quote:Deep below the surface of Lake Huron, scuba-diving researchers have found an elaborate network of hunting blinds and animal-herding structures dating back roughly 9,000 years.
Lake levels of the day were some 250 feet lower, exposing a narrow bridge of land running from one side of Huron to the other. Prehistoric people evidently thought this isthmus was a perfect place to intercept caribou on their seasonal migrations. The hunting site they built, now inundated, opens a window onto prehistoric America and provides valuable evidence in a region where such artifacts are practically non-existent.
The researchers make a "compelling case," says Leland Bement of the Oklahoma Archaeological Survey, who was not affiliated with the study team. The site, he says via e-mail, "provides another example of the skill and level of organization of big-game hunters in North America and the ability of the hunters to plan and execute strategies to intercept these animals." The find also shows that it's possible to gain valuable results from underwater exploration, he says.
Such experience may come in handy as researchers try to chart the paths of the first Americans. It's likely that archaeological sites from the time are submerged, and O'Shea says the new discovery shows the value of underwater searches.
"In the Great Lakes, there was no evidence of what (early Americans) were doing at all," he says. "By looking in the right place we were able to find them."
There are similar locals where sea levels were lower in the past and bridges and shorelines were used by ancient humans ( the Bering Strait comes to mind).
There are also recent finds of ancient Inuit artifact in the arctic due to global climate change and melting ice.
I'm betting that there is an astonishing amount of underwater archaeology waiting for us in the Bering Strait area and down the Pacific coast of Alaska and Canada. If it can be found, we may learn what really went on with the peopling of the Americas. I hope I'm around to see some of that!
There are so many areas of interest, the English Channel, the lands around the Isthmus of Panama, coastal Chile, Malaysia, Florida, the Chesapeake Bay, the Mediterranean, coastal China ...
Anyone so limited that they can only spell a word one way is severely handicapped!