[Aztlan] Pre-Clovis Walker Site Claims Doubted

[michael ruggeri]

Posted on Mon, Mar. 05, 2007

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State archaeologist casts doubt on ancient find in Walker
Associated Press
MINNEAPOLIS - The state archaeologist is casting doubt on claims that  
an archaeological dig in the northern Minnesota city of Walker has  
turned up ancient stone tools between 13,000 and 14,000 years old.

Minnesota State Archaeologist Scott Anfinson, in a report released  
Monday, said the materials found at the excavation site were more  
likely to have been produced by natural forces such as flowing water  
or glacial movement.

The majority of the artifacts "did not demonstrate the  
characteristics that one would expect from humanly produced stone  
artifacts," he said in his eight-page report.

Archaeologists found about 50 objects while investigating a route for  
a planned road in Walker. The items were found beneath a layer of  
glacial deposits that had been covered by windblown deposits, and  
experts said they believed the objects were between 13,000 and 15,000  
years old.

The Walker City Council has since voted to postpone any work at the  
site so it could be preserved for more research.

Responding to the report, one of the lead scientists involved in the  
excavation maintained that the site could contain evidence of very  
early human habitation. Additional research at the site is scheduled  
for this summer.

"As far as the artifacts, we do believe we have culturally related  
materials," said Matt Mattson, a biologist and archaeologist working  
for the Leech Lake Heritage Sites Program, which conducted the  
excavation. "During the course of next summer's work, we would hope  
to recover some materials that are more diagnostic than what we've  
recovered so far."

In his report, Anfinson also said it was unlikely that people lived  
in the "very uninviting environment" of the Late Glacial age in  
northern Minnesota.

If any of the objects really are stone tools from 13,000 years ago or  
more, they would be among the oldest human artifacts ever found in  
North America. Outside experts greeted the discovery with skepticism  
when it was announced in January, but said much more research needed  
to be done to allow firm conclusions.

The long-accepted theory was that people first arrived in the Western  
Hemisphere 11,200 years ago - corresponding with the age of  
arrowheads found in the 1930s near Clovis, N.M. But a consensus is  
emerging that some humans arrived thousands of years earlier, even if  
scientists disagree on when.


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