FGS
Posted on 11/24/2005 1:02:17 PM PST by blam
Ancient tools at High Desert site go back 135,000 years
Chuck Mueller, Staff Writer
BARSTOW - In the multicolored hills overlooking the Mojave River Valley, the excavation of stone tools and flakes reveals human activities from the distant past. A new system of geologic dating has confirmed that an alluvial deposit bearing the stone tools and flakes at the Calico archaeological site is about 135,000 years old.
But the site could even be older.
Calico project director Fred Budinger Jr. said a soil sample, taken at a depth of 17 1/2 feet in one of three master pits at the dig near Yermo, verifies that the deposit dates to the Middle Pleistocene Epoch - the Ice Age.
"This new date confirms earlier estimates that humans were in the Manix Basin, near the base of the Calico Mountains, as early as 125,000 to 200,000 years ago," Budinger said.
The dating system, known as thermo-luminescence, reflects the amount of time that has elapsed since a layer of sediment was exposed to sunlight.
Another system, called uranium-thorium dating, pushed the age of sedimentary layers at the digging site to about 200,000 years ago.
But studies now under way with beryllium 10, an element used in dating exposed surfaces, could open the door into the more distant geological past.
"Beryllium 10 can date rock forms back almost to the formation of Earth itself,' said Budinger, senior archaeologist with Tetra Tech Inc., an environmental engineering and consulting firm with offices in San Bernardino.
Meanwhile, another system of dating known as optically stimulated luminescence also may be used to determine the age of artifact-bearing beds at the Calico site. This system is used to date sand dune layers.
Lewis Owen, a former geology professor at UC Riverside and now with the University of Cincinnati, is in charge of the new research.
"No other archaeological site has made use of these dating methods," Budinger said. "And until we get results (from Owen), expected this winter, we say the Calico site is 100,000 to 200,000 years old."
Humans who inhabited the Manix Basin chipped tools from chalcedony and chert, rocks that break like glass, to serve as scrapers, choppers, gravers, saws and digging tools. The Calico area was a workshop, and no direct evidence of man, such as bones or teeth, have been found at the site.
Manix Lake, a 91-square-mile freshwater lake extending from present-day Yermo to Afton Canyon, drained 18,000 years ago. A unique combination of environmental factors - erosion, faulting, and folding - exposed the alluvial deposits.
Excavations at the Calico Early Man site, often simply called the Calico Digs, began in November 1964.
Heading the project was
world-renowned archaeologist Louis Leakey, famed for discoveries with his wife, Mary, at the Olduvai Gorge in Tanzania over three decades.
Among their finds was Zinjanthropus, an early man dating back 1.75 million years. Louis Leakey was project director at Calico from 1965 until his death in 1972.
San Bernardino County archaeologist Ruth DeEtte Simpson, field director under Leakey, then became project director.
Calico's current site manager, retired electronics engineer Chris Christensen, served as Leakey's chauffeur and body guard.
"The archaeological world was concerned with his safety out here," Christensen recalled.
He now oversees digging operations and guides visitors to the site.
"Volunteers from as far away as Berkeley and San Diego take part in digs the first weekend of every month from October through May," he said. "Some are professional geologists and archaeologists."
Since excavations began, more than 64,000 tools, flakes and stone chips have been collected at Calico, said Johanna Lytle, president of the nonprofit Friends of Calico. Most are housed in the San Bernardino County Museum in Redlands.
Extensive improvements have been added to the site, which includes three master digging pits and 22 test pits.
"One of Louis Leakey's favorite tools was 'the Calico Cutter,' as he called it," Christensen said, displaying a replica of the artifact in the small museum on the grounds. "It shows bifacial flaking and use-wear patterns ... evidence of human activity that could not be caused by nature."
The site, two miles off Interstate 15 at Minneola Road, attracts visitors from across the nation and around the world.
Dennis and Patricia Pollet of Redondo Beach stopped by Wednesday.
"While my wife and I are very interested in ancient man, this is our first chance to see a dig of consequence," Dennis said. "People who visit Calico have a rare opportunity to see an actual excavation site."
"You can actually get the feel of an old civilization here," said Patricia. "You get a chance to touch our human past."
Geeze, not only do I discover I am a Jew but a red headed Jew at that.
"A discussion of Native American legend and tradition that holds that they did not come over the land bridge from Siberia. What then were their origins?"
DNA haplotypes show they did come from Asia.
I first saw the CEMS in 1971. Lots of smoke and mirrors.
Throw a bunch of rocks together and move them around alot and pretty soon they'll break up and fall into a pattern.
Cover with soil. Dig up in a few years. WOW! ---- A site!
Anytime Chuck Miller needs a story he'll dig out the same one he did 5-8 years before update it, talk to Fred and crew ---- WOW! A new Calico EMS story.
Natural occurance of this type abound in the High Desert but when a PHD says "Ahh vee hav zee site". Then it's a site! Sure!
Neanderthal and modern humans shared most of their DNA. It is still not proven conslusively that Neanderthals totally died out. Some modern humans may exist who had some Neaderthal ancesters. Maybe you!
I thought redheads "evolved" in western China/eastern India and migrated thru eastern Europe. I read where ancient graves have been discovered in China of "white" people, well preserved, with red hair intact.
If this came from Neanderthals, then this would be evidence of Neanderthal DNA in modern populations, b/c redhair is a genetic trait. Yet, all I have read is that there is no such connection.
Here it is:
The Curse Of The Red Headed Mummy
Some of the Melanesians have red hair as do some of the Australian Aboriginies.
Northern Tribe.
Folklore is not a reliable evidence of ancient origins. Consider that ancient campfires have been dated jusyt south of Pittsburgh at 16,000 years BP. That means that the makers, presumably Indians, were around, and living not far from the glaciers. They should have then seen the glaciers, and also mammoths and saber-tooth tigers, and yet we have nothing in Am. Indian folklore about these things. It is just too long ago for a folk story to hold up. It is about 800 generations! After just a few generations, nobody would believe grandpa's descriptions of a heap big ice sheet, or of mammoths, once they were gone.
Folklore has limits, definite limits.
>There is no evidence of Neanderthal DNA in modern populations.<
Although his theory is HIGHLY controversial, Professor Michael Hammer at the University of Arizona thinks he may have found just such evidence. Research on the matter is not yet published or peer-reviewed AFAIK, but stay tuned!
False.
It is currently based on guesswork and opinions, and even the criteria for the dating methods they use are based on opinion.
False.
Yet, they treat their theory like an actual belief system.
Actually, they treat it as extremely well-established science, supported by an overwhelming volume of evidence along multiply independent cross-confirming lines of evidence, because it is.
If you dated the Darwinists according to the sediment on their brains they'd all be a million years old.
Goofy ad hominem, at a playground level of sophistication.
I'd give your post a "D".
Go hit a library and try again later.
So they were humans who were not quite "anatomically modern". It's hardly the big problem you make it out to be:
I find this story very hard to believe. It sounds like another Piltdown Man hoax. If this is true, EVERY theory of human evolution is out the window.
Complete nonsense. It's perfectly compatible with the *current* theory of human evolution.
The only changes would be to theories of human *migration* (i.e., when exactly humans arrived at particular locations).
And even so, it might just be a minor adjustment, not a major revision. If a small wave of humans arrived in the California area that far back, but couldn't make a go of it and died off, then later the major human migration which populated the American continents arrived at the time currently described in the history books, it wouldn't be a big change, just a footnote.
That was yesterday. Today it's 6,000 years and one day.
Gingervitus.
Wow...perhaps they were related to Kennewick man. This is facinating. Thanks, Blam and SC.
FGS
Again, not to beat a dead horse, but my reaction was to the claim in the article that "Humans" populated CA 200,000 years ago. All "Homos" are not "Homo Sapiens". When I saw "Humans", I assumed "Homo Sapiens". Indeed, you would agree that a claims that Homo Sapiens lived there for that period, it would pre-date Homo Sapiens in Africa, and indeed, be revolutonary.
If you are takling about other types of Homos, then I would agee with you - its a footnote, and an interesting question of how they got here, what happened to them and why, and why there are no fossil remains.
Regarding evolution, I agree that much of it, like intra-spacies evoluton, is hard fact. Inter-species evoluton is a different matter, and is fair game for serious debate.
I look forward to it. Thanks. There seems no reason why the two wouldn't "inter-marry".
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.