© Oregon State UniversityStone projectile points discovered buried inside and outside of pit features at the Cooper’s Ferry site, Area B.
CORVALLIS, Ore. — Oregon State University archaeologists have uncovered projectile points in Idaho that are
thousands of years older than any previously found in the Americas, helping to fill in the history of how early humans crafted and used stone weapons.
The 13 full and fragmentary projectile points, razor sharp and ranging from about half an inch to 2 inches long, are from roughly
15,700 years ago, according to carbon-14 dating. That's about
3,000 years older than the Clovis fluted points found throughout North America, and 2,300 years older than the points previously found at the same Cooper's Ferry site along the Salmon River in present-day Idaho.The findings were published
today in the journal
Science Advances."From a scientific point of view, these discoveries add very important details about what the archaeological record of the earliest peoples of the Americas looks like," said Loren Davis, an anthropology professor at OSU and head of the group that found the points. "It's one thing to say, 'We think that people were here in the Americas 16,000 years ago;' it's another thing to measure it by finding well-made artifacts they left behind."
Previously, Davis and other researchers working the Cooper's Ferry site had found simple flakes and pieces of bone that indicated human presence about 16,000 years ago. But the discovery of projectile points reveals new insights into the way the first Americans expressed complex thoughts through technology at that time, Davis said.
© Oregon State UniversityOverview of the Area B excavations at the Cooper’s Ferry site in 2017.
The Salmon River site where the points were found is on traditional Nez Perce land, known to the tribe as the ancient village of Nipéhe. The land is currently held in public ownership by the federal Bureau of Land Management.
The points are revelatory not just in their age, but in their similarity to projectile points found in Hokkaido, Japan, dating to 16,000-20,000 years ago, Davis said. Their presence in Idaho adds more detail to the hypothesis that there are early genetic and cultural connections between the ice age peoples of Northeast Asia and North America.
"The earliest peoples of North America possessed cultural knowledge that they used to survive and thrive over time. Some of this knowledge can be seen in the way people made stone tools, such as the projectile points found at the Cooper's Ferry site," Davis said. "By comparing these points with other sites of the same age and older, we can infer the spatial extents of social networks where this technological knowledge was shared between peoples."
These slender projectile points are characterized by two distinct ends, one sharpened and one stemmed, as well as a symmetrical beveled shape if looked at head-on. They were likely attached to darts, rather than arrows or spears, and despite the small size, they were deadly weapons, Davis said.
"There's an assumption that early projectile points had to be big to kill large game; however, smaller projectile points mounted on darts will penetrate deeply and cause tremendous internal damage," he said. "You can hunt any animal we know about with weapons like these."
These discoveries add to the emerging picture of early human life in the Pacific Northwest, Davis said. "Finding a site where people made pits and stored complete and broken projectile points nearly 16,000 years ago gives us valuable details about the lives of our region's earliest inhabitants."
The newly discovered pits are part of the larger Cooper's Ferry record, where Davis and colleagues have previously reported a 14,200-year-old fire pit and a food-processing area containing the remains of an extinct horse. All told, they found and mapped more than 65,000 items, recording their locations to the millimeter for precise documentation.
The projectile points were uncovered over multiple summers between 2012 and 2017, with work supported by a funding partnership held between OSU and the BLM. All excavation work has been completed and the site is now covered. The BLM installed interpretive panels and a kiosk at the site to describe the work.
Davis has been studying the Cooper's Ferry site since the 1990s when he was an archaeologist with the BLM. Now, he partners with the BLM to bring undergraduate and graduate students from OSU to work the site in the summer. The team also works closely with the Nez Perce tribe to provide field opportunities for tribal youth and to communicate all findings.
Reader Comments
I had a thought about how time is , or often can be perceived in reverse.
This might be du to the unraveling of lie, the effect of light consciousness, the source, in of course a cyclical way.
This makes study of contemporary events watching history unfold very interesting and comforts the mind.
I hope I'm not getting into the humor of false prophesy though.
Thanks to the publicity afforded to his documentary series Ancient Apocalypse by the recent msm orchestrated hit pieces on him, I will join Netflix, solely and only for the time it takes to watch the entire series.
I wish I could watch it without Netflix, but I can't find another source
smfh.
maybe they got buried in a hole on purpose that was dug down to the level of dirt from 15k years ago.?
there is seriously not enough details in this article to help verify the claimed age.
not that there wasn't people in the americas 15k years ago, i just am so tired of shit "science".
Mars controls Jupiter, Jupiter controls moon, moon controls venus?, Venus controls Saturn?
That was very interesting.
I bookmarked it but can't find it.
I'd never heard that.
Like to think on that more, study.
the half inch projectiles were most likely bird points.
i may or may not have (had) an arrow head collection that would make those dudes cream in their britches.
even one to rival this one....[Link] it was from an undisclosed location in north east oregon.
"Chatters then noted something embedded in the hipbone. It proved to be a stone spearpoint, which seemed to clinch that the remains were prehistoric. He sent a bone sample off for carbon dating. The results: It was more than 9,000 years old."