© Gerald Herbert/AP Photo
Forrest Travirca III, walks along Port Fourchon Beach as he searches for artifacts from Pre-historic American-Indian settlements in Caminada Headland, La., Tuesday, June 28, 2011.
Forrest Travirca III, walks along Port Fourchon Beach as he searches for artifacts from Pre-historic American-Indian settlements in Caminada Headland, La., Tuesday, June 28, 2011.
It's a trove of new clues about the Gulf Coast's mound dwellers more than 1,300 years ago, but scientists also fear the remains could be damaged by oil or lost to erosion before they can be fully studied.
So far, teams of archaeologists hired by the oil giant have visited more than 100 sites and sent back a growing list of finds to labs for radiocarbon dating and other tests, though extensive excavations haven't been done. Scholars have also accompanied cleanup crews to make sure they don't unwittingly throw away relics.
Larry Murphy is lead archeologist for a council of government agencies and trustees overseeing the oil cleanup. He says neither the discovery of the sites - nor the money to study them - would have come as quickly without the spill.
Source: The Associated Press
© Gerald Herbert/AP Photo
A warning sign to oil cleanup workers, placed by Forrest Travirca III, is seen on Port Fourchon Beach, at a site where artifacts from Pre-historic American-Indian settlements have been found in Caminada Headland, La., Tuesday, June 28, 2011.
A warning sign to oil cleanup workers, placed by Forrest Travirca III, is seen on Port Fourchon Beach, at a site where artifacts from Pre-historic American-Indian settlements have been found in Caminada Headland, La., Tuesday, June 28, 2011.
© Gerald Herbert/AP Photo
Forrest Travirca III, walks along Port Fourchon Beach as he searches for artifacts from Pre-historic American-Indian settlements in Caminada Headland, La., Tuesday, June 28, 2011. The sites were discovered last summer during the intense cleanup of the headland’s beaches after the BP oil spill. Since then, archeologists have found human and animal bones, fragments of pottery, primitive weapons and other items scattered over the beaches here. Archaeologists say the sites date to at least 700 A.D., well before European contact in the 1500s.
Forrest Travirca III, walks along Port Fourchon Beach as he searches for artifacts from Pre-historic American-Indian settlements in Caminada Headland, La., Tuesday, June 28, 2011. The sites were discovered last summer during the intense cleanup of the headland’s beaches after the BP oil spill. Since then, archeologists have found human and animal bones, fragments of pottery, primitive weapons and other items scattered over the beaches here. Archaeologists say the sites date to at least 700 A.D., well before European contact in the 1500s.
© Gerald Herbert/AP Photo
Forrest Travirca III, looks at an ancient pottery sherd he found as he walks along Port Fourchon Beach searching for artifacts from Pre-historic American-Indian settlements in Caminada Headland, La., Tuesday, June 28, 2011.
Forrest Travirca III, looks at an ancient pottery sherd he found as he walks along Port Fourchon Beach searching for artifacts from Pre-historic American-Indian settlements in Caminada Headland, La., Tuesday, June 28, 2011.
