EAST TEXAS INDIAN ARTIFACTS

FOSSIL FERN/FEATHER?

2019-01-06T19:12:00.002-06:00

CLICK HERE TO SEE

Scientists have unearthed ancient artifacts that are upending the history of mankind

2019-01-05T05:35:00.003-06:00

Scientists have unearthed ancient artifacts that are upending the history of mankind

Photos by Dan Conover

A closeup of a projectile point.

Photos by Dan Conover
Kelsey Meer, a University of Tennessee undergraduate intern, takes a turn on the expedition's Total Station, which records the coordinates for every artifact uncovered at the Topper Site.

MARTIN, S.C. – At a depth of about four feet, 13,000-year-old artifacts emerge from the floor of a hole known as HS-N207E66 in such dense profusion that they leave the volunteers little room to work.

Like others who've dug here since the 1980s, the crew assigned to HS-N207E66 has reached the Clovis layer at the Topper-Allendale archeological site. Excavations there tell different versions of the same story: Near the end of the last ice age, America's first great artisans came to this hillside to quarry a prized stone tool-making material called chert. The artifacts suggest the intense period of Clovis-era activity begins a few centuries before 11,000 B.C. and fades away roughly 500 years later.

Topper remains one of the most productive Clovis sites in North America, yet Clovis artifacts aren't the reason this place became famous. Just down the hill, below the chert outcropping that attracted the ancients, lies a deeper hole. And in 1988, archaeologists found something impossible there.

At the time, just about every respected archaeologist in the world knew that the mammoth-hunting Clovis people were the first human beings to reach the New World. They knew that the Clovis walked here from Siberia across a land bridge. And they knew there couldn't have been humans here before the Clovis arrived because the Americas were cut off from Europe by oceans before the Ice Age.

But then Dr. Al Goodyear III dug deeper and found simple stone tools buried in sediment far beneath the bottom of Topper's Clovis layer, and this inconvenient evidence pushed him into the midst of an already boisterous scientific revolution. The pre-Clovis rebels eventually prevailed, but for a generation of archaeologists, the price of that victory was paid in friendships, reputations and careers.

So it's only now — after millennia of silence, decades of stereotypes, and years of nasty professional infighting — that we're beginning to re-evaluate these people, the Clovis people. If they weren't the Siberian brutes we thought they were, then who were they?

And perhaps more importantly, was Clovis even "a people," or just the first great American idea?

Made In The South

Clovis culture is the most ancient and famous of the specific "cultural toolkits" archaeologists have identified in the American pre-historical past, and once upon a time, scientists thought they understood the Clovis story pretty well. Yet the more data modern researchers collect, the more mysterious the Clovis people become.

Unlike the more regional prehistoric cultures that followed, Clovis culture literally left its artifacts all over the map. Numerous finds over the past 85 years show that these wildly successful hunter-gatherers ranged widely across North and Central America and probed down into South America, too. But despite leaving so much evidence across so much dangerous wilderness real estate, the Clovis era was surprisingly short. The dates fluctuate as modern techniques for measuring the age of artifacts improve, but good estimates now suggest that Clovis culture probably emerged roughly 13,300 years ago, give or take a century or more, and faded out around the time of a sudden climate change that began about 12,800 years ago.

The late 20th century fight over Clovis-first orthodoxy split American archaeology from the mid-1970s to the late 2000s. The Old Guard, with their careers based on Clovis-first scholarship, challenged every new find down to its tiniest details. The rebels countered with more finds and took beating after beating before finally winning over a majority of their peers around 2008.

Because of that victory, there's an argument to be made today that the first great American invention was the Clovis Point, an oversized, symmetrical, double-edged spear tip with a particularly deft and risky design feature. In light of recent developments, it looks increasingly likely that this distinctive weapon — and the culture it defines — originated here in the Southeastern United States. Which would make the Clovis Point not only the first great American invention, but the South's first cultural export, pre-dating jazz and Elvis by at least 13,200 years.

"The technology is most likely home-grown," says expedition operations manager Tom Pertierra of Greenville, Fla., "because there are lanceolate points in North America that are older than Clovis and they demonstrate similar thinning technology. And the farther west you go in dating Clovis, the younger they are, not older."

In other words, Clovis didn't start in Siberia and migrate to the Carolinas. It started somewhere in South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, or Alabama, and after covering the Deep South, it moved west and north.

Connect The Dots

The idea that Clovis originated in the Southeast is only now entering the public discussion mainly because of the limits of human science. Archaeologists most likely didn't recognize the evidence because they were rational human beings who logically assumed they were looking for another answer.

To understand their dilemma, consider that the practice of archaeology is a bit like asking someone who has never driven a car to draw a picture of a 1975 AMC Pacer based on nothing more than a pitted chrome door handle and a lug nut. Whenever the past challenges us to connect its dots, much of what we see tends to resemble much of what we already assume, and so it has gone with the people we call the Clovis.

Named after the town in New Mexico where their artifacts were first identified in the 1930s, the Clovis people rose to the unassailed status as the First Americans in less than three decades. Along the way, the story of their pioneering ice-age migration became textbook dogma.

Since mainstream science in the mid-20th century assumed that reaching the New World by boat required nothing less than 15th-century sailing ships, migration across the ice-age land bridge seemed a logical assumption. With that idea in place, it was only reasonable that migration patterns in the Americas had to run from north to south and from west to east.

Other questionable assumptions followed. Because Clovis Points have been found embedded in butchered mammoth bones, writers extrapolated that the Clovis were macho super-hunters with an obsessive taste for big, dangerous animals. They must have been restless and aggressive, a male-dominated, bloodthirsty blitzkrieg that conquered a violent wilderness.

If they had a tragic flaw, it was excess awesomeness. The Clovis were so badass, the textbooks said, that they hounded the great North American megafauna to extinction in just a few gluttonous generations. Finally, with their conquest complete, the mighty Clovis retired, ceding the benefits of their hard-won glories to their less-ambitious descendants.

Most of the facts that shaped those ideas were derived by good science, but in retrospect, our mid-20th century theories about the Clovis people sound a bit too much like some middle-aged white guy at a VFW hall telling his life story to a bunch of ungrateful beatniks in 1966. When we were kids, we had to ambush a mastodon if we wanted breakfast, and sometimes it killed us. And we liked it.

But while that story aged poorly, it remained archaeology's default explanation for the peopling of the Americas until the late 2000s, when the increasing weight of three decades of evidence finally flipped Clovis-first orthodoxy on its collective head.

Today most scientists agree that there were people all over the Americas thousands of years before the Clovis appeared. Since that means at least some of those early arrivals probably got here by boat, our estimation of our Paleolithic ancestors is in the midst of an upgrade.

Yet with so much emphasis on who got here first, the Clovis themselves somehow faded into the background. It's only now, in the context of a more open-ended theory of our deep past, that the Clovis are re-emerging to renewed appreciation as one of the most fascinating, distinct, and innovative groups in American pre-history.

"You can tell by the skill levels back in the Clovis times, they were very skilled artisans in the points that they made," says Bill Lyles, a flint-knapper and retired pharmacist who has become one of the Topper site's top supervisors. "Clovis only lasted a few hundred years, and that skill level, as time passed, you begin to see it drop off. And it wasn't picked back up."

Instead of hyperactive Siberian nomads who over-hunted their way to cultural failure, what we call Clovis now looks more like a highly mobile group that managed to adapt to whatever the American landscape provided, or perhaps a successful idea that spread across existing trade networks. They almost certainly didn't exterminate the mammoths, and today it's considered far more likely that a 1,500-year cold snap called the Younger Dryas somehow led to the extinction of the great mammals and the demise of the Clovis era.

And finally, there's another theory — not mainstream, but promoted by one of the top researchers at the Smithsonian Institute — that contends that the emergence of Clovis in the Southeast offers evidence of a mind-boggling journey.

Even against a complex backdrop that looks more interesting than ever, Clovis culture stands out.

Past That Wasn't

As an academic field, pre-Columbian history marches across multiple culture-war battlefields these days. New evidence and old documents suggest that the Americas probably were far more populated in 1492 than history has properly recorded, with cities in Central and South America exceeding those of the Old World in terms of population, health, and grandeur. Even pre-Columbia North America — long viewed as an unspoiled Eden — looks more like a productively managed garden.

In this new rewrite of the American story, the rapid European settlement of the "New World" between the 15th and 18th centuries succeeded because it caused the most horrific series of plagues ever inflicted upon humanity. Serious scientists have proposed that waves of disease may have reduced the indigenous population by as much as 95 percent between 1492 and 1640.

But as controversial as the debates over those ideas have been, they're practically etiquette lessons compared to the hostility faced by the archaeologists who first asserted evidence of older-than-Clovis inhabitations here. Archaeologists used to speak in terms of a "Clovis Horizon," the idea that once a professional reached the bottom of the Clovis layer, there was no reason to dig deeper. Those who crossed that boundary were not only viewed as fools, but as heretics.

Al Goodyear, an associate research professor at the S.C. Institute of Archaeology and Anthropology at the University of South Carolina and the Topper site's primary investigator, crossed the boundary reluctantly. His Clovis finds at Topper had positioned the stout, affable Goodyear in the comfortable mainstream of Clovis-first American archaeology.

But that began to change in 1988 when — just to make sure — Goodyear decided to dig a test trench below Topper's 13,500-year-old Clovis Horizon. He says he didn't expect to find anything, and today speaks of the decision almost wistfully. "There were people who told me, 'If you ever find something beneath your Clovis layer, cover it back up and never speak of it again,'" he says. Then he shrugs.

What Goodyear found in that trench enlisted him in the uncomfortably small ranks of credentialed American archaeologists investigating older-than-Clovis evidence. When read from the bottom up, the layers suggest that unknown bands of ancient people who relied on simple micro-blade tools had quarried chert at Topper for thousands of years before disappearing around 16,000 years ago. The site's artifact record falls silent after that, perhaps for as long as 3,000 years, before revealing a burst of activity during the Clovis era. The area has been inhabited more-or-less continuously ever since.

Despite such then-controversial finds, the site attracted little public attention until 2004, when a rare chance to carbon-date Topper's very earliest artifacts determined they were older than carbon could reliably measure, making them anywhere from 40,000 to 70,000 years old. Suddenly Goodyear had the oldest archaeological site in North America, and his face was all over the cable news channels. He'd never been more famous, or looked more professionally vulnerable.

Yet the drumbeat of new finds and old dates continued, and as the months passed, Goodyear's radiocarbon date — though still ridiculously old — started looking less impossible. Clovis-first orthodoxy began to lose its unquestioned dominance at academic conferences and among the editors of peer-reviewed journals, and when the major figures in the debate arrived in Austin, Texas, for a 2008 Paleoamerican workshop organized by Tom Pertierra, the status quo finally shifted.

"Were there fistfights? No," Pertierra says. "Was there spirited discussion? Yes. But you know what we came out of there with? About an 80-20 turn [in favor of the older-than-Clovis evidence]."

Less than five years later, the idea of a Clovis Horizon looks quaint. New evidence for older-than-Clovis occupations has cropped up from Virginia to Texas, in caves in Oregon, and in mud dredged off the ocean floor near the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay. New data generated by scholars in related fields ranging from genetics to linguistics point to not one but multiple waves of pre-Columbian settlement, with several starting points and much earlier origins.

But it wasn't until 2012 that an archaeologist crossed the last boundary of mainstream acceptance. Eight years ago, Goodyear confided that he would never advise a graduate student to risk his or her career on a doctoral thesis about a pre-Clovis topic. Today, Eastern New Mexico University Ph.D-candidate Doug Sain — an eight-year supervisor at Topper who met his wife at the site — is writing his dissertation on the site's older-than-Clovis evidence.

Doug and Kristina Sain are part of the first generation of young archaeologists to enter professional life in the wake of the pre-Clovis revolution, and the new crop is well represented in the evening chow line at base camp. Joe Gingerich is a visiting researcher from the Smithsonian Institute. Chris Moore has been doing advanced geoarchaeology all over the Carolinas. Multiple graduate students come and go.

But the most easily recognizable of the young academics around camp is 32-year-old Derek T. Anderson, an archaeologist at the Cobb Institute of Archaeology and a lecturer at Mississippi State. A Topper supervisor since 2008, Anderson has carved out a reputation around camp as the quietly competent, understated authority the crew seeks out whenever tricky questions arise.

"I think that we have a better idea of what Clovis technology represents than people 25 years ago did," Anderson says when asked about the new multidisciplinary insights in American prehistory. "But there is still a lot that we don't know, particularly in the Southeast."

Though Goodyear retains the title of primary investigator, he functions more as a high-level supervisor during the annual spring dig and has worked in Columbia during much of the 2012 expedition. Pertierra runs the expedition's daily operations now, while Anderson, Sain, and the other young academics handle routine scientific duties.

Goodyear's generation broke through the Clovis Horizon, but as he and his colleagues near retirement, it's up to the next generation to make sense of what's been found there.

16,700-Year-Old Tools Found in Texas Change Known History of North America...AGAIN

2019-01-05T05:27:00.004-06:00

16,700-Year-Old Tools Found in Texas Change Known History of North America

Archaeologists in Texas have found a set of 16,700-year-old tools which are among the oldest discovered in the West. Until now, it was believed that the culture that represented the continent’s first inhabitants was the Clovis culture. However, the discovery of the ancient tools now challenges that theory, providing evidence that human occupation precedes the arrival of the Clovis people by thousands of years.

According to the Western Digs , archeologists discovered the tools about half an hour north of Austin in Texas, at the site called Gault. They were located a meter deep in water-logged silty clay. The site contained more than 90 stone tools and some human remains including fragments of teeth.

Excavations being carried out at the Gault site, Texas. Credit: Archaeological Institute of America

The discovery changes everything people have been taught about the history of North America – that is, that the Clovis culture represented the first inhabitants of the continent. The results of the research were presented at the meeting of the Plains Anthropological Conference in 2015.

A hallmark of the toolkit associated with the Clovis culture is the distinctively shaped, fluted stone spear point, known as the Clovis point. These Clovis points were from the Rummells-Maske Cache Site, Iowa ( public domain ).

In the 1990s, at the same excavation site near Austin, archeologists unearthed tapered-oval spear heads dating back 13,000 years. Those times, they believed, belonged to the oldest widespread culture of the continent. However, the most recent discovery proves that the pre-Clovis inhabitants came to North America at least three millennia earlier.

Evidence of an early projectile point technology in North America at the Gault Site, Texas, USA

2019-01-05T05:24:00.001-06:00

Evidence of an early projectile point technology in North America at the Gault Site, Texas, USA

Abstract

American archeology has long been polarized over the issue of a human presence in the Western Hemisphere earlier than Clovis. As evidence of early sites across North and South America continues to emerge, stone tool assemblages appear more geographically and temporally diverse than traditionally assumed. Within this new framework, the prevailing models of Clovis origins and the peopling of the Americas are being reevaluated. This paper presents age estimates from a series of alluvial sedimentary samples from the earliest cultural assemblage at the Gault Site, Central Texas. The optically stimulated luminescence age estimates (~16 to 20 thousand years ago) indicate an early human occupation in North America before at least ~16 thousand years ago. Significantly, this assemblage exhibits a previously unknown, early projectile point technology unrelated to Clovis. Within a wider context, this evidence suggests that Clovis technology spread across an already regionalized, indigenous population.

INTRODUCTION

Current research on the early human occupation of the Americas no longer recognizes Clovis as the expression of a founding population (1, 2). Increasing diversity, range, and time depths within the expanding database of sites predating Clovis attest to greater complexity in the early record (3) than previously thought. Archeological opinion on the nature, timing, arrival, and peopling scenarios remains divided (4–6). Despite this, there is increasing evidence to support a number of contemporaneous (7) and older (2, 8) cultural manifestations at least 2 thousand years (ka) before the appearance of Clovis (9). This includes the Western Stemmed Tradition (10), Beringian assemblages (11), and Eastern Seaboard sites (12–14) in North America alongside the El Jobo/Monte Verde and fishtail bifacial technologies and edge-trimmed traditions in South America (15–17). These technological patterns require careful and systematic evaluation to address the nature and timing of both the early occupation of the Americas and, subsequently, the origins of Clovis (Supplementary Materials).

Background

Initially identified in 2002, excavation at Area 15 of the Gault Site (Fig. 1) was undertaken to explore evidence of early cultures in Central Texas. Research focused on the manufacturing technologies, their relationship to Clovis, and the associated age of this assemblage. This report focuses on the optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) ages obtained from the lowest deposits in Area 15 that contain a material that predates Clovis, referred to as the Gault Assemblage.

Fig. 1Location of the Gault Site, Texas, USA.

The site occupies an upstream first- to second-order floodplain of the Buttermilk Creek valley, which has reliable springs and high-quality chert outcrops. The setting is an ecotone with mesic, riparian flora in the valley floor and xeric-adapted plants on the adjacent uplands. Regionally, the setting is in the Balcones Canyonlands, itself an ecotone, where resources of the limestone uplands (the Edwards Plateau) interface with the Blackland Prairie on the adjacent coastal plains.

The Area 15 excavation block, located within the valley floor, is a 56-m² grid, which was stepped down in meter increments. Excavation was conducted in 1 m × 1 m squares within this grid in arbitrary levels of 5 cm deep from 93.00 m and below (based on an arbitrary site datum of 100.00 m). The upper ~1.8-m deposit is a midden, common to Central Texas (18). Below this is a ~1.2-m-thick silty clay deposit atop a ~0.20- to 0.50-m-thick fluvial gravel. The gravel rests on Cretaceous-age limestone bedrock of the Comanche Peak Formation (Supplementary Materials).

The sediments in Area 15 are well stratified with diagnostic projectile points and associated artifact complexes in chronological order (Fig. 2) and, in many cases, are separated from one another by a decrease in debitage counts. The midden deposit contains Archaic projectile points in good stratigraphic order. Within the midden, there is a vertically constrained distribution of small (<1 cm) diagnostic Andice notching flakes recovered between 94.90 and 94.00 m (fig. S5). Field observations of the orientation of artifacts suggest that shrink-swell movement of the soil has reoriented some materials and favored the downward migration of some of the smallest artifacts, but the absence of diagnostic artifacts like Bell-Andice notching flakes (Supplementary Materials) below the appropriate age deposit suggests that this movement has been limited. The silty clay beneath the Bell-Andice occupation contains an ~50-cm-thick sequence of Late Paleoindian components in a stratified order overlying an ~25-cm-thick Clovis component. Below this is an ~65- to 80-cm-thick deposit overlying undulating bedrock that consists of silty clay and fluvial gravel deposits, containing the Gault Assemblage. A further indicator of the stratigraphic integrity of the site is the separation between cultural components. Furthermore, bioturbation, such as animal or root disturbances, was identified and excavated separately in the field. Debitage counts indicate that decreased cultural material frequencies occur between the Gault, Clovis, and Paleoindian components. There is an ~10-cm-thick zone of decreased cultural material between the Clovis and Gault components. This suggests a reduction in site activity or possible occupational breaks between the three cultural depositions.

Fig. 2Stratigraphic profile of the Area 15 excavation block showing the diagnostic cultural materials and components alongside the stratigraphic sequence.

Diagnostic projectile points listed on the left were all found within the associated deposits (SMH, St. Mary’s Hall). Stratigraphic unit numbers are shown on the right, and the cultural horizons are highlighted in gray.

Stone tool assemblage

The stone tool assemblage recovered from the lowest, earliest deposits exhibits a small projectile point technology as well as both a biface and a blade-and-core tradition. The projectile points from the Gault Assemblage exhibit two stem morphologies: stemmed and lanceolate (Supplementary Materials). One stemmed projectile point (Fig. 3I) exhibits a slightly concave base, with concave lateral margins and short shoulders with beveled edges. In profile, this point is slightly curved, suggesting that it was manufactured on a flake. Two bifurcate stemmed points were also recovered (Fig. 3, H and J); both have a deep concave base, an expanding stem, and exhibit beveling. A small proximal tip with beveled edges was also recovered (Fig. 3K). These points were likely produced on flakes and predominantly manufactured using pressure flaking to shape and finish the points. These stemmed points are technologically and morphologically distinct from any later regional cultural manifestations. Superficially, they resemble point types within the regional Early Archaic yet differ in base treatment and blade bevel (Supplementary Materials). The two lanceolate projectile points (Fig. 3, X and Y) are similar in size, exhibit a concave base, and share similarities in the basal flaking and finishing. Only one point (Fig. 3X) is ground along the edges. Both points are snapped at the stem, but existing flaking pattern suggests comedial (midline) flaking. The lanceolate points superficially resemble Late Paleoindian types but do not fit any single point type from this period. A sixth point exhibits weak shoulders and a contracting stem (Fig. 3G). This point is made from smoky quartz and exhibits a central ridge produced from comedial flaking. Unlike the three points discussed above, the morphology of this point resembles Western Stemmed points, but its age places it outside of the known chronology for this type (7). All projectile points were recovered from undisturbed sediments within Area 15 with no evidence for the downward movement within their excavation units. This projectile point assemblage is unlike anything in the early archeological record of the Americas and indicates complex behavioral activities associated with a group or groups who colonized the New World.

Fig. 3Gault Assemblage artifacts

(A to D, F, and L) Bifaces. (E) Blade core. (G) Quartz projectile point. (H and I) Projectile points. (K) Projectile point tip. (M, V, and W) Blade. (N) Unifacial tool. (O and T) Gravers. (P) Discoidal biface. (Q) End scraper. (R to U) Modified flake tools. (X and Y) Lanceolate projectile points. Descriptions are given in the Supplementary Materials.

Alongside these points, approximately 150,000 artifacts, consisting mainly of debitage, have been recovered from these lowest two units (see strata 1 and 2 in the Supplementary Materials). To date, 184 flaked stone artifacts have been analyzed (Supplementary Materials). These include the distinct stemmed projectile points, blades and blade cores, bifaces, and flake tools. The Gault Assemblage shares this generalized biface and blade-and-core lithic tradition with the overlying Clovis materials but differs significantly in the following ways.

The Gault biface assemblage exhibits the prevalent use of comedial (midline) flaking indicative of proportionally thinning a biface, which closely parallels the reductive technology used to create the Gault Assemblage projectiles. Clovis, however, demonstrates the use of full-face and overshot flaking to produce thinned bifaces. In addition, the flake striking platforms produced during manufacture are larger and less prepared than the Clovis flake platforms (19).

In contrast, the blade-and-core assemblage shares more commonalities with Clovis technology. Both technologies exhibit flat-backed blade cores that use a single blade face with an acute platform and unidirectional blade removals as well as conical cores that have blade removals around the circumference of the core. Evidence from the blade platforms indicates that the Gault Assemblage generally exhibits less preparation than Clovis platforms.

The similarities and differences suggest that there is no single linear trajectory toward Clovis technology within the Gault Assemblage. Instead, parts of the technological repertoire, like the blade-and-core tradition, appear to have continued in the Clovis levels at the Gault site, while the projectile points and the biface traditions underwent significant changes. In a broader context, the technologies present in the Gault Assemblage appear to represent a unique pattern within the early human occupations of the Americas that indicates a regional adaptation after the initial colonization of the New World.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

Four OSL samples were collected from the lowest cultural bearing deposits (see strata 1 and 2 in the Supplementary Materials) in Area 15 of the Gault Site (Fig. 4 and table S1). Samples were collected by horizontally hammering 4.5-cm-diameter steel tubes into clean open sections. After collection, the sample holes were slightly enlarged to obtain in situ gamma spectrometric measurements at all locations.

Fig. 4OSL ages in association with the stratigraphic units and the projectile points recovered from the Gault Assemblage (not to scale).

Stratigraphic unit numbers are shown on the left, and the cultural horizons are highlighted in gray. Clovis ages have been reported elsewhere (see text).

Samples were prepared at the Department of Geosciences at Murray State University, Murray, KY under low red fluorescent lighting fitted with Lee 106 filters. Pure quartz grains were obtained using standard OSL preparation methods, including treatment with 10% HCl and 30% H₂O₂, to remove carbonates and organic material, respectively. The samples were wet-sieved to obtain a 32- to 63-μm grain size fraction, and a heavy liquid separation using lithium polytungstate was performed to isolate quartz. No HF etching was applied.

Luminescence measurements were conducted at McMaster University, Hamilton, ON using a Risø OSL/TL-DA-15 reader fitted with a 7-mm-thick Hoya U-340 filter. Measurements were carried out using blue diodes (470 nm) operating at 90% power (~30 mW/cm²). Laboratory irradiations were performed using a calibrated ⁹⁰Sr/⁹⁰Y radioactive source attached to the Risø luminescence reader. Blue LED’s (light-emitting diode) multigrain aliquots were prepared on 9.8-mm-diameter stainless steel discs using a silicon spray and a 0.5-mm mask (~72 grains).

An initial equivalent dose (D_e) estimate was made by comparing the natural OSL signal of four aliquots to their OSL signal after a given dose. A second identical regenerative dose was applied to the same four aliquots, and the Infrared Stimulated Luminescence (IRSL) signal was measured as a check for feldspar contamination. All aliquots had an IRSL-to-OSL ratio of <1%, suggesting no significant feldspar contamination in the prepared samples. A dose recovery test was used to determine the preheat temperature (160°, 200°, 240°, and 260°C) at which a given dose could be best recovered. A preheat temperature of 200°C and a cut-heat temperature of 160°C produced a dose closest to the given dose and was used in all subsequent D_e measurements. Thermal transfer tests that were carried out to assess the possibility of charge transfer from light-insensitive shallow traps to light-sensitive OSL traps showed no significant thermal transfer (20). During this experiment, the OSL signal of several aliquots was first bleached by a 400-s exposure to blue LED’s. Apparent D_e’s were then calculated using the SAR protocol (21), but applying different preheat temperatures to different aliquots. Significant thermal transfer [>1 gray (Gy)] was only observed with the application of preheat temperatures more than 260°C.

Final D_e measurements were made on 48 aliquots for each measured sample. All measurements followed the SAR protocol (21, 22) on 0.5-mm multigrain aliquots of 32- to 63-μm quartz with a total stimulation time of 100 s. This fraction was targeted to isolate quartz-rich silt identified through petrography (23) that was presumed to be incorporated in the floodplain sediments through aeolian processes. The OSL signal was integrated from the first 0.4 s of the decay curve, and the subtracted background was integrated from the last 4 s. Aliquots were required to pass the following criteria for further analysis: <10% test dose error, <10% recycling ratio error, <10% recuperation, <10% palaeodose error, and a signal greater than 3σ above background. All D_e values incorporated an instrumental error of 1.5%.

Final D_e values used for age calculation were statistically modeled using the central age model [CAM; (24)] owing to low overdispersion (that is, <10%) and the normal distribution of D_e’s in each sample. A σ_b value of 0.045, calculated from dose recovery results, was added in quadrature to all D_e estimates to account for variability arising from the intrinsic luminescent properties (25).

External α and β dose rates were determined from the U, Th, and K concentrations of a small amount of sediment (~2 g) collected from each OSL sample and measured with neutron activation analysis and delayed neutron counting (conducted at the McMaster University Nuclear Reactor). Conversion of radioisotope concentrations was done using the data of Guérin et al. (26). Dose rates were calculated, assuming secular equilibrium in the U and Th decay chains. Dose rates were corrected for water content using laboratory-based measurements and for attenuation using factors from Brennan et al. (27) and Guérin et al. (28). External gamma dose rates were obtained in situ at all sample locations using a NaI(Tl) Harwell four-channel gamma spectrometer. Cosmic dose rates were calculated on the basis of the methods by Prescott and Hutton (29, 30) and calculated using a 2.0 g/cm³ of overburden density, assuming a linear sediment accumulation.

Ages were calculated by dividing the D_e modeled with the CAM by the corresponding total dose rate. In addition to the errors on the modeled D_e’s, the following systematic errors were incorporated into each age calculation: ±25% for moisture content and ±10% for cosmic dose rate. OSL age results are reported with 1σ errors in table S1. An average of the laboratory-measured moisture content from each sample of 20% was used for age calculation.

Disequilibrium measurements were not conducted on the samples at Gault (31). To investigate its potential impact on age estimations, Rn loss calculations were carried out using data tables provided by Guérin et al. (26). Ratios of ²³⁸U pre-Rn loss to ²³⁸U total U energy release were used to calculate multiplication factors to modify U concentration in the age calculations. Factors were calculated separately for alpha, beta, and gamma energy releases and then applied to find the effective U concentration for 100, 50, and 25% Rn loss. A U-only dose rate was obtained for each calculation and added back in to the total dose rate from Th, K, and cosmic rays (table S2).

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

The OSL samples displayed favorable luminescence characteristics including low overdispersion (<10%) and normally distributed D_e distributions. Moreover, the fast component contributed more than 90% of the signal measured in the first 0.4 s of stimulation, suggesting that the OSL signals from these samples are fast component–dominant. A representative decay curve and growth curve are shown in fig. S1. All measured D_e’s were significantly lower than their corresponding D₀ values (~65 Gy). Equivalent dose distributions are displayed as histograms and radial plots in fig. S2.

The OSL ages presented here establish the presence of a cultural component, stratified below Clovis, and associated with ages older than ~16 ka (Fig. 4 and table S1). These OSL ages range from 21.7 ± 1.4 ka to 16.7 ± 1.1 ka and, within error, are in the expected stratigraphic order (Fig. 4 and table S1). On the basis of the results of OSL dating presented here, we find a mean age for the Gault Assemblage (n = 4) of 18.5 ± 1.5 ka.

Ages associated with the temporal diagnostic artifacts above the Gault component are in excellent stratigraphic agreement (32). This includes four OSL ages of 11.9 ± 0.8 ka, 12.9 ± 0.6 ka, 13.2 ± 0.6 ka, and 13.6 ± 0.6 ka from the Clovis component (Fig. 4) (32). These dates agree with the known Clovis range of ~13.5 to 12.9 ka (33–35) and agree with the ages from other Clovis sites in Texas (36–38). These data emphasize the stratigraphic integrity of Area 15 and the agreement between the temporal diagnostic artifacts and OSL ages (Supplementary Materials).

The OSL ages for these early levels at the Gault Site are in good stratigraphic agreement with the known, younger, temporal diagnostic artifacts and age estimates indicating the reliability of this dating sequence (32). The significant reduction in artifact frequencies between the Clovis and Gault Assemblage confirms the presence of an older, isolated, assemblage below Clovis. Given the SDs for these OSL ages (Fig. 4 and table S1), the Gault Assemblage is dated to at least 16 ka, which is the youngest possible age for this occupation; however, the time span suggests that the inhabitation of the Gault site began ~1 to 2 ka before.

The Gault Site differs from other OSL-dated sites relevant to the early occupation of North America for two reasons. First, there is a well-dated (32) long stratigraphic sequence above the Gault Assemblage with distinct and well-separated occupational horizons. In addition, the OSL D_e distributions are normal and exhibit low (<10%) overdispersion, which provide more confidence for the modeled final D_e values used in age calculation (Supplementary Materials).

Disequilibrium in the U-series is commonly present in carbonate-rich environments and can potentially change the dose rate over time, leading to inaccurate age estimations (39). Although disequilibrium measurements were not carried out for the Gault samples, several inferences can be made about the potential impact that this would have on the ages we report. The samples collected at Gault have U contents that make up a relatively small (~20%) contribution to the total dose rate, so any influence of disequilibria on the resulting ages may not be very significant. For samples studied with a similar U content, and assuming a >50% disequilibrium in the U-series chain, OSL ages have been in 8% error from the true age (39). This generally falls close to or within the 1σ age errors that we report. Moreover, our Rn loss calculations suggest that for the Rn loss to have a statistically significant effect on age calculations relative to 0% Rn loss, for nearly all samples, >50% Rn loss would have had to have occurred (table S2).

In general, U concentrations in carbonate rocks are quite uniform at approximately 2 parts per million (ppm) (40). Phreatic cements have been less well studied; however, a U concentration of 1.80 ± 0.75 ppm was found for a series of freshwater phreatic cements by Chung and Swart (41). The total U concentration in our Gault dating samples ranges from 2.13 ± 0.1 ppm to 2.48 ± 0.1 ppm, indicating the possibility that much of the dose rate comes from carbonate elements. This is expected when examining the lithology of the units. The Gault Assemblage layers are the major host of phreatic carbonates at Gault.

Phreatic carbonates routinely form in situ as postburial phases and occur as surface coatings on grains and larger elements. If these had formed during the burial history and had reduced pore volume by their presence, then they may have added U to the source of dose rate to the quartz grains, changing the bulk dose rate over time. On the basis of earlier work of U concentrations in carbonate rocks and phreatic carbonates cited above, it would probably have added U to the pore space volume at a similar concentration as the surrounding host material. As this occurred over time, incremental increases in bulk dose rate would have occurred, and thus, the bulk dose rate over the burial history would have been lower than observed at the time of sampling. Thus, any effect from the crystallization of U-containing phreatic carbonate would make the ages older, in the same direction as any effects of Rn loss >50%.

The evidence from Area 15 at the Gault Site demonstrates the presence of a previously unknown projectile point technology in North America before ~16 ka. The physical and cultural stratigraphic evidence recovered from Area 15, as well as the associated OSL ages reported here and elsewhere (32), are consistent in showing a coherent sequence of the Gault Assemblage, Clovis, Late Paleoindian, Early Archaic, and Middle/Late Archaic occupations over an apparent span of more than 16,000 calendar years (Fig. 4). This sequence corresponds well with previous studies in Central Texas (42). The distinct technological differences between Clovis and Gault Assemblage, together with the stratigraphic separation between the cultural depositions, indicate a lack of continuity between the two complexes.

The Gault Assemblage at the Gault Site, specifically the projectile points, represents a regional manifestation within a number of possible contemporary patterns (Supplementary Materials). As evidence for the complexity in the early occupation of the Americas increases (1, 2), a more elaborate framework (9) for these early human occupations is required.

SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIALS

Supplementary material for this article is available at http://advances.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/4/7/eaar5954/DC1

Table S1. Sample OSL ages and dose rate data.

Table S2. Radon loss effects on each Gault OSL sample.

Table S3. Summary of the Gault Assemblage.

Table S4. Summary counts of the Gault biface assemblage.

Fig. S1. A representative decay curve (upper), growth curve (middle), and plot showing sensitivity changes through the SAR cycle (lower) for Gault 11-18.

Fig. S2. Equivalent dose (D_e) distributions for all samples displayed in a histogram (left) and radial plot (right).

Fig. S3. Location of the Area 15 excavation block and the excavation grid and profile.

Fig. S4. Relationship between the stratigraphy and cultural components in Area 15.

Fig. S5. Results of the geoarcheological analysis of the sediments in Area 15.

Fig. S6. Andice projectile point (left) with representative diagnostic notching flakes (right).

Fig. S7. Backplots of northing (blue) and easting (red) profiles showing the elevation of diagnostic Andice notching flakes and the cultural components discussed in the text.

Fig. S8. Limestone bedrock of Area 15, with three sets of flutes scoured into the limestone (discussed in the text).

Fig. S9. Pollen data from Boriack Bog and the NGRIP and GRIP ice core record as compared to stratigraphic units at Area 15.

Fig. S10. Gault Assemblage stone tool types and frequency (see table S2).

Fig. S11. Gault Assemblage projectile points.

Fig. S12. Principal components analysis of the Gault Assemblage stemmed projectile points and the Gower and Uvalde types.

Section S1. Area 15 stratigraphy

Section S2. Context of early dates in North America

Section S3. Gault Assemblage in Area 15

References (43–85)

Modern fossil discovery rewrites human history...AGAIN

2018-01-27T05:03:00.000-06:00

Modern fossil discovery rewrites human history

Four ways the flu turns deadly

Mind-controlled prosthetics: the next wave of 'smart arms'

How music therapy helped a woman heal

Boy dies after contact with rabid bat

Your brain on marijuana

Government shutdown could halt CDC flu program

Man finds kidney by going to Disney World

Five amazing finds from the ancient world

CDC: Flu virus will be around many more weeks

From Purple Heart to Gold Medal Hockey Player

Flu diagnosis ends up being flesh-eating disease

Monkeys cloned using same method as Dolly

Four ways the flu turns deadly

Mind-controlled prosthetics: the next wave of 'smart arms'

How music therapy helped a woman heal

Boy dies after contact with rabid bat

Your brain on marijuana

Government shutdown could halt CDC flu program

Man finds kidney by going to Disney World

Five amazing finds from the ancient world

CDC: Flu virus will be around many more weeks

From Purple Heart to Gold Medal Hockey Player

Flu diagnosis ends up being flesh-eating disease

Monkeys cloned using same method as Dolly

Source: CNN

Five amazing finds from the ancient world 01:11

Story highlights

The oldest modern human fossil outside of Africa was found in Israel
The findings suggests that modern humans migrated from Africa earlier than thought

(CNN)Scientists have discovered the oldest known modern human fossil outside of Africa, estimated to be between 177,000 and 194,000 years old, according to a new study in the journal Science. The fossil of an upper jawbone that included several teeth was found in a prehistoric cave site, Misliya Cave, in Israel. Stone tools were also recovered at the site.

This suggests that modern humans may have been on the move, specifically migrating from Africa, at least 50,000 years earlier than previously believed. It helps to explain previous findings of modern human fossils in other parts of the world, which have been dated 90,000 to 120,000 years ago.

This rewrites the timeline of what we know about how Homo sapiens spread.

"We now have clear fossil evidence that modern humans moved out of Africa earlier than we previously believed," Rolf Quam, study coauthor and anthropology professor at Binghamton University, said in an email. "There have been previous suggestions of a possible earlier migration, relying on both archaeological sites and ancient DNA studies, but now we have an actual human fossil that proves it."

Three different dating techniques were used to confirm the fossil's age and classify it as Homo sapien, rather than Neanderthal or some other early human ancestor.

The features of the jaw and teeth are unmistakably human, the researchers said.

Photos: Ancient finds

Nodosaurs were herbivores who walked on four legs and were covered in tank-like armor and dotted with spikes for protection. But this recently unveiled 110 million-year-old fossil is the most well-preserved of the armored dinosaurs ever unearthed.

Hide Caption

11 of 21

Photos: Ancient finds

Microfossils found in China have revealed what could be our earliest known ancestor on the tree of life. Saccorhytus was a tiny, bag-like sea creature that lived 540 million years ago.

Hide Caption

12 of 21

Photos: Ancient finds

In 2016, researchers discovered ancient collagen and protein remains preserved in the ribs of a dinosaur that walked the Earth 195 million years ago.

Hide Caption

13 of 21

Photos: Ancient finds

By studying the skeleton of this medieval pilgrim, researchers have been able to genotype leprosy. They also discovered that leprosy-causing bacteria have changed little over hundreds of years, possibly explaining the decline in the disease after it peaked in medieval Europe as humans developed resistance.

Hide Caption

14 of 21

Photos: Ancient finds

The discovery of a species that lived 6.6 million years ago in southwestern China suggests that ancient otters had "wolf-like" proportions, and weighed roughly 100 Ibs. The creature -- whose skull was excavated in Yunnan province -- would have been twice the size of today's otters.

Hide Caption

15 of 21

Photos: Ancient finds

The tail of a 99-million-year-old dinosaur was found entombed in amber in 2016, an unprecedented discovery that has blown away scientists. The amber adds to fossil evidence that many dinosaurs sported feathers rather than scales.

Hide Caption

16 of 21

Photos: Ancient finds

The oldest known sample of the smallpox-causing variola virus was found within the DNA of a 17th century child mummy in 2016. The mummy was found in a crypt beneath a Lithuanian church. The finding shortens the timeline for how long smallpox may have afflicted humans.

Hide Caption

17 of 21

Photos: Ancient finds

For the first time, researchers discovered genomic evidence of malaria in 2,000-year-old human remains from the Roman Empire. The discovery was made in 2016.

Hide Caption

18 of 21

Photos: Ancient finds

Researchers found the first preserved dinosaur brain in history in 2016. They believe it was preserved due to the dinosaur dying in a swamp-like environment which mixed low levels of oxygen -- known to slow decay -- and acidity which can preserve soft tissue for long periods. It is 130 million years old.

Hide Caption

19 of 21

Photos: Ancient finds

An investigation of skeletons buried during the 1665 Great Plague of London revealed the DNA of the bacteria responsible for the disease in 2016. The skeletons were discovered in an ancient burial site during construction of London's Crossrail train line.

Hide Caption

20 of 21

Photos: Ancient finds

Scientists reconstructed the genome of an ancient plague in 2016, which may shed new light on how certain diseases can either mysteriously disappear or continue to evolve and spread. An adult woman's skeleton (on left) and adult man's skeleton (on right) tested positive for the presence of Y. pestis, what researchers believe caused the Justinian Plague.

Hide Caption

21 of 21

Photos: Ancient finds

The earliest modern human fossil ever found outside of Africa has been recovered in Israel. This suggests that modern humans left Africa at least 50,000 years earlier than previously believed. The upper jawbone, including several teeth, was recovered in a prehistoric cave site.

Hide Caption

1 of 21

Photos: Ancient finds

This is an excavated structure at the northern edge of the Grand Plaza at Teposcolula-Yucundaa in Oaxaca, Mexico. Researchers investigated a "pestilence" cemetery associated with a devastating 1545-1550 epidemic. New analysis suggests that salmonella caused a typhoid fever epidemic.

Hide Caption

2 of 21

Photos: Ancient finds

Standing about 4 feet tall, early human ancestor Paranthropus boisei had a small brain and a wide, dish-like face. It is most well-known for having big teeth and hefty chewing muscles.

Hide Caption

3 of 21

Photos: Ancient finds

A grand grave of a great Viking warrior excavated during the 1880s has been found to be that of a woman. She was also buried with a gaming board and pieces, hierarchically associated with officers to use for battle strategy and tactics. The drawing is a reconstruction of how the grave with the woman originally may have looked.

Hide Caption

4 of 21

Photos: Ancient finds

An illustration shows the dodo on Mauritius near the Mare aux Songes, where many dodo skeletons have been recovered.

Hide Caption

5 of 21

Photos: Ancient finds

A 5,000-year-old dog skull found in Germany underwent whole genome sequencing. It was found to be very similar to the genome of modern dogs, suggesting that all modern dogs are direct ancestors of the domesticated dogs that lived in the world's earliest farming communities in Europe.

Hide Caption

6 of 21

Photos: Ancient finds

Razanandrongobe sakalavae, or "Razana," was one of the top predators of the Jurassic period in Madagascar 170 million years ago. Although it looks different from modern-day crocodiles and had teeth similar to a T. rex's, Razana was not a dinosaur but a crocodile relative with a deep skull.

Hide Caption

7 of 21

Photos: Ancient finds

An artist's reconstruction shows Macrauchenia patachonica, which roamed South America thousands of years ago. Combining a range of odd characteristics from llamas and camels to rhinos and antelopes, Macrauchenia defied clarification until now and has been added to the tree of life. It belongs to a sister group of Perissodactyla, which includes horses, rhinos and tapirs.

Hide Caption

8 of 21

Photos: Ancient finds

This prosthetic device was made for a priest's daughter who had to have her right big toe amputated 3,000 years ago. This surprisingly lifelike toe was made to look natural by a skilled artisan who wanted to maintain the aesthetic as well as mobility during the Early Iron Age. It was designed to be worn with sandals, the footwear of choice at the time.

Hide Caption

9 of 21

Photos: Ancient finds

The oldest fossil remains of Homo sapiens, dating back 300,000 years, were found at a site in Jebel Irhoud, Morocco. This is 100,000 years older than previously discovered fossils of Homo sapiens that have been securely dated. The fossils, including a partial skull and a lower jaw, belong to five different individuals including three young adults, an adolescent and a child estimated to be 8 years old.

Hide Caption

10 of 21

Photos: Ancient finds

Hide Caption

11 of 21

Photos: Ancient finds

Microfossils found in China have revealed what could be our earliest known ancestor on the tree of life. Saccorhytus was a tiny, bag-like sea creature that lived 540 million years ago.

Hide Caption

12 of 21

Photos: Ancient finds

In 2016, researchers discovered ancient collagen and protein remains preserved in the ribs of a dinosaur that walked the Earth 195 million years ago.

Hide Caption

13 of 21

Photos: Ancient finds

Hide Caption

14 of 21

Photos: Ancient finds

Hide Caption

15 of 21

Photos: Ancient finds

Hide Caption

16 of 21

Photos: Ancient finds

Hide Caption

17 of 21

Photos: Ancient finds

For the first time, researchers discovered genomic evidence of malaria in 2,000-year-old human remains from the Roman Empire. The discovery was made in 2016.

Hide Caption

18 of 21

Photos: Ancient finds

Hide Caption

19 of 21

Photos: Ancient finds

Hide Caption

20 of 21

Photos: Ancient finds

Hide Caption

21 of 21

Photos: Ancient finds

Hide Caption

1 of 21

Photos: Ancient finds

Hide Caption

2 of 21

Photos: Ancient finds

Standing about 4 feet tall, early human ancestor Paranthropus boisei had a small brain and a wide, dish-like face. It is most well-known for having big teeth and hefty chewing muscles.

Hide Caption

3 of 21

Photos: Ancient finds

Hide Caption

4 of 21

Photos: Ancient finds

An illustration shows the dodo on Mauritius near the Mare aux Songes, where many dodo skeletons have been recovered.

Hide Caption

5 of 21

Photos: Ancient finds

Hide Caption

6 of 21

Photos: Ancient finds

Hide Caption

7 of 21

Photos: Ancient finds

Hide Caption

8 of 21

Photos: Ancient finds

Hide Caption

9 of 21

Photos: Ancient finds

Hide Caption

10 of 21

Photos: Ancient finds

Hide Caption

11 of 21

Stone tools recovered at the site further confirm the age and technology being used by these modern humans. They were shaped in a unique way called the Levallois technique, where stones were flaked around the edges to achieve a sophisticated point used in hunting. The discovery of the tools along with the fossil in this location is the earliest known association between the two in the region.

Finding the tools and fossil in such close proximity also suggests that Homo sapiens introduced this technology to the area when they appeared.

The Misliya cave site.

"The rich archaeological evidence reveals that the inhabitants of Misliya cave were capable hunters of large game species such as aurochs (extinct large cows), Persian fallow deer and gazelles," Israel Hershkovitz, study author and professor in the department of anatomy and anthropology at Tel Aviv University, said in an email. "They controlled the production of fire in hearths, made a wide use of plants and produced an Early Middle Paleolithic stone tool kit, employing sophisticated innovative techniques, similar to those found with the earliest modern humans in Africa."

Detailed studies of the tools are underway. Not only were they used for hunting, but also the processing of animal skins, scraping and cutting plants, scraping minerals and digging of edible tubers, Hershkovitz said.

Changing 'our perception of modern human evolution'

Researchers have many takeaways from these discoveries.

Inside the lab rewriting the origins of humanity

The location of the fossil supports the idea that modern humans migrated from Africa using a northern route through the Nile valley and the eastern Mediterranean coast. It helps to explain why a modern human fossil was found in China, dated to 120,000 years ago. It supports the growing research that modern humans left Africa 220,000 years ago and interacted with Neanderthals earlier than thought. And it suggests that other early modern human fossils recovered in the Qafzeh and Es Skhul caves in Israel are a result of the interactions between the Misliya people and the other local populations of the region, Hershkovitz said.

"We have a very long biological history, much longer than previously thought," Hershkovitz said. "We evolved through interaction with other hominin groups. We came out of Africa as early as 250,000 years (ago). The Qafzeh/Skhul hominins are not the earliest modern human outside Africa as previously thought. Actually, they were not migrants at all, but rather descendants of the Misliya people."

The discovery of modern humans outside of Africa earlier than expected has implications concerning evolution. This means there were even earlier opportunities for cultural and/or biological interactions with other local non-modern human species, Quam said.

How did Lucy, our early human ancestor, die 3 million years ago?

"Misliya really changes our perception of modern human evolution," Gerhard Weber, study coauthor and professor in the department of anthropology at the University of Vienna, said in an email. "This evolution seems to be not that straightforward or simple as we had it in the textbooks the past years. Misliya is very modern. This wouldn't be surprising if it were 10,000 years or 40,000 years, but it is around 180-190,000 years old."

Earlier discoveries

In 2017, the discovery of the oldest Homo sapiens fossil in Jebel Irhoud, Morocco, was announced. It dated back to 300,000 years ago, 100,000 years older than previously discovered fossils of Homo sapiens that had been securely dated. It also widened the "cradle of mankind" to include all of Africa, since previous findings had only occurred in east and south Africa.

But the Jebel Irhoud fossil was most likely not as "modern" as the Misliya fossil. The Jebel Irhoud fossil captures a moment in time of evolution. The facial features of the skull look like a modern human, but the brain case is very elongated and archaically characteristic of early humans.

Follow CNN Health on Facebook and Twitter

See the latest news and share your comments with CNN Health on Facebook and Twitter.

There has been increasing evidence that the modern human lineage diverged from Neanderthals and Denisovans 500,000 years ago, making us close relatives rather than direct descendants. Before the Jebel Irhoud discovery, it was believed that the early modern humans we evolved from were in Africa 200,000 years ago and looked very similar to modern humans. But what happened in between that time?

This is still unknown, although the researchers suggest the possibility that there were multiple groups of hominins, or human ancestors, overlapping and having complex relationships.

Because they didn't previously have fossil evidence of Homo sapiens from 300,000 years ago, this helps to fill a small part of that gap in the fossil record. The fossils provide insight about this evolutionary time for Homo sapiens before the early modern stage 200,000 years ago.

'A big step forward'

The Misliya discovery adds to the research that scientists hope will eventually solve the mystery of the in between time.

"Misliya tells us that modern humans might have been in touch with other populations, including archaic ones that were already in Eurasia," Weber said. "Now it is conceivable that also other modern humans, even a bit older than Misliya, might have left Africa -- I wouldn't be surprised now if someone finds a modern human in Eurasia at a time of 220,000 years -- and encountered Neanderthals or some forms on the way to Neanderthals.

"As any good science, Misliya raises new questions, but we made a big step forward, away from a too simple picture," Weber concluded.

The researchers are continuing their study of the fires from the Misliya cave, as well as the stone tools.

"We have started excavating at two sites that were excavated in the past, the Skhul and Tabun caves, with the hope to find some hominins that will allow us to answer further questions relating to the late phase of human evolution," Hershkovitz said.

Unusual Artifacts Recovered in Russia

2017-10-24T04:37:00.001-05:00

Unusual Artifacts Recovered in Russia

Monday, October 23, 2017

NOVOSIBIRSK, RUSSIA—According to a report in The Siberian Times, a figurine that appears to be wearing a feathered headdress has been discovered at an approximately 5,000-year-old site near the Ob River in western Siberia. Archaeologist Natalia Basova said the unusual artifact was found along with a bird carved from bone that was probably sewn onto clothing or worn as a pendant, and several anthropomorphic figurines, also equipped with holes, made of mammoth tusk, sandstone, birch burl, and an organic material that has not yet been identified. A moose figurine, made of shale, was also recovered. The site was disturbed by an earthquake and tsunami wave some 4,000 years ago, and by a potato farm in the modern era.

Prehistoric teeth fossils dating back 9.7 million years 'could rewrite human history', AGAIN

2017-10-20T05:40:00.001-05:00

Prehistoric teeth fossils dating back 9.7 million years 'could rewrite human history'

'This is a tremendous stroke of luck, but also a great mystery'

A canine tooth dating back 9.7 million years found in an old riverbed near Mainz Mainz Natural History Museum

"I don't want to over-dramatise it, but I would hypothesise that we shall have to start rewriting the history of mankind after today," he said.
Axel von Berg, a local archaeologist, said the new findings would “amaze experts”.
With the first paper on the research to be published next week, the “real work” to unlock the mystery is only just beginning, Dr Lutz said.
Although there is abundant fossil evidence that great apes were roaming Europe millions of years ago, there has been no confirmed cases of hominins – species closely related to humans – on the continent

TAMUCT hosts archaeology fair

2017-10-20T05:22:00.002-05:00

TAMUCT hosts archaeology fair

Thu, 2017-10-19 22:19 david_morris

By PAMELA GRANT
Cove Leader-Press
Fort Hood has a plethora of ancient artifacts that can help teach us more about the past, and for the rest of this month, several of those artifacts will be on display.
The Fort Hood Cultural Management Office joined Texas A&M University - Central Texas (TAMUCT) to hold their 3^rd Archaeology Fair on Thursday at the TAMUCT campus in Killeen. The event began at 10 a.m. and ran until 1 p.m.
October is Texas Archaeology Month, and in addition to Thursday’s fair, the college will be holding an open house for the rest of October in Building 1938 near the Sportsmen’s Center on Fort Hood Monday through Friday from 7:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. and 12:30 p.m. until 4:30 p.m. where they will have historical artifacts on display.
Both the fair and the display are intended to give the public a better understanding about this area’s history. Event hosts hope that this might kindle a desire to protect and preserve historical sites and artifacts.
Christine Jones, PhD, TAMUCT’s Assistant Professor of Anthropology and Criminal Justice, oversaw Thursday’s event.
“We’re educating the public about archaeology in Central Texas,” said Jones. “Hopefully some of the kids visiting will think ‘Oh wow, this is part of our education. It’s part of our history and pre-history.’”
Thursday’s Archaeology Fair included various hands-on activities and interactive demonstrations that were both fun and informative. Both children and adults could practice flint knapping to try to make an arrowhead, take the opportunity to throw a spear using an atlatl, learn about Native American history and the history of this area, dig for fossils, check out historic and pre-historic items from Fort Hood, and more.
“It was really neat for the kids be able to see and to be able to come out and get hands-on,” said Candace Frank, who brought her daughter and two sons to the event.
The spear throwing was one of the most popular events at the Archaeology Fair. Event-goers could throw spears using an atlatl which is an ancient spear-throwing device that was used before bows and arrows.
“A lot of people have been commenting on how much easier it is than bow and arrow,” said Jones. “It’s easier to just immediately pick it up and do it. The kids have been doing really well.”
In order to share her culture, Mildred Todd set up a table with several Navajo and Hopi items. Her table displayed books, pictures, toys, games, and more. Todd said that the children were especially excited by the games. She allowed event-goers to touch and interact with the items on display.
Todd said that it was important to her to share her heritage. She said that children tend to assume that the Native Americans live and act like they are depicted in movies. Todd said she wanted to show people that, in reality, they are just like everyone else.
Many parents brought their young children to the family-friendly event.
“They’re enjoying it. It’s great to be able to have the local stuff that was found and to be able to talk about all these local artifacts,” said Eileen Fredette, who brought her sons to the event. “That also exposes them to how people had to live.”
Anyone who missed the event—or those that want to check out the artifacts again—are welcome to check out the college’s open house which will be available for the rest of the month.

Celebrate Austin Museum Day Sunday, Sept. 17 with free admission to dozens of area museums

2017-09-17T06:56:00.000-05:00

Sunday, Sept. 17 marks the twentieth year of Austinites celebrating Austin Museum Day with free admission to dozens of area museums. In addition, there are special activities and prizes at many of the venues. Here are our five top picks for Austin Museum Day. See a list of the rest of the participating museums here.
1. The Blanton Museum of Art on The University of Texas campus is holding multiple activities for Austin Museum Day. Besides free admission and free parking at Brazos Garage, visitors can enjoy a community art project, traditional Indian dance and storytelling, organic paletas and special sales items in the museum store. 1-5 p.m. The Blanton Museum of Art at The University of Texas at Austin, 200 E. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd., Austin. 512-471-5482. www.blantonmuseum.org
2. Founded by Caleb Zammit, a lifelong toy collector and special needs teacher, the Austin Toy Museum is a nonprofit that showcases about 20,000 different toys. A number of classic arcade games and video games consoles are available for play. Noon-7 p.m. The Austin Toy Museum, 1108 E Cesar Chavez St., Austin. 512-220-9582. www.austintoymuseum.org
3. At the Bullock Texas State History Museum, native Texans and transplants alike can learn all about the heritage of the Lone Star State through the museum’s collection, such as 14,000-year-old American Indian artifacts and objects belonging to Spanish and French settlers. The museum also shows how development in Texas affected global politics and major events in American history, such as the American Revolution, the Louisiana Purchase and the fight for Mexican independence from Spain. For Austin Museum Day, activities inspired by a special exhibit, Pong to Pokémon: The Evolution of Electronic Gaming, will be available. Noon-5 p.m. Bullock Texas State History Museum, 1800 Congress Ave., Austin. www.thestoryoftexas.com
4. The Elisabet Ney Museum, run by Austin’s parks and recreation department, is housed in the former studio of Ney herself, called Formosa. The nineteenth-century artist, a woman ahead of her time, painted portraits and sculpted busts of European intellectuals and kings as well as Texas heroes, many of which are still on display in the Texas Capitol. Also housed at the museum are photographs and memorabilia of Ney herself. Noon-5 p.m. The Elisabet Ney Museum, 304 E. 44th St., Austin. 512-974-1625. www.austintexas.gov/Elizabetney
5. In 1982, former first lady Lady Bird Johnson helped organize what is now known as the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center to protect and preserve North America’s native plants and natural landscapes. The center features public gardens, woodlands, sweeping meadows and is the site of internationally influential research. For Austin Museum Day, visitors can enjoy story time in the outdoor classroom, seed-planting demonstrations, scavenger hunts in the gardens, and see insects on display as well as take tours throughout the day, 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center, 4801 La Crosse Ave., Austin. 512-232-0200. www.wildflower.org

Two prehistoric Indian sites found in path of FM diversion route

2017-09-12T02:39:00.001-05:00

Two prehistoric Indian sites found in path of FM diversion route

By Patrick Springer on Sep 11, 2017 at 12:45 p.m.

FARGO—Two campsites used by prehistoric Indians for butchering animals lie in the path of the diversion channel designed to provide flood protection for Fargo-Moorhead.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is well aware of the sites and is hiring a firm to conduct extensive archeological studies of the locations in consultation with area American Indian tribes.
One of the sites, with a surface area of about 15 acres, is along the Sheyenne River near Argusville in northern Cass County. The other, with a surface area of about 20 acres, is along the Maple River in southern Cass County.
John Strand, a Fargo city commissioner, briefed the city's Native American Commission on the two sites. Corps representatives have been invited to present their findings to the Native American Commission in October.
The two sites don't appear to pose a threat to the $2.2 billion diversion project, Strand said.
"I think the intent is to open the communication clearly, up front," he added. Although the tribes are concerned, "I didn't get the impression it was anything like Standing Rock," a reference to massive protests against the Dakota Access oil pipeline in central North Dakota.
Federal law requires the corps to identify cultural sites and, when possible, to build around them. When that isn't possible, the corps is required to mitigate the loss through extensive study and documentation, including photographs.
"In the case of these two sites, they are in the path of destruction," said Susan Malin-Boyce, an archeologist for the corps in St. Paul.
About 330 sites have been identified by the North Dakota State Historic Preservation Office within the diversion project area. The route of the 36-mile diversion channel has been surveyed, but not all of the upstream staging area has been reviewed, she said.
Walking surveys along the diversion route include those by representatives of area tribes, Malin-Boyce said.
"They walked the relevant sections of the diversion channel looking for cultural properties," she said.
Consultations with both Ojibwe and Dakota-Lakota tribes from the region started in 2009, and the walking investigations were performed in 2011 by American Indians, who searched for potential burials and other sacred sites.
Archeologists have surveyed more than 26,000 acres of project land, looking for artifacts and remnants of historical buildings visible on the surface. A second phase of surveys in 2013, focusing on areas where artifacts were found, identified the two campsites, apparently used by hunting parties.

The site along the Sheyenne River, near Argusville, which has been known since 1939, has yielded thousands of bone fragments as well as arrowheads and other points made from Knife River flint, quarried from western North Dakota and traded over a vast area.
Also, three feet below the surface, it contains an area with evidence that a large mammal carcass was burned, she said.

The actual archeological sites are probably much smaller than 15 or 20 acres. Bone fragments and stone artifacts have been spread out over time by frost upheavals, animals burrowing and farming, Malin-Boyce said.
Both sites are about 2,000 years old, placing them within the Middle Woodland era, a period when seminomadic ancient Indians occupied much of the eastern United States, including the Red River Valley. The Woodland Indians can't be traced to individual contemporary tribes, but likely have descendants among many tribes today, Malin-Boyce said.
The two campsite locations, both along rivers, apparently offered advantages in hunting, primarily buffalo and deer, she said. It's likely the sites were occupied seasonally for weeks or perhaps even months at a time.

Teams of specialists will begin investigating and documenting the sites soon, with field work to be completed by Veterans Day, Malin-Boyce said. The teams will include archeologists as well as paleo ethnobotanists, ceramicists and professional photographers, she said.
Following the field work, laboratory analysis likely will take a year.
On the surface, the two campsites, long obscured by time and the elements, are unremarkable.
"They just look like fields," Malin-Boyce said. "They don't look like anything."

50 million artifacts from Texas’ past kept at UT lab

2017-08-30T06:15:00.001-05:00

More than 50 million artifacts from Texas’ past kept at UT lab

Texas Archeological Research Laboratory is a museum that is not a museum at all.

Posted: 12:00 a.m. Wednesday, August 30, 2017

Highlights

The trove from the laboratory reminds us that one of Austin’s best museums is not a museum at all.

Access to more than 50 million artifacts at the research laboratory is tightly restricted.

The drawer opens wide to reveal its prize: scores of woven sandals, each hundreds of years old.
The astonishingly well-preserved shoes, tucked away in a North Austin archive, were discovered inside the Ceremonial Cave at Fort Bliss in West Texas. Scholars suggest that they were left behind in the dry rock shelter as gifts from the faithful. There, desert conditions have ensured that this Native American apparel survives to tell a concrete story about a little-known Texas past.
The leathery trove also reminds us that one of Austin’s best museums is not a museum at all.
Although the Texas Archeological Research Laboratory contains more than 50 million precious objects, access is tightly restricted. Very few people even know where on the grounds of the J.J. Pickle Research Campus this University of Texas facility is located.
Yet the public can view some of its wonders, which go back 13,000 years, on its educational websites, such as the grown-up TARL Blog and the family-friendly Texas Beyond History, or visit them in person at public venues, including the Bullock Texas State History Museum and the LBJ Presidential Library, where selections of artifacts are now on view.
One also can enjoy a selection of sumptuous images from the lab’s archive in the recently published book “The Collections: The University of Texas at Austin,” edited by Andrée Bober, or browse the free digital edition at thecollections.utexas.edu.
Additionally, the lab, which is part of UT’s College of Liberal Arts, co-hosts an onsite fair with the Texas Historical Commission during October, which is Texas Archeology Month.
“TARL is an invaluable resource that preserves the history — and prehistory — of the people of Texas,” says Drew Sitters, archaeologist with AmaTerra Environmental Inc., an Austin-based consultant. “With its wealth of data, TARL facilitates research studies to help answer the many questions about our past.”
How it began
The Pickle campus, which sits on 475 restricted acres of prairie just south of the Domain development, was a magnesium processing facility in the years leading up to and during World War II. Magnesium is used in munitions, including luminous flares, tracer rounds and incendiary devices, and as an alloy in certain bomb casings.
In 1946, UT engineers petitioned to lease it as an applied research center, and then U.S. Rep. Lyndon Baines Johnson helped the university purchase the land three years later. Among other things, it has served as a key incubator for Austin’s tech industry, one reason so many companies are located in this area north of U.S. 183, originally miles from any residential neighborhoods.
“There was a quarry right here on the grounds of the research campus,” says Jonathan Jarvis, associate director of the lab. “I suspect that Quarry Lake on Braker Lane just west of MoPac may have also been part of the operation, but I don’t have any evidence for that readily at hand. Presumably the building that currently houses TARL was used for extracting the magnesium after the initial mechanical processing of the source rock was done elsewhere on the campus.”
The lab’s collection didn’t move to this campus until the 1960s, but systematic archaeological research in Texas goes back to the 1910s, then entered a golden age in the 1930s when federal New Deal projects put crowds of men and women to work on Texas archaeology.
“It began with J.E. Pearce, a professor of anthropology here at UT,” Jarvis explains. “Professor Pearce, who was himself a former principal of Austin High School, sent a questionnaire about artifact finds to school principals throughout the state, which was the first attempt to gather what is — for lack of a better term — a database of Texas archaeology.”
Pearce’s ultimate goal was to establish a museum of Texas anthropology for the university. For some time, many artifacts were stored at UT’s Little Campus; others at the Texas Memorial Museum.
The lab has undergone permutations through the years, but since its founding in the 1960s, it become the central repository for Texas archaeology at the university, from Pearce’s day to the present.
“I would contend that there has been more than one golden age of archaeology in Texas,” Jarvis says. “During the Great Depression, the Works Progress Administration conducted tremendous archaeological excavations across the state under the supervision of UT archaeologists. The program put a lot of unemployed local men to work, advanced our understanding of Texas archaeology and resulted in a truly amazing collection of artifacts.”
Archaeology for what now is called “cultural resource management” purposes — in compliance with laws and regulations applying mainly to government-controlled lands like roadways and military bases — began in earnest in the 1970s, which drastically increased the number of archaeological investigations and began a shift away from archaeology being a strictly academic exercise.
“In the present day, cutting-edge technologies allow for new discoveries and provide fresh insights on the existing body of knowledge,” Jarvis says. “So, another golden age, so to speak.”
What is here
After threading through offices resembling the set of a World War II-era movie about remotely stationed scientists, the lucky visitor, accompanied by multiple guides, first encounters maps. Tens of thousands of maps shelved in horizontal files.
“TARL maintains the archaeological site records for the state of Texas,” Javis says. “There are roughly 80,000 documented archaeological sites in Texas, each of which is plotted on a 7.5-minute United States Geological Survey topographic map, meaning they each cover an area 7.5 minutes of latitude by 7.5 minutes of longitude. There are about 4,440 of those maps covering Texas; it’s a big place.”
Geography is important for archaeological research in general, Jarvis says, and specific site locations are of critical importance. Vandalism and the looting of artifacts are unfortunately common occurrences, so specific site location information is restricted by state and federal laws.
“Many of the sites in Texas are on private land, so trespassing and privacy concerns are another consideration,” Jarvis says. “In any case, we can only disclose site location information to qualified researchers with a legitimate need to know.”
Besides identifying, cataloging and making available to scholars all the artifacts — as small as minuscule pot shards — a crucial lab function is preservation. A good portion of artifacts are kept in chilly lockers not unlike those in a food warehouse.
“The materials range from exceptionally durable stone to the most delicate of perishable organic material and everything in between,” Jarvis says. “Providing the appropriate environmental conditions for a collection of that volume and diversity is indeed a challenge.”
Many of the artifacts are stone tools and the like, which can tolerate normal fluctuations in temperature and humidity.
“So, no, we don’t necessarily need to store the entire volume of material in climate-controlled museum cabinets,” Jarvis says. “The cost of doing so would be exorbitant, approaching astronomic.”
The American Indian legacy
It is hard to exaggerate the excitement and pleasure felt by a visiting history buff allowed to hold a gallon-size plastic bag full of colorful shards extracted from the site of Fort St. Louis, the ill-fated camp of René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle’s lost party of Frenchmen in the 1680s.
The Texas Archeological Research Laboratory covers the full range of human habitation and activity in Texas, from the Paleo-Indian period — about 13,000 years ago, depending on whom you ask — to the early 20th century. Nearly all the collections are from Texas, along with a small amount of material from elsewhere around the world.
Virtually all the Texas material is American Indian, which comes with legal and theoretical challenges.
“If I had to guess, I would put it in the ballpark of 90 percent to 95 percent,” Jarvis says. “The Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act is the most directly applicable law in terms of collection management. Much has been written about the conflict between scientific analysis and the wishes of descendant communities. While we are a scientific research lab first and foremost, our approach is to treat objects that are sacred to Native Americans with the respect and dignity they deserve, and we try to engage tribes as partners where possible.”
Paleo-Indians, the earliest inhabitants of North America, present another nettlesome issue. Their close genetic relationship to today’s American Indians was established through improved DNA testing during a nine-year court case related to the Kennewick Man, whose remains were found near the Columbia River in Washington state. Yet some still theorize, with less convincing scientific evidence, that Paleo-Indians were instead migrants from Europe or elsewhere.
“Exactly when they arrived has not yet been entirely resolved, but there is solid evidence for their presence in Central Texas at least 11,000 years ago or so, based on radiocarbon dating from carefully excavated sites such as Wilson-Leonard,” Jarvis says. “The Wilson-Leonard burial site along Brushy Creek in Williamson County is perhaps best known for an ancient burial popularly called the Leander Lady or Leanne.”
Leanne?
“She was buried along with a sandstone tool and beneath a limestone slab,” reported Dahlia Dandashi in the American-Statesman. “It is presumed that she was around the age of 30 at her death and measured about (5 feet 3 inches) in height. … Her burial is one of the earliest and most intact uncovered sites in North America.”
Paleo-Indians were long thought of as big-game hunters who followed Pleistocene megafauna, such as woolly mammoths, across the ice age landscape, Jarvis explains. Research conducted by the lab’s archaeologists and others paints a more complex picture of their subsistence strategy and culture.
What should ordinary people do when they encounter what they think might be a remnant of an earlier time, even if not from 11,000 years ago?
“There are local archaeological societies in just about every region and major metropolitan area in Texas,” Jarvis says, “and those groups are a good place to start for anyone interested in Texas archaeology. Similarly, the Texas Archeological Society is a venerable statewide organization that promotes responsible investigation. And the Texas Historical Commission has a network of volunteer archaeological stewards who are available to assist with documenting and interpreting possible sites.”

The well-preserved remains offer a glimpse into the rapidly shifting world that surrounded Naia, a girl who died around 13,000 years ago.

2017-08-28T02:41:00.000-05:00

Ice Age Predators Found Alongside Oldest Human in Americas

The well-preserved remains offer a glimpse into the rapidly shifting world that surrounded Naia, a girl who died around 13,000 years ago.

bigger than a modern grizzly.
Photograph by Paul Nicklen, National Geographic Creative

The skull and bones of an ancient puma lie on the floor of the flooded cave.
Photograph by Paul Nicklen, National Geographic CreativeDivers explore Hoyo Negro. The cave previously yielded the oldest and most complete skeleton of a human in the AmericaPhotograph by Paul Nicklen, NatioBy MichaPUBLISHED August 25, 2017CALGARY, ALBERTA, CANADASome 13,000 years ago in what’s now the Yucatán Peninsula, a deep pit inside a cave became the final resting place for a menagerie of exotic animalNow, their exquisitely preserved bones, trapped for centuries under water, are offering some of the first solid clues to large Ice Age beasts were mixing and migrating between North and South America after the Isthmus of Panama connected the two contine“We’re going to go from a place with no records to having the best records for a lot of megafauna from Mexico, Central America, and northern South America,” says East Tennessee State University’s Blaine Schubert, who presented the findings this week at the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology’s annual meeting in CalgaryThe animal bones are also painting a more detailed picture of the strange world inhabited by Naia, an Ice Age girl found in the cave who is the oldest, most complete human skeleton yet discovered in the Americas. (See how humans first entered the Americas.

Giant Underwater Cave Was Hiding Oldest Human Skeleton in the Americas In a deep underwater cave, three divers make a stunning discovery: the oldest complete human skeleton ever found in the Americas. See the ancient remains, venture through the remarkable deep-water chamber, and see how a skeleton belonging to a teenage girl from 13,000 years ago led scientists to a major revelation about the earliest Americans.

Like the saber-toothed cats, giant sloths, and other wild creatures trapped in the cave, Naia most likely wandered in looking for fresh water and took a fatal fall into the 90-foot-deep pit. Later, rising seas brought on by melting glaciers raised the Yucatán Peninsula’s water table by hundreds of feet, flooding the caves and entombing the skeletons.

Cave divers first came across Hoyo Negro—Spanish for “black hole”—in 2007, and were stunned to find a massive water-filled chamber rife with articulated animal remains and the skeleton of Naia. Expeditions through the years have mapped at least 28 animal skeletons within the pit, only a handful of which have been fully excavated.

Carnivore Complexity

Now some of those bones have been recovered, and the latest fossil examinations are giving paleontologists crucial new insight into the Great American Interchange, a dizzying migration of ancient animals between North and South America.

After the Isthmus of Panama tectonically rose from the sea some 3 to 5 million years ago, the ecosystems that existed on the two continents—left to stew in their own evolutionary juices for tens of millions of years—were at last able to mix and mingle.

This complex exchange of life settled into the Americas’ modern ecosystems: South America gave North America armadillos, and North America gave South America llamas. But paleontologists still know very little about this massive interchange, since fossils are notoriously hard to come by in the tropical forests that cover the region.

By contrast, Hoyo Negro is a fossil bonanza. The underwater cave preserved entire animals, because the carcasses had nowhere to go, and the low-oxygen waters ensured that the remains laid undisturbed for more than ten thousand years.

Paleontologists and cave divers have found the remains of saber-toothed cats, peccaries, mountain lions, tapirs, and elephant-like animals called gomphotheres within Hoyo Negro’s depths. Some parts of the underwater cave even preserved the footprints of ancient bears, crusted over in a film of calcite.

Earlier this year, the joint U.S.-Mexico team identified a new species of ground sloth in the cave, which they named Nohochichak xibalbahkah, Mayan for “great-clawed dweller of the underworld.” (Read about another ancient sloth found elsewhere in the Yucatán.)

At the paleontology meeting, Schubert revealed that bears also entered these caves—and, in the case of Hoyo Negro, sometimes never exited. Divers have found three exquisitely preserved skulls of the extinct bear species Arctotherium wingei. A cousin of the Andean spectacled bear, the ancient species was slightly smaller than today’s grizzly bear. (Read more about its sister species—the biggest bear that ever lived.)

The skulls are so well-preserved, Schubert says, that visitors to his lab often mistake them for high-quality reconstructions. Divers also found the skull of a stocky, coyote-like canid previously only known from South America.

Together, the remains represent the first hard evidence of carnivores leaving North America for South America, diversifying into new South American species, and then returning northward—adding greater complexity to the Great American Interchange.

It’s likely that Hoyo Negro will turn up yet more surprises: Schubert recently received a National Geographic grant for further fieldwork at the site. The team hopes to collect more bones—and venture deeper into the darkness.

“When you start out with a little bit of data, it’s easy to spin a simple scenario,” says Greg McDonald, a U.S. Bureau of Land Management paleontologist and a member of the Hoyo Negro team. “We are now recognizing that it is much more complicated, and this is the real fun of paleontology.”

A diver picks up an ancient bear skull found on the floor of Hoyo Negro.
Photograph by Paul Nicklen, National Geographic Creative

Three bear skulls found in the cave belong to an extinct species of short-faced bear that would have been bigger than a modern grizzly.
Photograph by Paul Nicklen, National Geographic Creative

Carnivore Complexity

NEW FIND

2017-08-10T00:17:00.000-05:00

A friend of mine found this one today.

Archaeology Day coming to Serpent Mound

2017-08-03T06:14:00.003-05:00

Archaeology Day coming to Serpent Mound

Features

Submitted story

Atlatl demonstrations will be given throughout the day during Archaeology Day on Aug. 19 at Serpent Mound.

Serpent Mound stands as one of the state’s most well-known examples of the prolific earthen artwork of Ohio’s ancient cultures. It is, in fact, one of the largest effigy mounds in the world. On Saturday, Aug. 19, visitors will be given an opportunity to learn about these ancient peoples and their works during Archaeology Day from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Moundbuilders of Native North America, Before the Pyramids

2017-08-03T06:10:00.001-05:00

The earthen monuments on exhibit is a glimpse at Native American construction over the last 5,000 years

Rick Kearns • July 27, 2017

Marvels of the ancient world include the extraordinary earthen mounds built by Native people in North America. There is a new exhibition that highlights these achievements: Moundbuilders: Ancient Architects of North America opened June 24 at the Penn Museum in Philadelphia. It tells part of the story of more than 5,000 years of Native American moundbuilding through photographs, archival excavation records, and more than 60 artifacts excavated at mound sites throughout the eastern United States. The exhibition runs through December 2017.
“Places don’t make it into museum exhibits as often as objects do, but Moundbuilders highlights the amazing earthen monuments constructed by Native American populations over the course of the last 5,000-plus years,” said Dr. Megan Kassabaum, Weingarten Assistant Curator for North America at the Penn Museum and an archaeologist who directs the Smith Creek Archaeological Project, curator of the exhibition.
“By opening visitors’ eyes to these incredible engineering achievements and the people who built them, the exhibit emphasizes the complexity and variation of pre-contact Native cultures across the eastern United States and ties these places, people, and practices to contemporary groups.”

Download Today! Native Resorts, Spas and Casinos that Support and Reflect the Spirit of their Communities

Read Native Resorts, Spas and Casinos that Support and Reflect the Spirit of their Communities and plan your next trip. Download it right now!

Many thousands of mounds were built across the U.S. over the last several millennia. They include the Watson Brake site in northeast Louisiana from 3500 BCE—built 1,000 years before the Great Pyramid at Giza—to Cahokia, a city of well over 10,000 people by the 1050 CE located near St. Louis, Missouri as well as the ancient mounds and complex community of Poverty Point in southern Louisiana.
The exhibition includes excavated artifacts made from a variety of materials such as a carved underwater panther boatstone believed to be used as a spear weight along with pots and pendants, some bearing sacred designs associated with the Southeastern Ceremonial Complex; that site featured a system of signs and symbols shared among different groups living hundreds of miles apart ca. 1000-1500 CE.
Photos of the mounds include those of Cahokia, Poverty Point and other spots in the eastern part of the country but mainly from the Mississippi Valley.
The Cahokia site was set amid the “largest prehistoric concentration of people and monumental architecture north of Mexico,” according to Dr. Kassabaum. The entire city had approximately 120 mounds and the ceremonial core of the city spans about five square miles.
One of Cahokia’s important features is Monk’s Mound, the largest site discovered so far, which stood at 100 feet and included five separate terraces and spans across 14 acres.
The Poverty Point site consisted of one 70 feet-tall mound, four smaller mounds and six concentric earthen ridges surrounding a central open area. Artifacts collected from the site indicate the presence of skilled artisans and extensive long-distance trade extending from the Great Lakes to the Gulf of Mexico.
Penn Museum staff reported that they are working on other Native American projects for the future

American Indian artifacts, art and related collectibles at Best of Santa Fe, August 12-13

2017-08-03T06:05:00.002-05:00

American Indian artifacts, art and related collectibles at Best of Santa Fe, August 12-13

Santa Fe , New Mexico
July 27, 2017

native american american indian war shirts navajo rugs weavings beadwork germantown pottery pueblo

Early to mid-1900s Southern Plains war shirt, a museum quality beaded hide example as picturesque as it gets and in very good condition (est. $20,000-$40,000).

Allard Auctions, Inc.

(ArtfixDaily.com)

SANTA FE, N.M. – Over 800 pieces of American Indian artifacts, art and related collectibles, to include two major collections and other items in a variety of categories, will come up for bid at Best of Santa Fe, an annual auction event hosted by Allard Auctions, Inc., based in St. Ignatius, Mont. The auction will be held the weekend of Aug. 12-13, at the Santa Fe Scottish Rite Temple.

This year’s Best of Santa Fe is being held the week before Indian Market, giving collectors of American Indian items added incentive to be in town that weekend. For those who can’t be there in person, online bidding will be provided by iCollector.com and LiveAuctioneers.com. Phone and absentee bids will also be taken. Santa Fe Scottish Rite Temple is at 463 Paseo de Peralta.

One of the major collections is that of the longtime collector, hobbyist, Indian trader and feather artist Bob Wills from Dumont, N.J. “We’re honored to have Bob’s beadwork collection, plus the other interesting things he’s gathered over the years,” said Steve Allard of Allard Auctions, Inc.

The other headliner is an old collection of beadwork, baskets, cornhusks, horse gear and other pieces, gathered in the Columbia River Basin in the 1950s and ‘60s. All pieces are documented in the ledger of the original owner, Tommy Thompson, along with interesting notes and stories.

Also consigned are additional quality beadwork examples, a huge assortment of fine baskets, several high-end Navajo rugs/weavings, some rare old Pueblo pottery, “and the best group of Northwest Coast and Eskimo items it’s ever been our privilege to offer,” Mr. Allard remarked.

The auction will also feature lots of great Indian jewelry, some really rare original Native and Western art, a collection of Apache items, kachina carvings, Santa Fe antiques, antique trade beads, and a selection of interesting and hard-to-find antique, Western and Mexican collectibles.

A strong candidate for top lot of the auction is the early-to-mid-1900s Southern Plains war shirt, with an estimate of $20,000-$40,000. The museum-quality beaded hide war shirt, with shoulder and arm strips, quilled human hair drops, ermine tail suspensions, yellow ochred edges with fine cut-in fringe and beautiful green ochred body is as picturesque as it gets and in very good shape.

Of all the Navajo rug/weavings up for bid, one stands out from the rest, as much for its size (133 inches by 92 inches) as its estimate ($15,000-$30,000). Made circa 1970s-1980s, the room-size Teec Nos Pos rug is done in a sturdy, extra fine weave and loaded with wonderful, traditional and more contemporary figures and symbols. And like the war shirt, it is in very good condition.

Other Navajo rugs will include a mid-1900s extra fine weave fancy Germantown revival wearing blanket, very colorful and with symmetrical designs and fringed edges, 53 inches by 40 inches (est. $10,000-$20,000); and a room-size fine weave storm pattern rug, executed circa 1970s/’80s in gorgeous earth tone colors, museum quality and in excellent condition (est. $7,500-$15,000).

Several goldtone photos by the renowned American photographer E.S. Curtis (1868-1952) will cross the auction block. One is an early 1900s original orotone photo titled The Old Well at Acoma, in the original frame and signed (est. $10,000-$20,000). Another is a glass orotone photo of Curtis’s famous Signal Fire to the Mountain Gods in the original frame (est. $8,000-$16,000).

Two very different lots have identical estimates of $5,000-$10,000. One is a mid-to-late 1800s Mohawk solid wood cradleboard with elaborately hand-carved and painted designs and crossed early Canadian flags, 28 inches in length. The other is a circa 1900s Zuni pottery water jar, rather large (12 inches by 14 inches) and very interesting with rare double deer figures and floral forms.

Start times are 12 noon on Saturday, Aug. 12, and 10 am on Sunday, Aug. 13 (Mountain time). Previews will be held both auction days: from 8 am until noon on Aug. 12 and from 8-10 am on Aug. 13. A buyer’s premium of 20 percent (for online purchases) and 15 percent (for in-person and absentee bidding) will be applied to all purchases. Register in advance for online bidding.

Allard Auctions, Inc. has been selling exclusively American Indian artifacts and art at auction since 1968. The firm is always on the hunt for quality merchandise for future auctions. To inquire about consigning a single piece, an estate or an entire collection, you may call them at (406) 745-0500 or toll-free: (888) 314-0343; or, you can e-mail them at info@allardauctions.com.

To learn more about Allard Auctions, Inc., and the upcoming Best of Santa Fe 2017 auction Aug. 12-13, visit www.allardauctions.com. For a full color catalog ($30), you may call (406) 745-0500.

Cowboy and Native American Indian artifacts up for bid Sept. 29-Oct. 1 at Showtime Auction

2017-08-03T06:03:00.003-05:00

Cowboy and Native American Indian artifacts up for bid Sept. 29-Oct. 1 at Showtime Auction

Ann Arbor , Michigan
August 2, 2017

cowboy indiam native american cigar tins western americana cash registers show globes stage coach collectibles & memorabilia general antiques & arts

Uncle Sam's Monogram Whiskey self-framed tin sign, one of over 200 signs and calendars in the auction.

Showtime Auction Services

(ArtfixDaily.com)

ANN ARBOR, Mich. – What will quite possibly be the largest and most important collection of Cowboy and Native American Indian items ever offered at auction will come up for bid on the weekend of September 29th through October 1st at the Washtenaw Farm Council Grounds in Ann Arbor. The three-day event will be held by Showtime Auction Services, based in Woodhaven.

Approximately 2,000 lots of investment-grade, museum-quality artifacts will cross the auction block, the vast majority of them coming from the lifetime collection of Brad and Mary Watts of Phoenix, Ariz. “Mary passed away not long ago and Brad has decided to unleash this incredible trove of material onto the collecting public,” said Mike Eckles of Showtime Auction Services.

The Watts collection is filled with Native American Indian objects as well as traditional cowboy antiques and collectibles. “Even the cigar tins are Western themed with cowboys and Indians,” Mr. Eckles remarked. This is a rare chance for “Old West” fans to enhance their collections.”

All items in the auction are guaranteed authentic, with no reproductions or fakes. In addition to the Watts collection, the auction will also feature investment-grade items from other advanced collections, to include cash registers, pharmaceutical show globes and holiday collectibles (for Halloween and Thanksgiving) and more.

Another highlight for collectors: The auction will be held at the same time as the 8th annual Indian Art & Frontier Antiques Show, which will be one day only – Saturday, September 30th, from 9-4 Eastern time – also at the Washtenaw Farm Council Grounds in Ann Arbor. For dealer table information regarding that event, interested parties may call Dick Lloyd at (248) 840-7070.

Hours for the auction are 9-5 Eastern Time all 3 days. To get a 280 page full color catalog for $40, call Showtime Auction Services at (313) 715-4486 (EST). You can order a full color fold-out flyer for free. The auction will be posted on the website around early September. Online bidding will start at that time. Online Bidding will be available through LiveAuctioneers and Invaluable. You can go to Showtime’s website at www.showtimeauctions.com and click the “Bid Now” button. As always, absentee and phone bidding will also be available.

The host hotel is Weber’s Inn located at 3050 Jackson Avenue in Ann Arbor. For reservations, call (734) 769-2500 and mention Showtime Auctions to get the discounted rate of $99 per night. The Washtenaw Farm Council Grounds are located at 5055 Ann Arbor/Saline Rd. in Ann Arbor. Just 4 miles from the Weber’s Inn.

Showtime Auction Services is always accepting quality items for future sales. To consign one item or an entire collection, you may call Michael Eckles at (951) 453-2415; or, you can e-mail him at mike@showtimeauctions.com . To learn more about Showtime Auction Services and the big upcoming September 29th through October 1st auction, please visit www.showtimeauctions.com.

MORE EAST TEXAS FOSSILS

2017-07-16T16:13:00.001-05:00

BLM invites public to tour archaeology field school

2017-07-07T05:31:00.001-05:00

BLM considers offering Utah’s Recapture Canyon — rich in American Indian artifacts — for oil and gas leasing

2017-07-06T02:49:00.002-05:00

BLM considers offering Utah’s Recapture Canyon — rich in American Indian artifacts — for oil and gas leasing

By BRIAN MAFFLY | The Salt Lake Tribune

First Published Jul 05 2017 07:00AM • Last Updated Jul 05 2017 03:02 pmThe Bureau of Land Management is proposing to lease Racapture Canyon, east of Blanding, for oil and gas development, along with other culturally important spots in Utah’s San Juan County.

Environmental review » The feds want to assess 45 parcels that could be offered; critics worry about damage to archaeological sites.

Recapture Canyon is so rich in fragile Native American prehistory that it is closed to motorized use, yet the Bureau of Land Management is now proposing to lease the canyon east of Blanding for oil and gas development, along with other culturally important spots in Utah's San Juan County.

The land agency has initiated an environmental assessment of leasing 45 parcels covering 57,074 acres recently "nominated" by energy companies interested in tapping these areas for hydrocarbons. Under the Obama administration, the BLM would have "deferred" a leasing decision on most of these parcels, but President Donald Trump's strategy of American "energy dominance" requires federal land managers to ease impediments to drill,

Historic preservationists are concerned that the proposed leases could usher in drilling near numerous known sites occupied by Ancestral Puebloans, who left a rich record of their lives in area canyons and mesas.

"This is the second example [recently] of how the Trump administration's push for oil and gas development is running roughshod over Utah's federal public lands," said Steve Bloch, legal director for the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance. "First, Utah BLM announced its intent to sell oil and gas leases in Utah's amazing San Rafael Swell and right next to Dinosaur National Monument and now this."

Most of land proposed for leasing is east of the new Bears Ears National Monument. Under the BLM's 2008 resource management plan, this area is open to oil and gas leasing without many special stipulations protecting cultural resources. But that doesn't mean the agency will automatically allow drilling, officials said.

"The BLM is aware there are sensitive resources here and will be carefully reviewing each parcel, consulting with tribes and cultural resource experts, and reaching out to the public as part of our environmental review process and responsibilities under the National Historic Preservation Act," said Robin Naeve, fluid minerals chief for the BLM's Utah state office.

The environmental review launched last week will determine whether these nominated parcels are appropriate for leasing.

"As part of public scoping, people are invited to come forward with knowledge or concerns about these parcels, so they can be addressed. A robust analysis is key to making well-reasoned decisions about whether it is appropriate to lease these parcels," BLM spokeswoman Lisa Bryant added.

The public has until July 27 to file comments that would be used to guide the environmental review.

This year's Canyon Country lease sale could be a replay of the 2015 sale, when the BLM proposed offering numerous parcels in the same archaeologically rich areas only to withdraw 36 of them after a public outcry. At the time, the agency said the "geographic area is known to possess [a] considerable degree of unique cultural resources."

Some parcels now proposed for sale cover the same areas around Montezuma Creek and Alkali Ridge, which feature the highest concentrations of archaeological sites in the nation. One covers Montezuma Canyon at the site of Three Kiva Pueblo, an accessible Anasazi ruin the BLM has restored and developed for public enjoyment.

Another proposed lease covers the site of a "great house," a massive sandstone masonry structure of great importance to a civilization centered around New Mexico's Chaco Canyon.

Josh Ewing, director of Friends of Cedar Mesa, believes this is the northernmost great house associated with Chacoan culture.

"This one would rival the largest buildings in San Juan County today," Ewing said. "It would have been the sort of thing people would have travel to from far away."

Locals are familiar with Recapture Canyon, long a sore point for ATV enthusiasts who would like to ride there. Three parcels eyed for leasing span this canyon, which became a flashpoint in the West's public land conflicts when protesters drove through three years ago.

San Juan County has unsuccessfully petitioned the BLM for years to grant a right-of-way along the perennial creek below Recapture Dam, which courses between scenic sandstone walls where cliff dwellings are still evident. The agency closed the canyon to motorized use in 2007 after discovering unauthorized trail construction had damaged numerous archaeological sites.

Impatient with what locals saw as BLM dithering, San Juan County Commissioner Phil Lyman organized the illegal ride to protest federal land management policies that complicate access and use of public lands, which comprise 92 percent of Utah's largest county. Lyman eventually was convicted of a misdemeanor and spent 10 days behind bars.

The proposed leases cover southern portions of the canyon, from Browns Canyon south to Perkins Road, which harbors Recapture's most vulnerable archaeological sites. The ATV protest ride passed through the northern portion and exited at Browns Canyon.

According to Bryant, 19 parcels are inside the stalled San Juan master leasing area, a region proposed for a special planning district that would ensure energy development doesn't overwhelm other resources.

Under Obama, the requests for leasing would have been put off until that plan was complete. Ewing believes it would be best for both industry and conservation if BLM stuck to that policy.

"Otherwise they will have protests and lawsuits every time they do something," he said. "You will be more energy dominant if your energy development system is not tied up in the courts."

The journey of the 1,000-year-old canoe found in Red River

2017-06-22T19:26:00.003-05:00

The journey of the 1,000-year-old canoe found in Red River

Play Video

Local couple cannot believe they were so lucky to find an incredible artifact. (Henrietta Wildsmith/The Times)

Robert Cornett and Jeanna Bradley thirst for knowledge about the Caddo American Indians who once inhabited the land along the Red River.
The Hosston residents often research the tribe's history and search for remnants of arrowheads and pottery on the land, in northern Caddo Parish. However, as they set out to peruse the river banks for more tokens from the past, they didn't expect to find one that would make themselves a part of history.
On June 7, the couple found a canoe on the river bank in Belcher believed to have been carved from a tree by members of the Caddo tribe more than 900 years ago.
"We were riding the river, just looking at the banks to see if we could see anything," Cornett said. "We found some pottery and little pieces of arrowhead and grindstone. (We) rode on down the river and coming back seen a log sticking out – it looked funny on the end. We kind of had an idea of what it was and went to digging and that's what it was."

The next day, they alerted state officials of their findings. Then began preparation to excavate the canoe and begin further research and preservation of the artifact.
The Caddos' canoe may have journeyed across many miles to arrive on the sandy banks and into the hands of the couple. And it has many more miles to go before finding its new permanent home – a journey that begins with tracking its origin through time.
The creation of a Caddo canoe
A team gathered Wednesday at the site to begin the excavation. Once seen in its entirety, a few details were determined about the canoe before sending it off to a safer location.
"It looks very similar to one that was found in 1983 that is now on exhibit at the Louisiana State Exhibit Museum and that one dated to about 800-1100, so this could be 900 years old or more," said Jeffery Girard, a retired archaeologist called out to the site.

The canoe was carved out of a tree trunk, believed to have been a Cypress, but further research will confirm the origin.

It's dimensions are 10.3 meters long (or about 33.5 feet), less than 2.5 feet wide and 2.5 feet deep, according to state archaeologist Chip McGimsey.
Currently, its weight is unknown, but it took heavy machinery, manpower and engineering prowess to carefully lift and pull the massive canoe out of the bank and onto a trailer for transport to its next destination.

"It's important because it's unique. It may be the largest prehistoric watercraft found anywhere in North America," McGimsey said. "It's very large, and you don't find these preserved very often. ... Anything with wood usually deteriorates."
The canoe is in "incredible condition," Girard said, and a bit larger than the canoe found in the area 34 years ago.
"We're going to ship it to Texas A&M University where it will be conserved," Girard said. "They'll remove the moisture from the wood and replace it with polyethylene glycol that will retain the cell structure of the wood so it doesn't deteriorate over time."
The university has a lab skilled in the restoration of historic artifacts, he said.
Because of its massive capacity and weight, McGimsey said, the canoe probably was built near the river to avoid having to be lifted.
"You can look at a dug-out canoe and know instantly what it is and what it was like to ride in it, to work in it, to go fishing in it and do your business," McGimsey said. "A lot of these things were probably used for traders going up and down the river carrying goods from one town to another."
The maiden voyage

How the canoe lay undiscovered for nearly a millennia is a myster. But Girard has a theory.
"It was sitting in very loose sand and we suspect that it probably washed in here, maybe in last spring's floods that did so much to the river," he said. "It may be that recent that it came here. It may have been lodged somewhere upstream and got loose and washed in here."

It's not the first artifact to be found in the area. A large archaeology site was discovered about eight miles away, which is believed to have been occupied by Caddos around 1100 A.D. The canoe may have be a part of the site, Girard said.
A team of archaeologists will return to the site next winter once crops have been cleared to determine if an American Indian camp or village is in the area.
In 1983, Vivian resident John Paul Hobbs discovered a smaller canoe about two miles south of the latest discovery site. He remembers the day vividly and it's still a proud point of his life.

"I was fishing and when I found it sticking out of the riverbank. It was quite the find," Hobbs said.
The canoe he found was donated to the Louisiana State Exhibit Museum, where it's currently on display.
When he found out about the latest discovery, he felt the excitement wash over him all over again and made sure he was at the excavation site to witness the moment.
"It's just amazing that they found another one and I'm really proud of them," Hobbs said.
The future of history's latest find

Bradley and Cornett's wish was for it to be donated to a museum.
“When we found it we were excited because we found a part of history and we wanted to make sure everybody got to see it," Cornett said.

After speaking with the landowners— who held rights to the artifacts— the couple found out it would be donated to the state for safe keeping.
“We want to be able to take our kids and our grandkids there to show them off and other people around the state can come to see it,” Bradley said.
It could take more than a year or two before the canoe is ready for public display. But once the restoration is complete, the canoe will return to Shreveport-Bossier City, said Girard. It's not yet decided where it will be displayed, but the Red River National Wildlife Refuge and the Louisiana State Exhibit Museum are a couple of options.
It's been a long journey for the wood, and its voyage now continues to the next stage.
"Finding one is very rare, especially one of this size," McGimsey said. "But its ability to tell a story about the past is really unparalleled because they represent something the average person can see and understand and really reach out and touch the past."

Prehistoric Indian canoe unearthed along Red River

2017-06-22T07:08:00.000-05:00

Indian canoe unearthed along Red River

BELCHER, LA -- Excavation efforts have unearthed a large, prehistoric Indian canoe along the Red River in north Caddo Parish.
One archaeologist said the almost 34-foot-long dugout canoe, described it in very good condition even though one side is missing. The canoe, weighing an estimated 1,000 pounds, could be the largest ever found intact in North America.
Excavation, which was conducted near the town of Belcher, was completed this morning and crews then began the process of bringing the canoe up the river embankment.
The dugout canoe will be taken to Texas A&M University, where preservation efforts could take one to two years. Once that is done, the boat will be on display.
The canoe is believed to be 800 to 1,000 years old, an archaeologist at the site said. It was believed used by Caddo Indians who settled along the Red River and its tributaries.
It was found earlier this spring by a woman looking for artifacts along the banks of the river. She was among those at the site on Wednesday.
A Caddo Indian dugout canoe, which is smaller than the one excavated on Wednesday, was found along the Red River in the 1980s. That cypress dugout, which is believed to have been crafted between 1005 and 1065, was preserved and is on exhibit at the Louisiana State Exhibit Museum in Shreveport.

7-million-year-old fossils widen divide between humans and | Cosmos

2017-05-25T07:39:00.001-05:00

7-million-year-old fossils widen divide between humans and chimps

A new study on human evolution sparks struggle of Darwinian proportions. Cheryl Jones reports.

This is a 7.24 million year old upper premolar of a Graecopithecus from Azmaka, Bulgaria.

WOLFGANG GERBER, UNIVERSITY OF TÜBINGEN

A row has erupted over claims the human and chimpanzee lineages might have split hundreds of thousands of years earlier than previously thought.

Research based on a study of the ancient skeletal remains of the species Graecopithecus freybergi, from the eastern Mediterranean, is published in two papers in the journal PLoS One.

A big international team of researchers co-led by Madelaine Boehme, of the University of Tubingen, Germany, says that G. freybergi might be the common ancestor of members of the genus Homo and of chimps.

The research team contends the split might have occurred in the eastern Mediterranean.

RECOMMENDED

Where did we come from? A primer on early human evolution

PALAEONTOLOGY

The study of prehistory is confounded by a sparse fossil record that has nevertheless generated a dizzying number of possible family trees. It is exacerbated by problems in the dating of material from archaeological sites that have been disturbed.

The team did CT scans of a lower jawbone from Greece and an upper premolar tooth from Bulgaria dated to between 7.18 million and 7.27 million years old. But it drew anatomical data on other species, including gorillas, and chimps, from the scientific literature or casts of the remains.

Debbie Argue, an evolutionary biologist at the Australian National University, in Canberra, says more fossil evidence is needed to confirm the taxonomic status of G. freybergi.

Argue’s colleague Colin Groves says more comparisons should have been made with the genus Ouranopithecus, also from Europe, as candidates for the common ancestor.

“In the past, the two genera have been thought of as the same,” he says.

But Boehme says the database of fossil material “is not so bad”. “The conclusion may sound extravagant to some experts, but these two papers are just the beginning,” she says. “The forthcoming years will see a revolution in our ideas of human evolution.”

New Fossils Discovered Suggest That Humans Started Off in Greece, Not Africa | GreekReporter.com

2017-05-25T07:35:00.001-05:00

New Fossils Discovered Suggest That Humans Started Off in Greece, Not Africa

New evidence of fossils unveiled by archaeologist Nikolai Spassov suggests that the human species is likely to have had its origins in Greece, not Africa, an article in New Scientist says.

Nikolai Spassov and his team from the National Museum of Natural History in Bulgaria recently discovered fossils in both Greece and neighboring Bulgaria — including a jawbone believed to be from an ape called Graecopithecus which dates back more than 7 million years. This discovery seems to disprove that Africa is the birthplace for humans, as the Graecopithecus’ remains to predate the Sahelanthropus hominin found in Africa.

Graecopithecus are thought to have roamed Eastern Europe long after the other apes had vanished from the continent and after examining the jaw with CT-scans, it was concluded that the way in which the roots of the premolars are fused as well as the small canines on the jawbone, the jaw belongs to a hominin not a chimp.

- See more at: http://greece.greekreporter.com/2017/05/25/new-fossils-discovered-suggest-that-humans-started-off-in-greece-not-africa/#sthash.Vq9g5e3J.dpuf

New Evidence Suggests Humans Arrived In The Americas Far Earlier Than Thought : The Two-Way : NPR

2017-05-25T06:54:00.001-05:00

New Evidence Suggests Humans Arrived In The Americas Far Earlier Than Thought

New Evidence Suggests Humans Arrived In The Americas Far Earlier Than ThoughtListen·3:3

April 26, 20171:00 PM ET

CHRISTOPHER JOYCE

Twitter

(Left) A close-up view of a spirally fractured mastodon femur. (Right) A boulder discovered at the Cerutti Mastodon site in San Diego County thought to have been used by early humans as a hammerstone.

Tom Démeré/San Diego Natural History Museum

Researchers in Southern California say they've uncovered evidence that humans lived there 130,000 years ago.

If it's true, it would be the oldest sign of humans in the Americas ever — predating the best evidence up to now by about 115,000 years. And the claim has scientists wondering whether to believe it.

In 1992, archaeologists working a highway construction site in San Diego County found the partial skeleton of a mastodon, an elephant-like animal now extinct. Mastodon skeletons aren't so unusual, but there was other strange stuff with it.

"The remains were in association with a number of sharply broken rocks and broken bones," says Tom Deméré, a paleontologist at the San Diego Natural History Museum. He says the rocks showed clear marks of having been used as hammers and an anvil. And some of the mastodon bones as well as a tooth showed fractures characteristic of being whacked, apparently with those stones.

It looked like the work of humans. Yet there were no cut marks on the bones showing that the animal was butchered for meat. Deméré thinks these people were after something else. "The suggestion is that this site is strictly for breaking bone," Deméré says, "to produce blank material, raw material to make bone tools or to extract marrow." Marrow is a rich source of fatty calories.

Don Swanson, a paleontologist with the San Diego Natural History Museum, points at a rock fragment near a large horizontal mastodon tusk fragment.

San Diego Natural History Museum/Nature

The scientists knew they'd uncovered something rare. But they didn't realize just how rare for years, until they got a reliable date on how old the bones were by using a uranium-thorium dating technology that didn't exist in the 1990s.

The bones were 130,000 years old. That's a jaw-dropping date, as other evidence shows that the earliest humans got to the Americas about 15,000 to 20,000 years ago.

"That is an order of magnitude difference. Wow," says John Shea, an archaeologist at New York's Stony Brook University who specializes in studying ancient toolmaking. "If it's correct, then there's an extraordinarily ancient dispersal to the New World that has a very different archaeological signature from anything left behind by recent humans."

Shea says it's different because Stone Age toolmakers usually leave behind stone flakes — sharp pieces broken or "knapped" from certain kinds of rock that serve as cutting implements. There were none at the California site. Another odd thing: no signs that the mastodon was butchered for the meat.

"This is weird," Shea says. "It's an outlier in terms of what archaeological sites from that time range look like everywhere else on the planet." He suggests these bones might have been broken up by natural causes — by a mudflow, perhaps, or by the trampling of animals sometime after the mastodon died.

Another skeptic is John McNabb, an archaeologist at the University of Southampton in England. His question: How did those people get to California?

Twenty thousand years ago, archaeologists agree, people did cross over to Alaska from Siberia, perhaps more than once. Sea levels were lower then and there was a land bridge connecting the continents. In an interview with the journal Nature, which published the California research, McNabb says that land bridge wasn't there 130,000 years ago. "The sea lane in between the two continents [was] wider [then]," he says, "so that's one problem with this: How do we get humans across?"

Nature YouTube

McNabb says what's needed to really prove that this is truly an archaeological site are bones from the people who got there.

The California team counters that it has spent over 20 years examining the evidence. "I know people will be skeptical with this because it is so surprising," says team member and archaeologist Steve Holen, "and I was skeptical when I first looked at the material myself. But it's definitely an archaeological site."

Holen, with the Center for American Paleolithic Research, says these early people could have come across in boats. As for the broken bones, he says the type of fracture isn't accidental. And the way the hammerstones and bones were distributed in the ground doesn't look natural.

One question the team can't answer is who these people were. A genetic technique that uses mutations in a population's genome as a sort of "clock" says the first common ancestor of Native Americans lived about 20,000 years ago. So if there were indeed earlier settlers, it could be they made an arduous migration from Siberia, only to die out without leaving any descendants.

EAST TEXAS INDIAN ARTIFACTS

FOSSIL FERN/FEATHER?

Scientists have unearthed ancient artifacts that are upending the history of mankind

Scientists have unearthed ancient artifacts that are upending the history of mankind

16,700-Year-Old Tools Found in Texas Change Known History of North America...AGAIN

16,700-Year-Old Tools Found in Texas Change Known History of North America

Evidence of an early projectile point technology in North America at the Gault Site, Texas, USA

Evidence of an early projectile point technology in North America at the Gault Site, Texas, USA

Abstract

INTRODUCTION

Background

Stone tool assemblage

MATERIALS AND METHODS

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIALS

Modern fossil discovery rewrites human history...AGAIN

Modern fossil discovery rewrites human history

Story highlights

Changing 'our perception of modern human evolution'

Earlier discoveries

'A big step forward'

Unusual Artifacts Recovered in Russia

Prehistoric teeth fossils dating back 9.7 million years 'could rewrite human history', AGAIN

Prehistoric teeth fossils dating back 9.7 million years 'could rewrite human history'

TAMUCT hosts archaeology fair

TAMUCT hosts archaeology fair

Celebrate Austin Museum Day Sunday, Sept. 17 with free admission to dozens of area museums

Two prehistoric Indian sites found in path of FM diversion route

Two prehistoric Indian sites found in path of FM diversion route

50 million artifacts from Texas’ past kept at UT lab

Highlights

The well-preserved remains offer a glimpse into the rapidly shifting world that surrounded Naia, a girl who died around 13,000 years ago.

Ice Age Predators Found Alongside Oldest Human in Americas

The well-preserved remains offer a glimpse into the rapidly shifting world that surrounded Naia, a girl who died around 13,000 years ago.

Carnivore Complexity

You Might Also Like

Carnivore Complexity

You Might Also Like

NEW FIND

Archaeology Day coming to Serpent Mound

Archaeology Day coming to Serpent Mound

Moundbuilders of Native North America, Before the Pyramids

The earthen monuments on exhibit is a glimpse at Native American construction over the last 5,000 years

American Indian artifacts, art and related collectibles at Best of Santa Fe, August 12-13

American Indian artifacts, art and related collectibles at Best of Santa Fe, August 12-13

Cowboy and Native American Indian artifacts up for bid Sept. 29-Oct. 1 at Showtime Auction

Cowboy and Native American Indian artifacts up for bid Sept. 29-Oct. 1 at Showtime Auction

MORE EAST TEXAS FOSSILS

BLM invites public to tour archaeology field school

BLM considers offering Utah’s Recapture Canyon — rich in American Indian artifacts — for oil and gas leasing

BLM considers offering Utah’s Recapture Canyon — rich in American Indian artifacts — for oil and gas leasing

The journey of the 1,000-year-old canoe found in Red River

The journey of the 1,000-year-old canoe found in Red River

Prehistoric Indian canoe unearthed along Red River

Indian canoe unearthed along Red River

7-million-year-old fossils widen divide between humans and | Cosmos

7-million-year-old fossils widen divide between humans and chimps

A new study on human evolution sparks struggle of Darwinian proportions. Cheryl Jones reports.

Where did we come from? A primer on early human evolution

New Fossils Discovered Suggest That Humans Started Off in Greece, Not Africa | GreekReporter.com

New Evidence Suggests Humans Arrived In The Americas Far Earlier Than Thought : The Two-Way : NPR

New Evidence Suggests Humans Arrived In The Americas Far Earlier Than ThoughtListen·3:3