Posted on 07/16/2023 7:02:56 AM PDT by SunkenCiv
...In 2012, O’Grady’s team found camel teeth fragments under a layer of volcanic ash from an eruption of Mount St. Helens that was dated over 15,000 years ago. The team also uncovered two finely crafted orange agate scrapers, one in 2012 with preserved bison blood residue and another in 2015, buried deeper in the ash. Natural layering of the rockshelter sediments suggests the scrapers are older than both the volcanic ash and camel teeth.
Radiocarbon-dating analysis on the tooth enamel... yielded exciting results: a date of 18,250 years before present (14,900 radiocarbon years).
That date, in association with stone tools, suggests that Rimrock Draw Rockshelter is one of the oldest human-occupation sites in North America.
Additional testing of other camel and bison teeth fragments is currently underway, and archaeo-botanists are studying plant remains from cooking fires as well.
“The identification of 15,000-years-old volcanic ash was a shock, then Tom’s 18,000-years old dates on the enamel, with stone tools and flakes below were even more startling,” O’Grady said.
Presently, Cooper’s Ferry, another archaeological site on BLM-managed public lands in western Idaho, is thought to be the oldest known site in western North America. Evidence there suggests human occupation dating back more than 16,000 years...
These discoveries highlight the importance of good stewardship of our public lands. Damage, destruction, or removal at an archaeological site is a federal crime. Leave what you find and do not collect artifacts or otherwise harm archaeological sites on public lands.
This summer, Dr. O’Grady plans to complete the final archaeology field school at Rimrock Draw. The team will be working on several units where more Ice Age animal remains and artifacts are providing supporting evidence for the 2012 discoveries.
(Excerpt) Read more at blm.gov ...
I found what I took to be an obsidian scraper near Malheur Cave in about 1965. Kept it for years but misplaced it eventually.
Used to go to NEARFest in Bethlehem PA - got to see Camel and dozens of other bands from all over the world:
https://www.liquisearch.com/nearfest/list_of_all_performers_by_festival_year
Just wondering, did they do any rioting or looting? If not, they were more civilized than Oregon’s liberals.
Did their new find look anything like Kennewick man?
The crap on the streets was the dead giveaway...
#1 One day archaeologists will dig there and discover an outline of what appears to be a sandbags.
They will A) think it a religious site and B) think it was built to defend the inhabitants against their enemies.
I took archaeology as an elective for my Associates Degree in Oregon. The Professor was a very entertaining guy and was very blunt in talking about the reality of archaeology in Oregon. He stated point blank that, “there is no way of knowing when humans first inhabited North America, because all of their first settlements are under the ocean. During the ice ages they followed the coastline. That’s all well under the ocean now. During that class I think I remember the oldest artifact in Oregon was a woven grass sandal from 14,000 years ago near Fort Rock. The class was from nearly 30 years ago so excuse my memory if I got that wrong.
That’s definitely a factor, and not just in the Americas — during much of the past 2 million years the continental shelf as we know it today was at least partially above sealevels due to so much of the waters of the oceans being locked up in glaciers. Kudos to your prof.
Scientists discover ancient, underwater volcano is still active — and covered in up to a million giant eggs
https://www.livescience.com/planet-earth/volcanos/scientists-discover-ancient-underwater-volcano-is-still-active-and-covered-in-up-to-a-million-giant-eggs
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