Posted on 02/19/2007 5:31:38 AM PST by TXnMA
Stefan Lovgren
for National Geographic News
February 15, 2007
Crude stone "tools" found in northern Minnesota may be at least 13,000 years old, a team of archaeologists recently announced.
The discovery, if confirmed, would put the objects among the oldest human artifacts ever found in the Americas.
The team found about 50 such objects during a routine survey for road construction in the town of Walker, about 30 miles (48 kilometers) northeast of Park Rapids.
The finds include what appear to be a large hammerstone, beveled scrapers, rudimentary choppers, a crude knife, and numerous flakes that could have been used for cutting.
"We were certainly very surprised to find these objects here," said Matt Mattson, a biologist and archaeologist who has been working as a contractor for the Leech Lake Heritage Sites program, based near Cass Lake, Minnesota.
But the late Ice Age relics still need to be positively dated and confirmed as human-made before the stones' significance can be established, Mattson and other experts caution.
David Meltzer is an archaeologist at Southern Methodist University in Texas. He said that "there's simply no way to gauge the significance of the discovery until some reliable dates are obtained, and until it's shown that these are truly artifacts."
(Excerpt) Read more at news.nationalgeographic.com ...
I see no clear evidence of knapping on this one. It looks like a "geofact" (naturally chipped pebble) to me.
Heads up! Minnesota "tool" (or "geofact") photo...
It's the middle of February, and it's been cold as hell up here. That could be a potato!
Yeah... I'm not sure why a 13,000 year old stone tool would be quite that crude anyway. We're not talking Australopithicus, here.
THAT'S where I left them!! Silly me.
Probably has this guy's fingerprints on them:
Exactly! Are we supposed to believe that Early Americans' lithihic technology leaped from this "dinged pebble" to the sophisticated and beautiful (...and still tough-to-replicate with primitive knapping tools) Clovis points -- in only one thousand years?!?
Let me know if they find that pair of waterpump pliers I lost last week.
Early loser of stone tools.
That was discarded last week by a Minnesota auto mechanic that voted for Jesse Ventura and Keith Ellison
Man lived here BEFORE the "virgin" forests sprang up.
They're about as Neanderthal as Minnissota's political class -- the original cirque sans soleil.
I just realized from looking through this gallery some of my best pieces aren't posted here yet.
Probably belonged to one of the ancient hard working Mexican pre-illegals that worked his ancestral land before we stole it 13,000 years ago!!!!
You need to talk to an archeologist. I'd call over to the nearest university and find out who to talk to. You might even find someone who's interested in doing a little excavating on your property. Get an agreement with them that you'll own what they find.
I used to "grow" these in my garden in Huntington, CT back in the '70s. Every spring, I would have to mine the garden patch of rocks that surfaced during the freeze/thaw period.
What am I missing here? How much will a museum pay me to exhibit my collection of "tools".
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