A team of archaeologists have recently discovered stone tools that are said to be 10,000 years old in the Bear Creek site, which is located in Redmond, Washington. The ones who discovered them were actually on a totally different mission, but they were in for a great surprise.
These tools are of incredible value, given that they can reveal many things about the way humans lived back then, including the means of survival they employed and the technology they used in ancient times. The experts assume that these tools come from the latter part of the changeover that occurred during the Pleistocene Holocene.
According to scientists, these tools were developed during the Ice Age, most likely during the last stages of the period. At the time, people could still see animals that are long gone, such as the ancient bison.
The experts carried out a chemical analysis of these tools. There are traces of salmon , sheep, bison, deer and bear, that men at the time must have hunted and eaten.
The technology that was employed to create these tools was also revealed in the investigation. It seems that people preferred to use concave bases instead of employing the largely used Clovis technique of making tools.
Robert Kopperl, from the SWCA Environmental Consultants, who was the leader of the investigation, said that there is a great possibility this site used to be a camp where people fished and hunted or created stone tools. The shores located around creek were most probably occupied by small groups of people.
Other excavations in the area, especially in the southern part of Bear Creek, also called Marymoor Park, revealed that humans must have inhabited these places about 5,000 years ago.
A scientist from the Washington State Historic Preservation Office, Allyson Brooks, said that the bodies of water present in the area must have been used by people back then in a very similar manner to the way they are being used now and locations have not changed much since then.
A piece of salmon bone was also found at the site. The exerts initially wanted to carry out a salmon-restoration action, which they somehow did, because they realized that the fish had been present in these waters for 10,000 years.
It remains uncertain whether these tools will become available for public display. As for now, the researchers are planning to give the newly found artifacts to the Muckleshoot Tribe.
Image Source: upi