“As research progresses on the Western Stemmed Tradition … it is looking like the people who produced this type of tool were here in the Pacific Northwest before Clovis peoples, but during the same period when Clovis peoples were moving through other regions of North America,” Longstaff said.
The prevalence of Western Stemmed Tradition artifacts in the Northwest, known locally as Windust, also suggests that its members may represent a separate wave of human migration to this part of North America, she said, with migrants having come from the north not by ice-free corridors near the middle of the continent, as some models maintain, but by way of the Pacific coast.
“This is supported by the archaeological record in the Clearwater River region, where the earliest material found is associated with Windust,” Longstaff said.
“Kelly Forks is another of the sites added to the record which potentially contains material left by the first people to call the Northwest home.”
The chemistry of the points also reveals clues about the travels and trade that the ancient hunter-gatherers engaged in.
Using a technique known as x-ray fluorescence, Longstaff and her colleagues were able to compare the Kelly Forks tools with geological deposits known to have been used for tool-making.
Western Stemmed Tradition stone point
The oldest stemmed point dated to about 11,000 years ago. (Photo: Laura Longstaff)
Results showed that more than a quarter of the artifacts sampled were a type of volcanic rock called vitrophyre from a quarry about 50 kilometers to the south.
But nearly as many were fashioned out of rock from a deposit across the Bitterroot Mountains in what’s now Montana, and some samples hailed from as far away as central Oregon.
In addition, two points reflected styles that were specific to the Northern Plains.
“It shows how far these materials traveled to get to Kelly Forks, either by trade or direct movements of people, and it also shows the resources available to people nearer the site,” she said.
In the end, Longstaff said, the site reflects a depth of human activity that’s rare in the Northwest’s archaeological record.
“Kelly Forks didn’t serve as a village site or long-term residence, but rather a favored stopping place that people used to rest, work on tools, fish, and process game,” she said.
“The special thing is that the volume of artifacts indicates that many different people were stopping there at different times of the year and maybe even just a few days apart.
“I think the region was an active place where people were constantly coming and going on their way to collect the next available resource, or on their way home for the winter.”
While there’s plenty of work to be done on the artifacts found so far, she says there are no current plans by the Forest Service to investigate Kelly Forks more thoroughly.
“If I can stay in the area, I don’t think I’ll be able to resist,” she said.
http://westerndigs.org/13500-year-old-tool-making-site-uncovered-in-idaho-forest/