MADRID, 23 Dic. (EUROPA PRESS) –
Oregon State University (OSU) archaeologists have dated projectile points discovered in Idaho thousands of years earlier than any others found so far in America.
The finding helps to complete the story of how the first humans made and used stone weapons, as published in the magazine ‘Science Advances’.
According to carbon-14 dating, the 13 complete and fragmentary projectile points, razor-sharp and ranging in length from half a centimeter to two centimeters, They date from about 15,700 years ago. That is, about 3,000 years older than Clovis fluted points found throughout North America, and 2,300 years older than Clovis points. previously found at the same Cooper’s Ferry site, along the Salmon River, in present-day Idaho.
“From a scientific standpoint, these discoveries add very important details to what the archaeological record of the earliest peoples of the Americas looks like,” said Loren Davis, an OSU professor of anthropology and head of the group that found the spikes. thing is to say: ‘We think there were people here in America 16,000 years ago’ and it’s another to prove it by finding well-made artifacts they left behind.”
Davis and other researchers working at the Cooper’s Ferry site had previously found simple flakes and pieces of bone indicating human presence around 16,000 years ago, but the discovery of projectile points reveals new insights into how early Americans they expressed complex thoughts through the technology of the time, Davis notes.
The Salmon River site where the spikes were found is on traditional Nez Perce land, known to the tribe as the ancient town of Nipéhe. The land is currently publicly owned by the Federal Bureau of Land Management.
The points are revealing not only because of their age, but also because of their similarity to projectile points found in Hokkaido (Japan), dating from 16,000-20,000 years ago, according to Davis. Their presence in Idaho adds further detail to the hypothesis that there are early genetic and cultural connections between the Ice Age peoples of Northeast Asia and North America.
“The first peoples of North America possessed cultural knowledge that they used to survive and prosper over time. Some of this knowledge is manifested in the way they make stone tools, such as the projectile points found at the Cooper’s Ferry site — Davis explains, “Comparing these points with those of other deposits of the same age and older, we can deduce the spatial extension of the social networks in which this technological knowledge was shared between peoples”.
These slender projectile points are characterized by having two distinct ends, one sharp and one stalked, as well as a symmetrical beveled shape when viewed from the front. They were probably attached to darts, rather than arrows or spears, and despite their small size, they were deadly weaponsDavis points out.
“Early projectile points were supposed to be big to kill big game, however smaller dart-mounted projectile points penetrated deep and caused enormous internal damage,” he says. Any animal we know of can be hunted with weapons like these.”
These discoveries add to the emerging picture of early human life in the Pacific Northwest, Davis notes. “Finding a site where people dug pits and stored complete and broken projectile points almost 16,000 years ago gives us valuable insights into the lives of our region’s earliest inhabitants,” he adds.
The newly discovered pits are part of the larger Cooper’s Ferry record, where Davis and his colleagues had previously found a 14,200-year-old fire pit and a food processing area with the remains of an extinct horse. In all, they found and mapped more than 65,000 objects, recording their location to the millimeter to document them accurately.
The projectile points were discovered over several summers between 2012 and 2017. Davis has been studying the Cooper’s Ferry site since the 1990s, when he was an archaeologist with the BLM. Today, he works with the Federal Bureau of Land Management to get OSU undergraduate and graduate students to work at the site during the summer. The team also works closely with the Nez Perce tribe to provide fieldwork opportunities for tribal youth and to communicate all findings.