[Aztlan] PRE-CLOVIS TOOLS FOUND IN MINNESOTA?

[michael ruggeri]

Tools Found In Walker, May Be 14,000 Years Old

(AP) Walker, Minn. Archaeologists have discovered stone tools atop a  
hill in this northern Minnesota town that may be 13,000 to 14,000  
years old, according to a published report.

 From the rough stone tools, archaeologists are speculating that  
"we're looking at certainly the relatively earliest occupants of the  
North American continent," biologist and archaeologist Matt Mattson  
said in a Star Tribune of Minneapolis report Thursday night. He  
worked on the project for the Leech Lake Heritage Sites Program,  
which is based near Cass Lake.

Britta Bloomberg, Minnesota's deputy historic preservation officer,  
said it may be among the oldest known archaeological sites in North  
and South America. A half-dozen archaeologists, soil scientists and  
others who have examined the site all said the artifacts are genuine,  
she said.

The stone tools were found while archaeologists were investigating  
the path of a road where the city is planning to expand for a  
community center, housing and businesses.

Archaeologists found 50 or more objects while digging through an area  
of about 50 square yards. The artifacts ranged from large hammer  
stones to small hand-held scrapers.

Mattson said the objects were found underneath a band of rock and  
gravel that appeared to have been deposited by melting glaciers and  
then covered by windblown sediment, Mather said.

David Mather, state archaeologist for the National Register of  
Historic Places, said the find "is something off our radar. We didn't  
think it was even possible in Minnesota."

"(This) could be a real watershed for understanding Minnesota's  
history," he said.

Mather said the site appears to be "much older" than the Clovis era  
of finely made spear points that defines the paleo-Indian period.

The find is "startling enough that appropriate response from every  
archaeologist and glacial geologist is skepticism." But, he added, a  
half-dozen archaeologists, soil scientists and others who have  
examined the site all say the artifacts are genuine.

Human remains, wood or textiles, if there were any, would have  
dissolved long ago in the acidic soil. The oldest human remains found  
in Minnesota belonged to the Browns Valley Man, who lived about 9,000  
years ago. His remains were discovered in 1933 in a gravel pit near  
the town of Browns Valley in western Minnesota.

Walker is about 190 miles northwest of the Twin Cities.

(© 2007 The Associated Press.





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