[Aztlan] Oldest tool in the Americas found

[michael ruggeri]

Listeros,

In a very important report in Nature Magazine, Dennis Jenkins, the  
archaeologist who found the pre-Clovis human coprolites dated to  
14,000-14,270 years old in Paisley Cave in Oregon, now claims to have  
found the oldest human artifact ever found in the Americas--a scraper  
like tool that dates back to 14,230 years ago. The date was calculated  
by way of sediment and radiocarbon dating. The tool was found in a  
rock shelter in the caves near Paisley, Oregon. There were some  
criticisms of the dating of the coprolites because no human artifacts  
were found with them. This discovery of a tool strengthens the  
veracity of the earlier claim.

Nature has the story here;
http://www.nature.com/news/2009/091105/full/news.2009.1058.html

Mike Ruggeri

Mike Ruggeri's Pre-Clovis and Clovis World
http://tinyurl.com/2m8725

Breaking Pre-Clovis and Clovis News
http://tinyurl.com/d3xeln










The dating of the bone tool, and the finding that the sediments  
encasing it range from 11,930 to 14,480 years old, might put these  
questions to rest. "You couldn't ask for better dated stratigraphy,"  
Jenkins told the Oregon meeting.

"They have definitely made their argument even stronger," says Todd  
Surovell, an archaeologist at the University of Wyoming in Laramie who  
was not involved in the research.

ADVERTISEMENT

Other researchers questioned whether the cave's inhabitants would have  
been mainly vegetarian, as the coprolites suggested4. In his recent  
lecture Jenkins noted other evidence reflecting a diet short on meat  
but including edible plants such as the fernleaf biscuitrootLomatium  
dissectum.

In late September, a group of archaeologists who study the peopling of  
the Americas met with federal officials and a representative of the  
local Klamath tribe to review the evidence at Paisley Caves. The  
specialists spent two days examining sediments, checking the tool, and  
assessing other plant and animal evidence.

"It was an impressive presentation," says David Meltzer, an  
archaeologist at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas, who  
attended the meeting. "This is clearly an important site, but there  
are some tests that need to be done to seal the deal." One key, he  
says, is to better understand how the specimens got to the cave.

	•