Smithsonian does not dispute authenticity of archaeological find in Vero Beach [13K old]

Indian River County ^ | Wednesday, October 20, 2010 | Elliott Jones

[SunkenCiv]

The Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C., has found no reason to dispute the authenticity of an one-of-a-kind archaeological discovery that might help confirm a human presence here up to 13,000 years ago at the end of the last Ice Age.

In early 2009, local fossil collector James Kennedy cleaned off an old bone he found two years earlier and noticed some lines on it -- lines that turned out to be a clear etching of a walking mammoth with tusks.

The location where he found it hasn't been disclosed, except that it came from an area north of Vero Beach.

University of Florida researchers scrutinized the four-inch etching on the 15-inch prehistoric bone with an electron microscope and their tests showed it to be apparently genuine.

In May, Kennedy took the bone to the National Museum of Natural History for further studies. There Smithsonian Institution archaeologists made a copy and used advanced techniques to look at the etching...

Kennedy is keeping the bone in hopes of selling it by auction...

It is presumed to be the oldest known art object of its type found in the New World, said Richard Hulbert, a paleontologist with the Florida Museum of Natural History, Gainesville.

The person who created the etching, presumably with a shark tooth or flint implement, had to have seen a live animal to have drawn it in such detail, he said.

[SunkenCiv]

“Strange days, indeed. Most peculiar, mama....”

[VeniVidiVici]

It occurred to me 12 hours later that my picture may have been more funny had I referenced the woolly mammoth etching in the same post as the pic. I meant to. Really. :-)

[wildbill]

They didn’t even think of the ‘find’ in its proper context.

What they found was a bat.

A long femur bone, etched with the logo of the Vero Beach Tuskers, actually proves that pre-season baseball has been played there for thousands of years.

The archeologist must not be a baseball aficianado.

[AnnaZ]

We may not know what state the Simpsons live in, but apparently the Flintstones lived in Florida.

[Alamo-Girl]

Thanks for the chuckle!

[AnnaZ]

=)

Good to see ya, Girl.