Workers Find Signs Of 7,500-Year-Old Civilization While Building Water Plant (Mass.)

Herald Tribune ^ | 1-23-2004 | AP

[blam]

Workers find signs of 7,500-year-old civilization while building water plant

The Associated Press

NORWELL, Mass. -- The discovery of a possible American Indian settlement as much as 7,500 years old has halted work on a new water treatment plant.

Workers have found about 38 tools and stone chips used for making and repairing tools, as well as a hearth and a storage pit, at the site on South Street near Third Herring Brook.

Lauren J. Cook, senior archaeologist on the team that surveyed the area, said it was unusual to find "features" of civilizations, like the hearth and the stone pit, so early in their survey.

"The site has, as we say, integrity. There are portions of the site beneath the surface that are not disturbed," Cook told The Patriot Ledger of Quincy. "It's pretty clear to us that one thing this site offers, because of the hearth, the possibility of radiocarbon dating, which can help to better define the period."

The tools are characteristic of the Late Archaic and Middle Archaic periods of the Holocene Epoch, and are between 3,000 to 7,500 years old, Cook said.

Artifacts from the Late Archaic period have been found in Norwell before.

"It was quite a thrill to touch and handle something a human hand had been holding 7,000 years ago in his or her hand," said Norwell water superintendent John McInnis, who was at the site when the artifacts were removed.

McInnis said that the treatment plant would be moved to another water department-owned site nearby.

Archaeologists will excavate some portions of the new site, as well as continue their surveys on the original site. If they uncover more artifacts at the original site, the Massachusetts Historical Commission could request a complete study.

The $7.2 million water system improvement project, that includes the plant and a new well field, would increase water production during periods of high demand.

[Mackey]

I have a rock I found on a northern California beach. It is about 8 inches square.

I picked up the rock and on one of its faces is the symbol Pi in perfect relief.

If manmade, it would be a Pi art square.

[brooklin]

Since Mass is the state of the big dig, couldn't the stone tools have been left at the job site by some of the first union employees there.

[Some hope remaining.]

I was wondering where I dropped that thing. I made it in shop class, shortly after learning about Pi in math class.

[Some hope remaining.]

Huh?

[Some hope remaining.]

Oh, ok. http://www.stevequayle.com/Giants/N.Am/Giants.N.Am2.html#Anchor-Ohio-5677

[spodefly]

I have some 7,000 year old wood.

Have you talked to a urologist? :)

[blam]

From Your link:

"The Oregon District Court found the DOI's final determination arbitrary and ruled in favor of the scientists in August 2002."

"So what is their appeals strategy? As the Department of Justice states in their July 1 response brief to the 9th Circuit, their current position is that these remains are without a qualified claimant. The agencies now argue that the remains should be found to be Native American, paving the way to repatriate them under NAGPRA's section dealing with unidentified remains. They fail to mention to the Court the fact that the Department of the Interior has not managed to finalize regulations on how to handle unidentified remains. NAGPRA was enacted nearly 13 years ago in 1990."

"In the meantime, the agency shell game continues. The government's appeal focuses on the Court's rejection of agency interpretation of the term "Native American". What will happen to the scientists' original complaint that the agencies' decision-making process was flawed? The legal remedy rests with the 9th Circuit."

[BluSky]

"Workers find signs of 7,500-year-old civilization while building water plant"

Great . . . but, is the parrot talking yet???

[blam]

"you are lagging by about 2000 years, maybe more. I believe the early date is about 10,000 years."

Me lagging? I don't think so.

Calico: A 200,000-Year-Old Site in The Americas?

[blam]

"The Clovis culture is at least 11,000 years old."

Immigrants From The Other Side (Clovis Is Solutrean?)

[blam]

"I'm surprised nobody's mentioned the 9-ft. tall human(oid)s dressed in battle armor that were dug up in the mounds in Ohio. Probably just an oversight."

Show me some evidence...I'll mention it! There are reports in the old Ohio county records of farmers reporting having dug up 'tall' human skeletons...enlighten me. (BTW, Burrows Cave is a fraud!)

[genefromjersey]

You're thinking about the Red Clay people.

[vavavah]

"I sat on the rug biding my time isn't it good....."

[genefromjersey]

I dunno 'bout that one !

I suspect it may be a tall tale (Yeah,I know:That wuz a pun,whut ah done )about a skeleton in armor-supposedly unearthed in Fall River,Mass. during early colonial times.
There was a newspaper article-which may have been a hoax-about a skeleton wearing copper link armor,including a helmet,such as the early Greeks might have worn.There were also some arrowheads,made of bronze or copper,which had openings cast into the bases,so that the point could be tied to a wooden shaft.

The skeleton,of course, was re-buried in an unknown location...which made it impossible to verify whether the article was true,or a very early internet spoof.

[vavavah]

Woops just read #27...tried to do it from memory....oh well to much Rubber Soul....

[genefromjersey]

Just as a tip to all you budding archaeologists out there:
Early settlers had the same BASIC needs as you: food,shelter,water, and were bound to settle-even briefly-in areas that afforded easy access to same.

For example,where salty,brackish water meets freshwater,many kinds of fish will come to spawn-and humans will encamp to take advantage of "easy pickings".

Where game trails are long-established,you're apt to find human encampments where fresh water supplies intersect the trail.

Where there is limestone,you will find caves;and when you find caves,fresh water,and established game trails,you will probably be where others have gone before.

[Pablo64]

"If manmade, it would be a Pi art square."

No, no. Everyone knows that Pi art round! Cake art square!

Sorry, I just had to. Thanks for the setup! ;-)

[Indrid Cold]

Frank Edwards (you remember Frank--he was a bigshot in the media years ago) put out a couple of books: Strange World and, I think, Stranger Than Science. The copyright on my copy of Strange World is 1964, so it wouldn't be an internet hoax. Anyway, he talks about them a bit in there, as well as fossilized giant remains found in Utah.

Links:
http://www.burlingtonnews.net/ohiogiants.html
http://www.zetatalk.com/theword/tworx215.htm
http://www.trussel.com/prehist/mound.htm

[Coyoteman]

We have archaeological evidence from the Chumash area of habitation dated to 13,400 years ago. This was on Santa Rosa Island, off the Santa Barbara coast.

The current theory is that the earliest peoples were from an "early coastal migration" which probably came around the glaciers using watercraft, and settled the coast from at least Vancouver Island to southern California. The land bridge migration came a bit later, and inland. Over thousands of years, the two groups merged, but there are still some DNA markers that can be found.

Perhaps Kennewick Man's ancestors came during the "early coastal migration" which may have originated closer to Japan than Siberia. That would explain the different features which some have (incorrectly) identified as "European."

Either way, we have a lot of sites identified as Native American which predate 6,000 years.

[blam]

"We have archaeological evidence from the Chumash area of habitation dated to 13,400 years ago. This was on Santa Rosa Island, off the Santa Barbara coast."

Isn't this Arlington Springs Woman?

"Either way, we have a lot of sites identified as Native American which predate 6,000 years."

How about human remains?

This contradicts James Chatters (of Kennewick Man) claims in his book Ancient Encounters. Also, claims by Walter Neves. (Are they reputable?)