. while here in Pttsburgh, I, as local liason for the WALK, scheduled a visit by the WALK participants to near-by Meadowcroft Rock Shelter so that we could honor the Ice Age ancestors who made their home there thousands of years ago. Finding out about the visit, Dr. Adovasio made a special trip down from Erie, PA to be here for the visit and to give the activists a guided tour of the archeological site. I have to admit that I was a bit nervous on the days approaching the encounter because I know how beligerant my fellow Native brothers and sisters can be at the sight of an archeologist, but the fact is that in many ways this man was kind of on our side, and it meant a lot to us that the Meadowcroft site contains no human remains and he is is not a typical grave-robber. Please check my blog for further details about the visit of the LONGEST WALK II activists at Meadowcroft Rock Shelter
http://360.yahoo.com/blog-BEdV93gidKSrgf2tQ3TAb79tGOpjGA—

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	Gods Graves Glyphs	Researcher Leads Underwater Archeological Expedition In Gulf of Mexico in Search of First Americans (Office of Public Affairs, University of Texas at Austin) To all -- please ping me to other topics which are appropriate for the GGG list. GGG managers are Blam, StayAt HomeMother, and Ernest_at_the_Beach
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