[Aztlan] 50,000 BC ALLENDALE SITE CLAIM TO BE WORKED THIS MAY

[michael ruggeri]

Listeros,

Like most of us in the field, I am skeptical of this claim but the  
story is interesting.

Mike Ruggeri


Archaeologists to return to Allendale site in May

By PETER FROST
pfrost at islandpacket.com
843-706-8169
Published Saturday, February 17, 2007


It was on the banks of the Savannah River in Allendale County where  
Al Goodyear in 2004 found the clues of an ancient civilization that  
could rewrite the history books.

The University of South Carolina archaeologist and a group of  
volunteers unearthed artifacts estimated to be 50,000 years old,  
implying humans lived on this continent before the last Ice Age, far  
earlier than previously believed.

They uncovered what appeared to be cutting tools and stone chisels  
used by humans that existed an estimated 37,000 years before the  
earliest-known inhabitants, known as the Clovis culture. It was a  
discovery that rocked the archaeological community and generated  
international media attention.

To date, it's the oldest radiocarbon-dated site in North America,  
Goodyear said.

"The entire Western Hemisphere is coming under closer scrutiny,"  
Goodyear said. "Everything that I was taught as a student is breaking  
down rapidly."

For decades, the Clovis culture has been recognized as the oldest in  
the New World. Goodyear discovered evidence of the Clovis at what's  
called the "Topper site" more than 20 years ago, when he and a  
researcher found a fluted spear point, the signature tool of the  
culture.

Then, in 1998, Goodyear decided to dig deeper. He and a rotating  
group of scientists and volunteers uncovered evidence of a pre-Clovis  
culture well below the level at which the Clovis artifacts were found.

In 2004, they uncovered artifacts about 12 feet underground -- about  
seven feet below the Clovis finds.

Goodyear and his group will be back in May for five weeks, offering  
volunteers the opportunity to work alongside archaeologists and  
researchers in their quest to debunk the long-held theory that man  
arrived in North America around 13,000 years ago.

Hilton Head Island resident Jean Guilleux, 64, has assisted Goodyear  
and his crews for the past five years and plans to volunteer for the  
May dig.

"After I retired, I became fascinated with archaeology and decided to  
go and get my hands dirty," he said. "After the first dig, I was  
hooked."

Guilleux, who is also the president of the Hilton Head chapter of the  
Archaeological Association of South Carolina, said he's "done it all"  
at the digs. He's specialized on the pre-Clovis digs for the last  
three years, digging soil, sifting for artifacts and watching  
scientists test their finds in the lab.

"It's absolutely fantastic," he said.




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