Posted on 05/18/2008 6:39:56 PM PDT by blam
Renovating a historic home
By James Smar
The Meadowcroft Rockshelter and Museum in western Pennsylvania is getting a lot of attention this week, as it reopens the archaeological site of a 16,000-year-old human habitation. It had been closed to the public for a year for renovations.The idea of renovating a dwelling after 16,000 years is intriguing. They could have called in a television team consisting of the guys from This Old House, that Extreme Makeover crew and those cavemen from the insurance commercials.
Radioactive carbon testing in 1974 of remnants of burned firewood determined the age of the domicile, making it probably the oldest known human habitation in North America. A good renovation project would replace that fireplace with a gas grille. And a stone-age homeowner might be pleased that granite is all the rage for kitchen counters.
The archaeologists found signs that the folks living there had been cooking venison, and eating shellfish from the Ohio River. The original occupants probably didn't feel the need for renovations. They never had problems with plumbing, heating or other such extravagances. It was Pleistocene Time, and the living was easy. The recent renovations, funded by a $2 million state grant, added a shelter and a stairway, so visitors can get a better look at the ancient residence, and observe the archaeologists in their natural environment.
A local farmer named Albert Miller first came upon the site on a bluff of rock in the 1950s, finding a flint knife and other evidence of human activity. In 1969, Miller's family established the Meadowcroft Foundation. In 1973, he showed his discovery to James Adovasio, an archaeologist (then of University of Pittsburgh, now of Mercyhurst College in Erie,) and the digging commenced. Stairs to the spot were built in 2003, and public tours began.
The Meadowcroft Rockshelter and Museum of Rural Life was formed, and one thing led to another, as happens at such places. Now there is a nearby recreated 19th century village with log cabins, a blacksmith shop, a covered bridge, and nice ladies in costume teaching people to make apple butter.
An authentic 17th century Indian village is under development. Can an amusement park be far off? Since 1993, the whole enterprise has been run by the Sen. John Heinz History Center, a history museum in downtown Pittsburgh.
That institution includes an H. J. Heinz Co. exhibit where you can learn how old-time pickle packers packed pickles, using a wooden spoon. There is also a sports museum, where you can gaze upon Franco Harris's shoes, Mario Lemieux's skates and Arnold Palmer's golf bag. Meanwhile, back at the 16,000-year-old homestead, they've scheduled an Atlati Weekend for June 21 and 22. An atlati is a prehistoric spear-throwing device.
Be prepared to duck. A July 4 celebration is also planned. It will be fascinating to learn how prehistoric people observed the holiday. For the serious-minded, Dr. Adovasio will lead tours on July 19, Sept. 13 and Nov. 11. Reservations are required. Try meadowcroft.pghhistory.org.
Another recent posting about another site (Topper ) older and further south:
Al Goodyear And The Secrets Of Ancient Americans
"USC Professor Discovers 50,000 Year-Old (Human) Artifacts in S.C."
16,000 years?
Thats quite a bit before so called modern Indians would have crossed the Bering Strait.
But how many pickles could a prehistoric pickle packer pack?
Notice the arrow coming across the North Atlantic from Europe.
"The oldest human remains found in the Americas were recently "discovered" in the storeroom of Mexico's National Museum of Anthropology. Found in central Mexico in 1959, the five skulls were radiocarbon dated by a team of researchers from the United Kingdom and Mexico and found to be 13,000 years old. They pre-date the Clovis culture by a couple thousand years, adding to the growing evidence against the Clovis-first model for the first peopling of the Americas."
"Of additional significance is the shape of the skulls, which are described as long and narrow, very unlike those of modern Native Americans."
That's from The First Americans at your link. I was a little shocked to read it. There may be great stuff elsewhere in the book, but that assertion is a Lefty, Christian-hating crock. It means the author essentially considers all Spanish eyewitness accounts of the Caribs to be lies. That's not a credible inference, since you'd have to assume that a number of witnesses besides Columbus were lying to their diaries about it. Cannibalism is horrifying from a civilized (normal) point of view, but bear in mind that it is extremely common among stone-age peoples.
I hope Prof. Adovasio's archaeological work on the 16,000-year-old barbecue is more reliable and less constrained by academic herd behavior.
Researchers Divided Over Whether Anasazi Were Cannibals
"Archaeologists argue bitterly over whether the ancient Anasazi, the ancestors of today's Pueblo Indians, routinely killed and ate each other. From one point of view, the evidence seems overwhelming: piles of butchered human bones, some of which were apparently roasted or boiled. In one instance, ancient human feces even seem to contain traces of digested human tissue."
Of course he does.
After all, Western civilization itself has no morals, ethics, or values at all in the self hating, Ivory Towered halls of academia.
Sounds like it has been very efficiently commercialized. In another 10K years there will be another observation platform overlooking it all. Period attendants will be wearing simulated Levi’s, khakis and psuedo-Nike shoes as they point out all the sites designed by 21st century humans to scam their neighbors.
Doesn't leave much logical space for the "other" point of view does it?
Maybe the other point of view is Lefty academics putting their fingers in their ears and going "la-la-la-la!"—and hanging nooses on their own office doors. As one academic pointed out at the link you posted from National Geographic:
Tim White, an archaeologist at the University of California, Berkeley, who worked with Darling [an anti-Western archaeologist] on one site, argues that . . . archaeologists go out of their way to avoid the cannibal explanation.
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Thanks Blam. Wow, while I was mowing lawn and helping my mommy with errands, you've been pretty busy. :') |
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Norm Abrams, please pick up the white courtesy phone...
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