Posted on 02/13/2024 11:42:03 AM PST by Red Badger
A rare artifact has been discovered by archaeologists at an ancient mammoth kill site near Douglas, Wyoming, which they say is the oldest of its kind ever found in the Americas.
The discovery, a tube-shaped piece of bone, is likely to have been a bead dating to around 12,940 years old, potentially making it the oldest known instance of American perforated jewelry.
The discovery was made by University of Wyoming archaeology Professor Todd Surovell and his team at the La Prele Mammoth site, a location first revealed to archaeologists in 1986 when mammoth remains were found eroding out of a nearby cutbank. Initial tests at the site the following year revealed the remains of a young Columbian mammoth and a single tool resembling a hammerstone, along with several associated stone flakes.
Later excavations at the site beginning in 2014 revealed additional information about the site, which included the discovery of an additional chopping tool 12 meters away.
Now, Surovell and his team of collaborators have published their findings in Scientific Reports, detailing the use of a fragment of hare bone in the creation of the artifact by some of North America’s earliest residents.
“This is the oldest known bead from the Western Hemisphere,” the team writes in their study. Through the extraction of collagen samples, subsequent analysis revealed the bead had likely been derived from a metapodial or proximal phalanx of a hare.
“This find represents the first secure evidence for the use of hares during the Clovis period,” the paper’s authors state. Acknowledging that the use of bone from this species in the production of beads was a common practice during later periods by cultural groups in western North America, Surovell and the team argue that their findings at the La Prele Mammoth site help trace the practice as far back as the end of the Ice Age.
At just 7 millimeters in length, the team considered whether the hollowed-out bone fragment could have resulted from processes that might include consumption by carnivores, although they say there is little evidence that links the discovery to animal predation.
By contrast, the artifact’s proximity to other cultural materials lends weight to the theory that it was intentionally crafted by humans, as well as grooves observed on the bead’s exterior, which suggest the bone was tooled either using stones, or possibly even by the teeth of its ancient creator.
Surovell and the team’s study, “Use of hare bone for the manufacture of a Clovis bead,” appeared in Scientific Reports on February 5, 2024.
Ping!.........................
When asked for his thoughts about the 12,940 years old piece of jewelry, Joe Biden corrected historians and said he personally used it as a drinking straw when Columbus explored Wisconsin.
There’s the Cerutti mastodon bone where the physical evidence suggests it was carved/altered by humans. It was discovered near San Diego and has been dated to 130,000 years ago.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cerutti_Mastodon_site
I think it looks to be 12,932 years.
It was the Bead-spitter.
“….dating to around 12,940 years old…”
They know that because it is marked “10,916 B.C.”
Hanna-Barbera ping!
Bone jewelry created by a thriving culture that inhabited the region before being forced out by Cheyanne colonizers.
Bam-Bam’s Teething Ring? ;)
Many earth cataclysms have lost tons of human history.
LOL!....
My thoughts exactly.
Thats a pretty exact number....why not tell us the month?
I’m pretty sure that’s the new model from 12,939 years ago.
When asked for his thoughts about the 12,940 years old piece of jewelry, Joe Biden corrected historians and said he personally used it as a drinking straw when Columbus explored Wisconsin.
It was given to him as a birthday present from his son Beau, before Beau was killed at the battle of Bannockburn where he sacrificed himself to save Robert the Bruce.
I remember when Louis Leakey toured the US. He said some of the American Indian artifacts from 12,000 years ago were actually 130,000 years ago.
No one believed him but no one countered him either. That was the trip in which he fell off the stage. Saw it on a National Geographic special fifty years ago.
BS
So this artifact is slightly older than “nursing home” Joe.
“I remember when Louis Leakey toured the US. He said some of the American Indian artifacts from 12,000 years ago were actually 130,000 years ago.”
Very interesting! It seems Leaky’s insight got some confirmation.
He said some of the American Indian artifacts from 12,000 years ago were actually 130,000 years ago.
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Well there you go......only says one thing which is that these folks are pulling the numbers out of their rear end most of the time. Next week the number will be 12,940 years ago when it’s figured out that the Indians were visiting Douglas, Wyoming to buy some beads.
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