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Volume 13, Number2.April, 1998'Center orthe Studyofthe FirstAmericans355Wenigerall,OregonStateUniversity''CorvallisR97331-6510
WillMurraySpringsMammothTracks
BeRestoredor Publiciewin
g?
Scientistsnd the U.S.BureauofLandManagementwould liketopreserveArizona's best-knownClovissitesas scientific ourist attractions.Willthein situtracksand bones of the Murray Springs mammoth-killsite berecreatednconcrete?Onlyif enough moneycanberaised.Seepage2.
he Centerfor the Study of theFlrst Americansfostersesearchandpublic nterestnthe PeoplingoftheAmericas.heCenter,anntegralpartof OregonStateUnlverslty,pro-motesnterdisciplinarycholarlyialogueamongphysical,iologicalndsocialscientists.he Mammoth Trumpet newsmagazinefthe Center, seeksoinvolveyoun the atePleistoceneyreportingon developmentsnallpertinentciences.
 
Volume13,Number2April,1998Center for the StudyofOregonState Universi!,theFirstAmericansCorvallis,OR 97331Department of Anthropology
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Discoveriesn southeasternWisconsinarecallingintoquestiontheconventionaltheoryof thepeoplingof theGreat lakesregion.t hadseemedsimpleenotrgh: heglaciermelted,Holocenebiotadeveloped,and henpeoplemoved nto utilizeaprimor-dial environment.ButarchaeologistDavidF.Overstreets compilinga convincingbodyofevidencehat indicatespeopleivedforcenturies nsubarcticconditionsneartheshifting frontof thegreatI;urentianicesheet.Carefulanalysesf sites,someofwhichcontainevidencethathumansscavengedmeatfrommammothand mastodoncar-casses,ndicatehat Paleo-Americansivedforateast2,000earsnan ice-marginenvi-ronmentratherthan simplymovingintoHoloceneconditionshatdeveloped ater.'Theinformationwe'vegotsuggeststhatthesepeoplehad longadaptedto a subarcticor ice-frontenvironment,"saysDr.Overstreet.Andtheywereliterallymovingbackand forthwiththe ice-frontpositions."Newly reporteddatestakenby ThomasW.Stafford,a leadingauthorityonradiocarbondatingof bone,indicatethat twowell-knownWisconsinmammoth-butcher-ingsitesare 1,000o1,400earsolder thanhadbeen thoughtoriginallyOlammothTrumpet8:4"MammothKill Dated10,980').Dr.Stafford'sanalysisofpurifiedbone collagenby the AMS(acceleratormass spectrometry)technique, forex-ample,showedhat theSchaefermammothis morethan 1,300earsolder thanthe agepreviouslyndicatedby conventional adio-carbon methods.Overstreetand colleagues adassumedthat becausefthe association f stone oolswiththe Schaefermammoth,a date of lessthan 11,000adiocarbonearswascorrect.Thatdate, 10,960100yearsB.P.(Beta62822), wastaken afewyearsago fromunpurifiedbonecollagen. tthetime,con-ventionalwisdorndictated hat 12,000earsago therecouldnot havebeen tool-makersnear whatis now I^akeMichigan.However,Stafford'sssayof highlypurifiedbone ma-terialplacedhe dateof SchaeferMammothat 12,31060yearsB.P.(CAMS30171).Thatcorrespondsloselywithtwo conven-tional radiocarbondatesromsprucewoodrecoveredattheSchaefersite:12,220 80ts.P.(Beta62823) and 72,480 130 B.P.(Beta62824). nitially, the datesonthatwoodpuzzledhe investigators,who origi-nally hypothesizedhat it must have beenolderwood washedup onto heshoreof theshallow lakeorpondassociatedwiththesite.continued npage17
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Aprilt1998
GreatLakesPeople
continuedrompageNow,Overstreetsuspectshuman as-sociationwithhvoeven-earliermammothsitesn the Kenoshaarea,Mud lakeandFenske.Staffordhasdated bone oftheMudLake mammothat 13,440 60 n.p.(CAMS36643),andthe Fenske mam-mothat73,47050 s.p.(CAMS36642).Althoughvariousscientificanalysesonmaterials romthosesitesarecontinuing,MudIake andFenske mammothsmayalsobear evidenceof butchery.TaphonomistEileenJohnson,curatorof anthropologyttheMuseumofTexasTechUniversity inLubbock,has beenanalyzingbone fromfour of the sites,Fenske,Mudlake,Hebior,andSchae-fer. Whencomplete,her studiesshouldprovidescientistswithmore understand-ingof how the siteswere formedandwhethercutson bonesareikelytohavebeenmadebypeoplewieldingstoneblades.Dr.Johnson'sanalyses re to in-cludestudiesof cut marksusing a scan-ningelectron microscope.Richard Yer-kesof Ohio StateUniversity susing thatsameechnologyto study wearpatternson stonetoolsfromthe HebiorandSchaefersites.Althoughheisstillgatheringevi-dence.Overstreet sconfidentthat thepeoplewho madehosecut marks onthebonesand lefttheirknives behind werethesamepeoplewhocreatedhetypeofstonetools knownasChesrow,aPaleoindiancomplexthattakesitsnamefrom asite on the edgeof Kenosha,Wis.(MammothTrumpet10:2"IceAgeWisconsinPeoplet"eftUniqueCulturalRecord").He has dentifiedmorethan35siteswithChesrowcomplexartifacts.Overstreetelieveshellcassite, onthesouthedgeofKenosha,ashepoten-tial tounequivocallystablish hat Ches-row-complexeopledate backto13,000radiocarbonearsago."lt'sa habitationareaofsome kind,"he saysof the Lucassite, which wasaccidentallyunearthednanaturalarea by trailbikers.Overstreetand his team wereworkingattheChesrowsite, whichis lessthan a mileaway,and whenthey investigateducas,theydiscoveredsomewasteflakes andthe baseofaChesrowprojectilepointinsandywheelruts."Wewentback thefollowingyear,putinafewunits andcamerightdownon this relativelydensely occupiedarea,"Overstreet,presidentofGreatlakesArchaeologicalResearchCenter,explained narecenttelephonenter-viewfrom hisoffice n Milwaukee."lt'sa habitationareaof somekind. Wehaveonlyexcavated around 60 squaremeters,"which hecalls a"smallookata fairlylargesite." Themostintriguingpartof he site s a smallbasiningedby
Duringexcavation of theHebior Mammoth nearKenosha,Wis., aprojectile point(arrow)wasdiscovered under-neath a mammothbone.Photoatleftis aclose-upofthein-situassociation;thedrawing de-pictstheprojectilepoint(about40percentactualsize).
a midden of calcinedbone andbrokentools.Thereis aotof evidence f burn-ing. This summer wegotinto a smallbasinthat wasobviouslythermallyal-tered.Thesandswerehighly discol-ored." Thatpossiblehearthyieldedenough charcoalfor some AMS radio-carbondates,but the tests emain o berun.An advantageof theLucassites atotallackoflateroccupations;tsculturalevelis buried by 20 o 30 centimetersf wind-Toolsand flakesrom HebiorandSchaefer ites,hownactualsize.Left,"edge sliver";ight,chertwastelake.
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