[Fwd: Possible Pre-Clovis Walker Site Interview]
- From: Roger Bagula <rlbagula@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Fri, 16 Feb 2007 20:00:38 GMT
-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Possible Pre-Clovis Walker Site Interview
Date: Thu, 15 Feb 2007 23:08:19 -0600
From: Topiltzin-2091@xxxxxxxxx
Organization: WebTV Subscriber
Newsgroups: sci.archaeology.mesoamerican
Community learns more about Walker archaeological finds Will artifacts
rewrite North America, Minnesota history by Gail DeBoer, Staff writer
The Pilot-Independent
Last Updated: Wednesday, February 14th, 2007 05:17:57 PM
Community members got answers Feb. 8 to some of their questions about
the recently-discovered archaeological site near the Walker Area
Community Center (WACC).
But answers to other questions — like what comes next and how to
protect the site, will have to wait, at least for now. As will the major
question in everyone's mind: Do the artifacts actually date back to
13,000 to 15,000 before present (BP)? The first Walker Hill
Informational Forum was presented by Leech Lake Heritage Sites (LLHS)
staff, who made the discovery. Back in 2004, the for-profit
archaeological consulting firm, owned by the Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe,
was hired by the city to study the WACC site prior to construction. Any
project with federal funding requires a site study.
The site is located on a hill east of Walker, just west of Highway 371
and overlooking Leech Lake.
Recap and review
With LLHS Program Director Thor Olmanson handling visuals, LLHS Field
Director Colleen Wells and volunteer Matt Mattson (an experimental
archaeologist with fur trade expertise) reviewed the discovery, gave a
brief geological history of the area, a short course in Archaeology 101,
and fielded questions from the audience of 80 or more at WHA Auditorium.
"This started so innocently; we were digging up a kid's fort," Mattson
recalled, referring to the depression in the earth on the site that
first caught their eye.
After finding the now-famous Daisy Bulls-Eye Cap Gun (vintage 1960-62)
and other mid-20th century debris, the team decided they were not
looking at the remains of a fur trade era "house pit." But just to be
sure, they dug deeper into undisturbed soil, where Olmanson found the
first artifact while sifting excavated soil. The item was a tiny 1
centimeter square "retouch flake;" a stone that had been re-sharpened
for use as a cutting tool. To the trained eye, the flake could not have
been made accidentally by glaciers but by a human hand.
Throughout 2005 and 2006, LLHS archaeologists and technicians dug at 40
different spots or "formal units" over the two acre site, moving and
sifting an estimated 85 tons of material with shovels and trowels. "Most
of what we find at archaeological sites is trash; it's just really old
trash," Wells remarked.
Of the 40 sites, only one produced nothing and 10 marginal. But the
others did produce stone artifacts: tools like pebble scrapers; cutters,
choppers, knives, and a hammerstone, all made from available rocks, and
all made by human hands.
A stone tool or just another rock?
To the untrained eye, the artifacts are just rocks, Mattson admitted.
But to the LLHS team and outside archaeologists and geologists who have
already examined the site and tools, they show traits that reveal the
hand of man.
"We tried to convince ourselves otherwise. But there was too much
evidence."
Using slides of various stone tools, Wells and Mattson showed what
archaeologists look for when identifying tools: shatter marks, scarring,
abrasion marks, flakes removed in the same direction to create a sharp
edge, etc. One or two flakes could be glacial activity, Mattson said.
"But at this site, we had so many like this. It's not random; it was a
deliberate action." The artifacts were found 70 to 80 centimeters or
more down, beneath an undisturbed layer of washed and sorted gravel
deposited by the glacier. Above was a protective layer of wind-driven
soil deposited after the glacier receded but before forests had grown to
halt the wind action.
Central Minnesota was a "collision point of glacial activity," as
Mattson described. Around Walker, glaciers advanced and retreated
several times. But not everything was covered with ice; Walker
apparently was an oasis, surrounded by glaciers, capable of sustaining
life.
How old is the site?
The Walker site represents something undocumented and not understood in
the Midwest and possibly all of North America, Mattson summarized. Dates
for the Paleolindian Period are 8,500 to 12,000 before present (BP).
Human presence in this part of Minnesota was thought to be no earlier
than 10,000 BP.
But if these artifacts can be dated by using existing knowledge of
glacial activity in this area (including glacial deposits that covered
them), they might date to 13,000 to 15,000 BP.
Who were these people?
Through this oasis came family groups of 10 to 20 Cro-Magnon humans —
modern men not Neandertals, Wells noted.
"People came here, they were here, they stayed and they made it," she
summarized
They were after the mega-fauna of the time: mastodons, mammoths, camels,
horses and giant beavers. Cutting and chopping tools would have been
used to make kills and process the carcass. When the group stopped for a
day or two, they made the tools they needed onsite from whatever stones
they could find, instead of carrying them with. When they moved on, they
left the tools behind. Since so many artifacts were found at the Walker
site, the LLHS team suspects there were a series of low-density
occupations of this site over a period of time.
Mattson also noted that while the site now is on a hill about 150 feet
above Leech Lake, back then the water level would have been much higher
and the shoreline closer to the site, due to melting glaciers. Are there
more artifacts to be found? Most likely, Wells and Mattson responded.
Some likely were lost to preliminary site work, but others undoubtedly
lie beneath strata at the lower and upper terrace sites.
More investigation needed
Despite LLHS' initial findings and age estimates, more investigation and
study are needed to confirm or possibly dispute their findings. Mattson
and Wells said several researchers from Minnesota and elsewhere are
interested in studying the site. A verification process could take years
or even decades.
Dating techniques
Carbon 14 dating (radioactive half-life) cannot be used, since stone
tools do not contain organic material. One technique that could is
Optically Stimulated Luminescence.
OSL measures the length of time soil (in this case, the soil around the
artifacts) has been buried away from sunlight. A sample would be exposed
to ultraviolet radiation, and scientists would then determine how long
it's been since the soil last saw the light of day.
Who protects? Who's responsible?
Audience questions dealt with how to protect the site, what it will
cost, and who owns the site.
The 2 acres have three owners: WACC, the city of Walker, and Living
Water Church. Future digs would require permission of the respective
owner.
Until now, the city has had no out-of-pocket costs for the dig. Future
studies probably would be independently funded by whatever groups want
to do the investigating.
How to protect the site in the future is beyond their expertise, Wells
and Mattson admitted. They noted the city has halted the road project
but suggested that if the road path was altered a bit, roadwork could
proceed.
It's very important that the site be secured for future study, they
stressed. Thirty or 40 years from now, science will have developed
better techniques for finding, studying and dating artifacts. Where are
the stone tools? someone asked. LLHS currently has the artifacts under
lock and key at a secure but unidentified location.
Findings will be studied, reviewed
The weekend of Feb. 9-10, the LLHS team presented its report on the
Walker archaeological dig to a state conference of archaeologists.
Olmanson said LLHS plans to halt "the press aspect" of the find and now
will turn to research. The initial findings will be distributed to
national and international experts in the field through professional
channels and will include peer review.
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