This Changes Everything

[uniface]

It looks like they've finally found the dream site -- Ice Age with excellent, in-situ preservation of (abundant) organic materials. Excerpts :

The damp, swampy area provided a migration route for herds of animals.

A natural geographical barrier of ponds and wetlands ran east-west for 90 miles, from within the present Ontario peninsula to where Rochester sits today. A two-mile-wide corridor that penetrated the barrier became a natural migratory route that appears to have attracted animals and the Clovis people that followed them.

Human habitation was also documented from the Ice Age. Laub said these people were called the Clovis, a pre-historic Paleo-Indian culture who left their mark at Hiscock in the form of tools: 47 fluted points of gutting knives, some made from stone and others from the bones of dead animals.

Laub also said that scientific evidence regarding these animals has determined that 100 percent of the late Ice Age mastodons were infected with tuberculosis, a finding that had never before been detected through fossil evidence. He mentioned this disease was a pandemic effect of the extreme weather conditions but wasn't responsible for their extinction.

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[cgode]

Intresting article Uni, how accurate do you think Laub is reguarding the pandemic of TB? I'm not sure how you can say 100% of the population of mastodons had TB when you can only look at a very limited population from a small geographic location?? Or are they saying that 100% of their samples showed signs of TB infection?

Either way, sounds like a pretty cool site offering up lots of artifacts and data....wish I could go take a look!

[uniface]

Can't say on the generalisation -- newspaper reporters do that kind of thing so often you just about expect it.

It dawns on me that I should probably have explained something : the big hair-puller with Clovis-era sites is that, by and large, only their stone artifacts remain. The rest of the picture (organic stuff) has rotted away into oblivion. This time, there's a banquet of organic evidence (beyond the usual pollen) (and extremely rarely, charcoal that not atypically gives a bizarrely "off" 14C date). This site could be the Rosetta Stone that opens a whole new range of data.

[comanche]

Yes ,,,I thought this too was a pretty bold statement.
""">>>Laub also said that scientific evidence regarding these animals has determined that 100 percent of the late Ice Age mastodons were infected with tuberculosis, a finding that had never before been detected through fossil evidence. """
This sounds like a very enriched site though,,,,
Thanks for posting it Uni/////Dave

[cgode]

Looks like they've been excavating this site for quite some time, any idea on what type of organic material they have? The article doesn't go into much detail. I would be interested to see more detailed data from the site and what info they are making their educated/scientific guesses from. It could be interesting to learn more about the lifeways of the paleoindian from specific evidence instead of assumptions.....kinda cool.....very cool actually!

Happy T-Day by the way Bill

[uniface]

Sigh. If the usual pattern holds, wait for the preliminary site report to come out in ten or fifteen years . . .

Although some publication like the Mammoth Trumpet might (probably will) have something about it (but not much more than we already have).

US archaeology, overall, seems challenged to even approximate European in getting timely information out to those interested, although exceptionally energetic directors (Cactus Hill & Pavo Real/Gault come to mind) do pretty well.

And Happy Thanksgiving !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[mootsman]

Originally Posted by uniface

Sigh. Although some publication like the Mammoth Trumpet might (probably will) have something about it (but not much more than we already have).

I used to subscribe to that and still read the archived articles on line. Hope they cover it in some depth.

What's your take on the reference to fluted "gutting" knives of bone and flint?? I assume gutting is a pop media term...but do you think they've found bone knives showing fluting?

[uniface]

I assume the reporter was referencing fluted points, which seem to have seen lot of use as knives.

[rokdok]

I have a doubly fluted Clovis knife made on a True Blade i found at the same site i found an extremely thin unifacially fluted Clovis point.I'll post pix ASAP.

[uniface]

Looking forward to that