Pre-Clovis in Minnesota???
It’s not often that Minnesota archaeology makes it big in the news. Apparently archaeologists with the Leech Lake Heritage Sites Program have found a deposit of lithic artifacts in sediments overlain by glacial outwash. They estimate the age of these artifacts at 13,000 to 14,000 years old given this stratigraphic setting.
The site was discovered as part of a CRM project undertaken prior to the construction of a new road near Walker, Minnesota. Unfortunately it sounds like the construction may go forward despite the potential importance of this find.
Minnesota archaeologists generally do not dig beneath glacial deposits because of the assumption that most areas of the state were uninhabitable until after the final retreat of the ice. The Leech Lake Heritage archaeologists would have probably never even found the site had it not been for an odd twist of events.
While investigating the path of the road, archaeologists came across a pit they thought might be related to the fur trade, said Thor Olmanson, director of the Leech Lake Heritage Sites Program and tribal archaeologist. But they quickly discovered that the pit was a 1960s child’s play fort, complete with a cap gun and other toys. Nevertheless, they dug down several feet below the pit’s floor, and they found a fragment of stone believed to be from toolmaking. That “was very puzzling,” Olmanson said, “so we decided to keep digging to see what was going on there.”
I love the idea that forty years ago some kids built a fort directly on top the oldest site in the state, and that’s why we archaeologists were lucky enough to find it.
The newspaper account includes photographs of two artifacts. The most convincing is described as an “axe-like” tool. It looks to me like a chunk of TRS (Tongue River silica) with some flakes removed from one edge. TRS is a common chipped stone raw material found in glacial deposits throughout western Minnesota. (Update: I had a chance to see this object and it’s actually siltstone).
(photo from StarTribue 1/11/2007)
Unfortunately, the photographic evidence is not sufficient to say whether this is a human-manufactured tool or simply a busted rock. On-the-other-hand, I know Thor and some of the other archaeologists mentioned in the newspaper account. I trust that the years of digging in northern Minnesota have made them very competent at telling artifacts from geofacts. I just wish they had an indisputable tool to show us. Where’s the blade core or bifacial point? That’s what I want to see. Hopefully we will soon be able to get our hands on the archaeology report from this project. Then we can add Minnesota to the Pre-Clovis map!
How cool is this! Its pretty interesting that the site would have been within “spitting distance” of the glaciers — I wonder what that kind of proximity could indicate about site formation and/or human behavior patterns. In any case, hopefully the city can work out some kind of plan to preserve this site for further investigation at least…
Hey Ayla - the bad news is that now you have to tell your crews to keep digging when the hit glacial outwash deposits.
Actually, there’s some literature on the idea that the near ice edge environment may have been attractive to human foragers (we generally view it as inhospitable and barren). The idea is that there would have been a productive micro environment, particularly as things warmed up at the end of pleistocene.
Yeah, I read about this. I don’t know — I guess it’s pretty neat, but it just doesn’t seem that great to me. I mean, I was cleaning out my old bedroom at my parents’ house, and I actually found a sculpture of some kind of lizard that I’d made for a third grade science fair project. You can’t tell me these tools are older than that. Or cooler.
Oh, on an unrelated note, I have some original lizard-themed art for sale.
It’s very… green, but then again, I hear that green is the new black, so don’t expect this offer to be around long.
“MacGordon” - it’s a good idea that you are resorting to an alias. You of course need to hide from your troublesome past. My lab students have learned to be cautious whenever opening a field bag with the initials “JAG” since they never know what they’ll find. Sometimes it’s a “pretty rock”, or dirty socks, or even tortilla with PBJ. I just tell them that “JAG” was an English major. They nod knowingly.
Hey Brian,
I think the Walker artifacts are going to the CMA’s next weekend for Scott Anfinson and others to look at. I think we’ll get a more conclusive answer then. I’m leaning towards “no” since they appear to be outwash from a moraine.