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Stone Tool Unearthed in Oregon ‘Hints’ at Oldest Human Occupation in Western US

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Author Topic: Stone Tool Unearthed in Oregon ‘Hints’ at Oldest Human Occupation in Western US  (Read 589 times)
Antamond
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« on: March 07, 2015, 01:58:34 pm »

Beneath the debris, the team found large fragments of tooth enamel from an extinct species of camel.
[Read “Fossil Camel Discovered in Oklahoma by Oil Workers“]

And beneath those, they hit a sudden, even layer of volcanic ash and rock, called tephra.

Experts from Washington State University analyzed the ash, and were able not only to radiocarbon date it to about 15,800 years ago, but were also able to isolate its source: Washington’s Mount St. Helen’s.

“We found the stone tool 20 centimeters under the Mount St. Helen’s tephra, in dense sandy clay sediment,” O’Grady said.

Baker, of the BLM, said researchers quickly identified the object as a tool.

“When they found it, they kind of joked that it was like an ancient swiss army knife,” he said.

“One edge, they believe, was used for scraping animal hide, and another side that’s been worn down over the years they believe was used for carving wood or bone. So, there are a couple of theories, but they think this is kind of a multi-purpose tool.”

The archaeologists were also struck by the tool’s unusual material, he added.

“It’s this bright orange agate,” Baker said. “In that area, there’s a lot of obsidian, but they’d never seen this material in that area before. So it really raises a lot of questions.

“They’re fascinated with, how did this tool get here? Where did it come from? What did they use it for?”


O’Grady agreed that the use of agate is unusual for the region, and potentially significant.

“It is much less common in eastern Oregon sites than obsidian,” he said of the agate.

“My take is that older points tend to be made of [materials like agate] more often than obsidian.”

For archaeologists, this new discovery readily invites comparison with a similar find made nearby — at Oregon’s Paisley Caves, just 200 kilometers away, where in 2008 animal bones and human feces were found that dated to about 14,300 years ago.
[See the latest findings from that site: “Ancient Feces From Oregon Cave Aren’t Human, Study Says, Adding to Debate on First Americans”]
artifacts-found-at-Rimrock-Draw-RockshelterSites around the rockshelter have turned up other evidence of early human occupation, including these obsidian stone points, flakes, and hearths dating back as much as 12,000 years. (Photo by Katrina Lancaster)

While those finds, too, remain controversial, both men acknowledge that the Paisley Cave samples gave scientists more to work with than what they have so far at Rimrock Draw.

“The comparison with the Paisley Caves is just kind of inevitable,” Baker said.

“Paisley Caves is just a perfect situation, because there they found many, many samples.

“But in this situation [at Rimrock Draw], they have just a couple of pieces of evidence in one particular area that they need to expand and add more evidence to.

“So we’re in the very early stages of this.”

O’Grady agreed, adding that it’s too early to begin finding a place for Rimrock’s ancient orange tool in the timeline of American pre-history.

“We all know the significance of the Paisley Caves site, with the exquisite fieldwork, sequence of radiocarbon dating, and well dated human fecal material that has firmly placed the site among very few in the Americas that are established as pre-Clovis occupations,” he said.

In an attempt to find a comparable body of evidence, he added, the coming field season at Rimrock Draw will be devoted largely to identifying the size of the 15,800-year-old layer of volcanic ash, and testing to see if more artifacts await beneath it.

“Rimrock has to produce strong dateable evidence through either cultural features or stratigraphic time markers to begin any conversation about its place in the realm on pre-Clovis sites,” O’Grady said.

“We have a hint of such a possibility through the association of the orange flake tool 20 centimeters under the Mount St. Helens tephra.

“But, it is only that — a hint — until we can show that the tephra is widely distributed across the site and that artifacts are found consistently underneath it.

“It is at that point that the work really begins,” he continued, “to verify the relationship in collaboration with other Paleoamerican researchers and conduct vast amounts of geological and archaeological analyses to firmly establish the relationship.

“It is that next step that must be approached very carefully, to watch warily for the older signs, and we are moving toward it with caution, but also with hopeful optimism.”
http://westerndigs.org/stone-tool-unearthed-in-oregon-hints-at-oldest-human-occupation-in-western-u-s/
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