Old Dirt – New Thoughts

I apologize for the long delay in posting to this blog. I had a very overdue report I needed to write for the BIA. The good news is that the report is now in their hands, so I’m back to blogging.

Over the next week I plan to post on Aniakchak art, research being done by my lab class, and new developments with the Hamline Village History project. Check back soon for this new stuff.

For now, I’ll just add some photographs of modern pectroglyphs and Inuksuit I took while walking along Artist’s Point in Grand Marais this last summer.

Well if you like vigorous scientific debate, the claim of a pre-Clovis component at Walker Hill, has really stirred up some intense discussion among Minnesota’s archaeology community. Most of the debate that I’m privy to is occurring on the CMA listserv. Although it would be inappropriate for me to quote from the listserv communications without permission, I think summarizing a few points will be helpful to readers of this blog.

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Scott Anfinson, the Minnesota State Archaeologist, just recently posted his assessment of the Walker Hill site, the widely reported potential 13000 year old site from northern Minnesota. After reviewing the information made available by the site’s excavators at the recent Council for Minnesota Archaeology symposium, and after consulting with a number of Minnesota archaeologists (including myself) who had the chance to examine the lithic finds, Anfinson concludes

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The 2007 Council for Minnesota Archaeology Symposium was held this weekend. Archaeologists from around the state (including a few of our friends from across the border) met to hear papers on recent research and cultural resource management issues. One of the big events was a presentation on the Walker Hill Site by Thor Olmanson, Mathew Mattson, and Colleen Wells. They really provided a great service to Minnesota archaeologists by presenting their findings even as their analyses continue. Perhaps the best part of their presentation was the chance to see in person the Walker finds and to hear the assessments of these finds from different archaeologists. Although I didn’t take a poll, there were clearly a range of opinions with many archaeologists unconvinced of the site’s cultural reality.

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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!

   Bruce Thomas, a visiting assistant professor in the Department of Art and Art History at Hamline, is working on a facial reconstruction of the Browns Valley Man. Bruce is collaborating in this project with Barbara O’Connell, chair of the Anthropology Department.

At about 9000 years old, the Browns Valley site is one of the oldest burials in North America. Barbara assisted with the repatriation and reburial of this individual in 1997. Bruce is working with a cast made of the skull prior to reburial. This collaboration of art and science is going to give us a new look at a very old face. I plan to post updates as this project progresses.