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Archaeologists Split Hairs Over First Arrivals (Oregon, 12K Year Old Non-Indian Hair)
The Guardian (UK) ^ | 10-17-2002 | Sanjida O'Connell

Posted on 10/17/2002 8:11:29 AM PDT by blam

Archaeologists split hairs over first arrivals

A site in Oregon could shake America's view of history, says Sanjida O'Connell

Thursday October 17, 2002
The Guardian

Woodburn is a small agricultural town in the US state of Oregon. Next to the high school is Mammoth Park. It sounds cheesy, but Mammoth Park is a paleoarchaeological site whose findings could shake America's view of her history. In suitably prosaic fashion, the site was discovered in 1987, when local authorities tried to install a sewer line. At depths of 5m, workers found huge bones, but said nothing and took them home. Now, Mammoth Park has tighter security, and links to three universities and four institutes.

Researchers have uncovered a wealth of findings that illustrates how America might have looked thousands of years ago, but most remarkable was the discovery in July 2000 of a human hair. DNA analysis could provoke a constitutional storm. The hair, 40cm long, is said to be the oldest piece of organic human remains: it has been carbon dated twice, but the results have not been published and the research remains controversial.

Archaeologist Dr Alison Stenger, director of research at the Institute for Archaeological Studies, Portland, believes the hair could be about 12,000 years old. The consensus is that America was first colonised 13,000 years ago, when people walked across a land bridge between Siberia and Alaska.

They then walked through a corridor that opened up between ice sheets in western Canada. So the date of the hair, if it proves accurate, fits the date of the first arrivals.

However, Stephen Dunleavy, who has produced a documentary on the colonisation of America, says: "It's almost biblical - a parting of the ways - and almost certainly wrong."

The theory was challenged in the late 1970s, when the remains of a communitywere found by archaeologists in Monte Verde, Chile, which could predate the consensus figure. The authenticity of this site is still disputed.

"It depends who you speak to," says Lori Baker, an assistant professor in molecular anthropology at Baylor University, Waco, Texas. "Some say the site dates from 12,500 years ago, but unofficial dates stretch back as far as 30,000 years ago."

The idea that people reached America earlier is gaining ground. If this supposition is true, how did they get there? One theory is that people island-hopped. Islands off the coast of America were ice-free long before a corridor cleared within the continent.

These people could have used some form of watercraft to travel down the coast - a much faster mode of transport. But evidence is patchy: 10% of the earth's water was locked up in glaciers: once they melted, the coastline flooded. There is, however, evidence of human activity 10,000 years ago on Prince of Wales Island, which means that by this stage, people must have had boats.

We are beginning to understand what their environment was like from fauna and flora unearthed at Mammoth Park. Researchers found mammoths, black bears, the Sitka black-tailed deer, a mule-like deer, horses, wolves, bison, mastodon and giant sloths, including a sloth foetus.

The team has even uncovered a new species, the teratorn, a giant ice age bird with a wingspan of more than four metres. Its presence, combined with duck skeletons and eggshells, indicates that the region was marshy, swampy, open and filled with a buzzing, booming collection of iridescent insects.

The people were technologically advanced, with a full tool kit of stone hand axes and butchering implements. They had developed a stone age Kalashnikov - a device that enabled them to throw a spear-like implement 200m - twice as far as the best javelin throwers.

The "atlatal", a powerful throwing stick, launched a type of dart that was more flexible than a spear and had a main shaft 1.5m long. The foreshaft, ending in a spear point, was lashed on with animal sinew and pitch. But who were these first peoples? Scientists assumed they were descendants of native Americans who now claim ownership of ancient human remains.

When the DNA analysis came back, Stenger was in for a shock. The hair did not belong to a native American. Baker, who carried out the analysis, says: "It's possible that the so-called paleoindians are not the ancestors of native Americans. Either they didn't leave any ancestors, or they were replaced by other peoples."

The implication is that some one, or some peoples, colonised the states first. All we can tell about the owner of the hair is that he or she had had a haircut.


TOPICS: News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: archaeologists; archaeology; arrivals; clovis; first; ggg; godsgravesglyphs; hairs; history; over; preclovis; precolumbian; split
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1 posted on 10/17/2002 8:11:29 AM PDT by blam
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To: blam

9,400 year old Spirit Cave Man found in Nevada

2 posted on 10/17/2002 8:13:39 AM PDT by blam
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To: blam

9,300 year old Kennewick Man found in Washington state

3 posted on 10/17/2002 8:15:56 AM PDT by blam
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To: blam
Hmmm. Does this mean that us people of european ancestry didn't take the Americas from the Indians. We took it back from the Indians???
4 posted on 10/17/2002 8:19:58 AM PDT by null and void
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To: RightWhale; JudyB1938; #3Fan; ET(end tyranny); FreeLibertarian; farmfriend; Bohemund; ...
Oops!
5 posted on 10/17/2002 8:20:04 AM PDT by blam
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To: blam
Bump, and please add me to your ping list.
6 posted on 10/17/2002 8:21:32 AM PDT by Slicksadick
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To: blam
Very interesting. Thanks for posting this.
7 posted on 10/17/2002 8:22:58 AM PDT by syriacus
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To: syriacus
Oldest Mummy In North America
8 posted on 10/17/2002 8:30:05 AM PDT by blam
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To: blam
Very interesting. Thanks for the ping.
9 posted on 10/17/2002 8:56:47 AM PDT by Bohemund
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To: blam
Thanks and bump ...
10 posted on 10/17/2002 9:02:16 AM PDT by manna
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To: blam
If only we could see through the top 100 feet of dirt all over the planet and still see small stuff, hair, bones, artifacts. If we could, how long would it take to revise ALL our textbooks and get it right?

Hint: The theory of being able to get honest dealings from N Kor have been overturned overnight, and that concerns events that occurred within our eyewitness lifetimes.

11 posted on 10/17/2002 9:19:40 AM PDT by RightWhale
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To: Ernest_at_the_Beach; Carry_Okie
ping.
12 posted on 10/17/2002 10:33:54 AM PDT by blam
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To: blam
Damn, its Capt. Picard.
13 posted on 10/17/2002 10:35:58 AM PDT by justshutupandtakeit
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To: blam
They are being very cagey about the DNA, clearly indicating that they suspect far more than is being released.

What is the source of those recronstructed busts?
14 posted on 10/17/2002 10:41:31 AM PDT by Carry_Okie
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To: Carry_Okie
"This facial reconstruction is the copyrighted work of Ms Sharon A. Long, Artist/Anthropologist, in cooperation with Dr. Douglas Owsley of the Smithsonian Institution. It is used here with Ms Long's permission. The image may not be used without the express permission of Ms Long [SkullLady@aol.com]."

There you go.

15 posted on 10/17/2002 11:03:51 AM PDT by blam
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To: blam
Thanks. Wasn't Clintong's ole buddy from Waco in charge at the Smithsonian and trotted out to bury and destroy the Kennewick evidence? If so, how did this happen? I'm curious as to what came of all that, and how.
16 posted on 10/17/2002 11:17:28 AM PDT by Carry_Okie
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To: Carry_Okie
"I'm curious as to what came of all that, and how."

Recently the court ruled that the scientists could study Kennewick Man. Of course, the Indians are appealing. So....

17 posted on 10/17/2002 11:33:29 AM PDT by blam
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To: blam
Cool! Thanks! Appreciate the pings. Can't wait to find out exactly what the DNA showed.
18 posted on 10/17/2002 11:35:58 AM PDT by Marie Antoinette
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To: onedoug
ping
19 posted on 10/17/2002 1:41:00 PM PDT by windcliff
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To: windcliff
American aborigines.

They ship-hiked.

20 posted on 10/17/2002 2:09:05 PM PDT by onedoug
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