Clues to the Lives of North America’s First Inhabitants Are Hidden Underwater

Smithsonian Magazine ^ | March 29, 2023 | Sean Kingsley

[SunkenCiv]

Below the surfaces of freshwater springs, lakes and rivers, sunken landscapes hold clues about the daily lives, beliefs and diets of the first humans to settle in what is now the United States. But submerged prehistory, as the study of these millennia-old sites is widely known, is often overlooked in favor of more traditional underwater archaeology centered on shipwrecks...

From Miami to Lake Huron to Warm Mineral Springs, these are three sites driving the conversation about the nascent discipline.

The hunt for sunken evidence of early humans in North America began some 60 years ago with a swirl of controversy in southwestern Florida. In 1959, retired Air Force Lieutenant Colonel William R. Royal uncovered traces of prehistoric people while diving at Warm Mineral Springs, an hourglass-shaped sinkhole formed when an earthquake collapsed a subsurface cave around 20,000 years ago. Because Royal was "an untrained amateur," says Purdy, "scientists poured cold water over his bold claims."

The spring's main claim to fame is its association with Spanish conquistador Juan Ponce de León, who supposedly identified it as the Fountain of Youth in 1513. Though tales of the explorer's search have been greatly exaggerated, hordes of modern water worshippers have followed in his wake...

In the summer of 1959, Royal recovered an intact human skull at a depth of about 45 feet. Examining the bones, he noticed what felt like a |soft and slimy soap| at the base of the skull. Royal was convinced it was millennia-old brain tissue—an improbable theory given how quickly brains tend to decompose after death but one that would ultimately prove correct.

[SunkenCiv]

Archaeologists collect samples from a prehistoric caribou hunting site on Alpena-Amberley Ridge in Lake Huron.

Tane Casserley

[SunkenCiv]

Geo-archaeologists hunting for evidence of humans amid sunken ice age landscapes
Published: Saturday 25 March 2023
https://www.bradford.ac.uk/news/archive/2023/geo-archaeologists-hunting-for-evidence-of-humans-amid-sunken-ice-age-landscapes.php

A reconstruction of prehistoric temperatures for some of the oldest archaeological sites in North America
by Desert Research Institute
March 29, 2023
https://phys.org/news/2023-03-reconstruction-prehistoric-temperatures-oldest-archaeological.html

New, exhaustive study probes hidden history of horses in the American West
Date: March 30, 2023
Source: University of Colorado at Boulder
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2023/03/230330172129.htm

An archaeological rediscovery offers clues about distant human past
by Elaina Hancock, University of Connecticut
March 28, 2023
https://phys.org/news/2023-03-archaeological-rediscovery-clues-distant-human.html

A researcher’s life’s work uncovers first ancient DNA from Swahili civilization
by University of South Florida
March 29, 2023
https://phys.org/news/2023-03-life-uncovers-ancient-dna-swahili.html

Roman-era trash dump containing naked Venus statue and other artifacts unearthed in France
By Kristina Killgrove
published 5 days ago
https://www.livescience.com/roman-era-trash-dump-containing-naked-venus-statue-and-other-artifacts-unearthed-in-france

Mysterious gold Bronze Age ring donated to Norwich museum
Published
5 days ago
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-norfolk-65056570

[Terry L Smith]

Don’t forget the stone circle at the bottom of one of the Great Lakes.

[webheart]

Of only fleeting interest. What good is history 10000 years old when we can’t even keep the last 500 years straight?

[SunkenCiv]

Wow, slow week.

The other GGG topics added since the previous digest ping, chrono sort:

• Woolly Mammoth Giant Meatball Made by Scientists and it Was 'Ridiculously Easy' [03/28/2023]
• Meatball from long-extinct mammoth created by food firm [03/28/2023]
• Sisters discover letters to their father from his friend killed during WWII [03/27/2023]
• Ancient Egypt's Ramses II temple reveals animal mummy menagerie [03/27/2023]
• Nope, Stonehenge Isn't an Ancient Calendar After All, Scientists Say [03/27/2023]
• Battle of Iwo Jima -- 19 Feb 1945 - 26 Mar 1945 [03/26/2023]

[SunkenCiv]

Yeah, of only fleeting interest, your post.

[Vaquero]

Here’s the deal. 10-12k years ago the coastline was 100+ miles from where it is now. As people tend to inhabit the coast more than inland, this is where we will find the first Americans. Possibly some from the Solutrean hypothesis

[ComputerGuy]

A little light weekend reading.
Thanks.

[SunkenCiv]

That's the photo, oddly enough. The story appears to be about the Florida sinkhole.

• At underwater site, research team finds 9,000-year-old stone artifacts [06/15/2021]
• At the Bottom of Lake Huron, an Ancient Mystery Materializes [06/06/2021]
• Ancient Caribou hunting site found underneath Lake Huron [04/29/2014]
• Archeological evidence of human activity found beneath Lake Huron [06/08/2009]
• Sinkhole Holds 12,000-Year-Old Clues to Early Americans [02/19/2009]
• Origins of underwater stones a mystery [02/09/2009]
• Stonehenge in Lake Michigan?(Potentially pre-historic stone formation discovered deep underwater) [01/13/2009]
• Stonehenge Beneath the Waters of Lake Michigan [01/08/2009]
• First Humans To Settle Americas Came From Europe, Not From Asia Over Bering Strait - [07/16/2008]
• Research Casts New Light On History Of North America [07/01/2008]
• Underwater Archaeologists Find Possible Mastodon Carving On Lake Michigan Rock [09/05/2007]
• Turning Back The Clock 10,000 Years (Great Lakes) [12/21/2006]
• Kenosha Dig Points to Europe as Origin of First Americans [03/04/2002]

[ansel12]

""In 1959, retired Air Force Lieutenant Colonel William R. Royal uncovered traces of prehistoric people while diving at Warm Mineral Springs, an hourglass-shaped sinkhole formed when an earthquake collapsed a subsurface cave around 20,000 years ago.
The spring's main claim to fame is its association with Spanish conquistador Juan Ponce de León, who supposedly identified it as the Fountain of Youth in 1513.""

He found it in 1959 as a retiree and here is a 2019 photo of him, you tell me.

[TexasGator]

“and here is a 2019 photo of him, you tell me.”

Your post is fake news.

[ProtectOurFreedom]

LOL! Nice.

I remember being intrigued with Ponce de Leon and the fabled “Fountain of Youth” when I was in fifth grade. I’m even more fascinated having made it to 71.

[Southside_Chicago_Republican]

Bookmark

[SunkenCiv]

LOLOL!

[SunkenCiv]

Also, during the glaciation, the lower the altitude (or latitude), by and large, the warmer the temperatures.

[PIF]

You are aware of today’s date?

[TexasGator]

https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/4142507/posts

[ansel12]

“”I remember being intrigued with Ponce de Leon and the fabled “Fountain of Youth” when I was in fifth grade.””

A good thing you didn’t find it, there is nothing pretty about a young looking 71-year-old who thinks that girls have cooties.

[ProtectOurFreedom]

Far worse, a creepy 80 year old who isn’t afraid of cooties…

[matthew fuller]

500 years? What about the last Presidential election?