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Hunters present in North America 800 years earlier than previously thought: DNA analysis
http://www.physorg.com ^ | 20 OCT 2011 | Provided by Texas A&M University

Posted on 10/20/2011 12:18:28 PM PDT by Red Badger

The tip of a bone point fragment found embedded in a mastodon rib from an archaeological site in Washington state shows that hunters were present in North America at least 800 years before Clovis, confirming that the first inhabitants arrived earlier to North America than previously thought, says a team of researchers led by a Texas A&M University archaeologist.

Michael Waters, director of the Center for the Study of the First Americans in the Department of Anthropology at Texas A&M, and colleagues from Colorado, Washington and Denmark believe the find at the Manis site in Washington demonstrates that humans were in the area around 13,800 years ago, or 800 years earlier than was believed. Their work is published in the current issue of Science magazine.

In the late 1970s, an adult male mastodon was excavated from a pond at the Manis site. The distribution of the bones and the discovery that some of the bones were broken suggested that the elephant had been killed and butchered by human hunters, Waters explains. However, no stone tools or weapons were found at the site. The key artifact from the site was what appeared to be a bone point sticking out of one of the ribs, but the artifact and the age of the site were disputed.

Waters contacted team member and original excavator, Carl Gustafson, about performing new tests on the rib with the bone point. New radiocarbon dates confirmed that the site was 13,800 years old. High resolution CT scanning and three-dimensional modeling confirmed that the embedded bone was a spear point, and DNA and bone protein analysis showed that the bone point was made of mastodon bone.

"The Manis site is an early kill site" Waters says.

"The evidence from the Manis site shows that people were hunting mastodons with bone weapons before the Clovis stone spear point."

The new evidence from Manis supports extinction theories of large mammals at the end of the last Ice Age, Waters says. During the last cold period, herds of mammoth, mastodon, camels, horses and other animals roamed Texas and North America. At the end of the Ice Age, these animals became extinct.

"While these animals were stressed by the changing climate and vegetation patterns at the end of the Ice Age, it is now clear from sites like Manis that humans were also hunting these animals and may have been a factor in their demise," Waters adds. He also notes that "there are at least two other pre-Clovis kill sites in Wisconsin where hunters killed mammoths."

'Clovis' is the name given to the distinctive tools made by people starting around 13,000 years ago. The Clovis people invented the 'Clovis point', a spear-shaped weapon made of stone that is found in Texas and the rest of the United States and northern Mexico. These weapons were used to hunt animals, including mammoths and mastodons, from 13,000 to 12,700 years ago.

Waters says that "the evidence from the Manis site is helping to reshape our understanding of the earliest inhabitants of the Americas, the last continent to be occupied by modern humans."


TOPICS: Culture/Society; US: New Mexico; US: Texas; US: Washington
KEYWORDS: archaeology; arrowhead; c14; catastrophism; clovis; godsgravesglyphs; indian; mammoth; mammoths; manis; mastodon; mastodons; meadowcroft; nativeamericans; paleontology; preclovis; radiocarbondating; sourcetitlenoturl
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To: Dusty Road
Did you really make that? If so, excellent.

BTW, Dusty, I have some friends who are named Roland and Sandy Meadows.

21 posted on 10/20/2011 3:08:02 PM PDT by blam
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To: Red Badger

About the only thing regarding the early intercontental migrations of humans is our current levels of knowledge are woefully short of any “truth” ! Most accounts I’ve read delimit these tribes to “primitive technologies” ! I submit, because most of those artifacts were ephemeral, we can’t make that assumption ! >PS


22 posted on 10/20/2011 4:07:33 PM PDT by PiperShade
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To: Dusty Road

what do you use them for?


23 posted on 10/20/2011 4:26:50 PM PDT by Steve Van Doorn (*in my best Eric Cartman voice* 'I love you, guys')
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To: blam

1493 got a good review in the WSJ just a few months ago.


24 posted on 10/20/2011 4:31:48 PM PDT by Eric in the Ozarks
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To: Eric in the Ozarks
"I'm still predicting Gold at $1,200 by the end of the year. "

Thanks. I may try to read it.

NYT's review

25 posted on 10/20/2011 7:06:34 PM PDT by blam
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To: Eric in the Ozarks

OOPs. Somehow lol, I mixed up two threads, sorry.


26 posted on 10/20/2011 7:10:05 PM PDT by blam
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To: Red Badger; decimon; StayAt HomeMother; Ernest_at_the_Beach; 1010RD; 21twelve; 24Karet; ...

 GGG managers are SunkenCiv, StayAt HomeMother & Ernest_at_the_Beach
Thanks Red Badger.

To all -- please ping me to other topics which are appropriate for the GGG list.


27 posted on 10/20/2011 11:50:45 PM PDT by SunkenCiv (It's never a bad time to FReep this link -- https://secure.freerepublic.com/donate/)
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To: Steve Van Doorn
Some are framed for display others have been given to friends and family. It's a hobby I picked up many years ago. Photobucket Photobucket
28 posted on 10/21/2011 2:48:22 AM PDT by Dusty Road
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To: Red Badger

I have always thought that Clovis being the earliest men in America was rankly silly. There it is in New Mexico. Did they just fly in there on an Airbus the month before? If they came the Bering route surely it took a while. If they came down the coast in boats surely they didn’t hop on a bus and go to New Mexico from Santa Catalina.


29 posted on 10/21/2011 5:38:29 AM PDT by ThanhPhero (Khach hanh huong den La Vang)
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To: ThanhPhero

The Clovis people were probably illegals........................


30 posted on 10/21/2011 5:46:41 AM PDT by Red Badger (Obama's number one economics advisor must be a Magic Eight Ball.................)
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To: Red Badger

Hunted the animals to extinction? But... but... “Native Americans” were peaceful vegetarians, living in calm harmony with nature and all living things. I’m so confused!


31 posted on 10/21/2011 6:02:34 AM PDT by pabianice (")
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To: pabianice

There were not enough humans in the New World to hunt anything to extinction. That explanation has always been malarkey. There was a huge die-off by all large animals at the end of the last ice age, possibly a meteoric event..........


32 posted on 10/21/2011 6:10:30 AM PDT by Red Badger (Obama's number one economics advisor must be a Magic Eight Ball.................)
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To: blam

LOL! Anthro PCers still trying to deny that the first Americans came from Europe.


33 posted on 10/21/2011 6:18:06 AM PDT by pabianice (")
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To: Red Badger

Uh-huh. Where’s the huge crater such a hit would create?


34 posted on 10/21/2011 6:19:22 AM PDT by pabianice (")
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To: Red Badger

“Home Page removed by Moderator.” Huh?


35 posted on 10/21/2011 6:20:28 AM PDT by pabianice (")
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To: pabianice

It’s called Hudson Bay.............


36 posted on 10/21/2011 6:33:16 AM PDT by Red Badger (Obama's number one economics advisor must be a Magic Eight Ball.................)
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To: pabianice

supposedly up near Sudbury Ont., and also supposedly responsible for the nickel deposits there.


37 posted on 10/21/2011 6:39:26 AM PDT by RitchieAprile
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To: Red Badger
"The evidence from the Manis site shows that people were hunting mastodons with bone weapons before the Clovis stone spear point."

Also, the discovery of what appears to be a mastodon hunting blind littered with ancient beer cans and potato chip bags further supports the theory that people were hunting in the area much earlier than previously believed.

38 posted on 10/21/2011 6:50:57 AM PDT by GreenHornet
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To: GreenHornet

Hold muh grog and watch this..............


39 posted on 10/21/2011 6:56:55 AM PDT by Red Badger (Obama's number one economics advisor must be a Magic Eight Ball.................)
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To: blam
OOPs. Somehow lol, I mixed up two threads, sorry.

Who knows? A few more stories like these and all of native American History could be turned on its head. What would that do to the price of gold? We can only imagine.

40 posted on 10/21/2011 7:28:00 AM PDT by ElkGroveDan (My tagline is in the shop.)
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