Two concave bases and a stemmed base are among the fragments of stone tools, dated to more than 10,000 years old, found at the site. (Courtesy R. Kopperl/PaleoAmerica)
Posted on 03/21/2015 2:29:48 AM PDT by SunkenCiv
The find includes thousands of stone flakes, an array of bifaces, scrapers, and hammerstones, plus several projectile points, some of which were fashioned in a style that experts describe as “completely new” for this region and period in its history...
And in the layer with the artifacts were burned bits of willow, poplar, and pine, which were themselves dated between 10,000 and 12,500 years ago...
While other sites in Washington’s lowlands have produced animal remains from the end of the last Ice Age, this is the first discovery of stone tools that date back more than 10,000 years, according to Dr. Robert Kopperl, lead researcher of the find.
“It’s the oldest artifact assemblage from western Washington, and the excellent context in which we were able to do our excavations and sampling is now providing a picture, much clearer than ever before, of the environment these people were living in during the transition out of the Ice Age,” he said...
Initial work turned up some stone artifacts above the layer of peat— a remnant of a time when the area was inundated with wetlands and lakes — which seemed to resemble a peat layer nearby that was about 3,500 years old.
But radiocarbon results showed that the newly found peat was between 8,000 and 10,000 years old.
“That in itself was interesting,” Kopperl said, “and then when we did our 2009 test excavations, all of the artifacts we found were below that peat instead of above the peat, indicating that they pre-dated 10,000 years before the present.”
(Excerpt) Read more at westerndigs.org ...
Two concave bases and a stemmed base are among the fragments of stone tools, dated to more than 10,000 years old, found at the site. (Courtesy R. Kopperl/PaleoAmerica)
But...but political correctness says that during that era of 10,000 + years ago, there’s not supposed to be any civilization there!!!
Seize that site, it is a sacred burial mound!Keep those rasis white men out!
Well, we are Seattle.
You know, ahead of the curve...
Y’all are still rassis!Way ahead of the curve!
This is about two miles from my house. Cool stuff. It will be interesting to see if it shuts down the project, but even if it does, probably no big deal. They are “rehabilitating” the creek. 60+ years ago they had dredged it and straightend it to prevent flooding.
Now they are putting the bends back in a shipping in huge logs, stumps, etc. to reclaim it has fish habitat. They are pretty far along. If it was me and the natives gave me grief I would say “Okay boys, grab your gear and head home. Nature will take it from here.”
I hope they don’t. It would be cool if they could make some casts of the tools and have an interpretation trail. Or - keep the dig site exposed when they are done, and perhaps plant the casts on the site like they found them.
We went to a place in Montana with the kids, paid $40 and took a Jeep ride up to the dig and got to see all sorts of cool bones and stuff that they were digging out.
BTW - Even on this FR breaks the news. I haven’t heard of this!
Did they find any poker chips rakes or dice as well?
Is it not tragic that the insanity of political correctness threatens to demolish the true picture of our human history?
One has to laugh instead of cry.
You live in a very cool location.
It’s about the same age as the Graham Cave site in Missouri, IIRC
It’s about the same age as the Graham Cave site in Missouri, IIRC>>>>>>>>>>>>
Interesting.It would be interesting to map all of the known pre-clovis sites in the lower 48.IMHO they were here thousands of years before the Clovis era, but the larger question is, “ Where did they originate?”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graham_Cave
America had its own cave men.
Atlatl points similar to the Plainview and it’s variants found here. Very common for them to break in that area.
“The find includes thousands of stoned flakes...”
Well, it IS Seattle.
It’s Seattle. They’re hunting down the owner to make an arrest for possession of a deadly weapon.
The sites probably went out of business because of the high minimum wage.
oh, snap. that was a good one
I have been on sites in Delaware and Vermont, both have tool users in the 10-13 thousand year range.
The Vermont sites show tool making at three sites, first to make slabs, then to shape for various types of tools and a third site to sharpen. This infers civilization, trade....
amazing work you did there
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