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Jun 8, 2009 06:00 PM | 15
What is now part of Lake Huron's obscured floor became a dry land bridge between modern-day Presque Isle, Mich., and Point Clark, Ontario when lake levels dipped some 7,500 to 10,000 years ago. But could it have been a rich hunting ground for Paleo-Indians?
Previous wisdom has held that "most [sites] are presumed lost forever beneath the lakes"—which were carved out and filled in by receding glaciers about 10,000 years ago—note the authors of a new study, published today in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, which has found traces of what appear to be stone structures, hunting blinds, dwelling sites and caribou drive lanes hidden under the mussels and algae at the bottom of the lake.
Using sonar and remote-operated vehicles, the research team from the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor's Museum of Anthropology and Marine Hydrodynamics Laboratory surveyed about 28 square miles (72 square kilometers) as deep as 492 feet (150 meters) below the lake's surface along the now-submerged Alpena-Amberley ridge. Among the findings was a 984-foot- (300-meter-) long structure that match caribou driving lanes (a long precursor to the modern cattle chute, which directed herds of caribou into an area where they could be killed) documented on dry land on Canada's Victoria Island.
The findings "raise the possibility that intact settlements and ancient landscapes are preserved beneath Lake Huron," the study authors write. They hope to soon send in autonomous underwater vehicles and scuba-diving archeologists to search for smaller, more detailed artifacts.
Image of a possible hunting blind made from three boulders below Lake Huron courtesy of John O'Shea/University of Michigan
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15 Comments
Add CommentI have for a long time wondered what could be found if we explored the bottom of the Chesapeake Bay. During ice age times it should have be available, also, because of lower sea levels.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisInteresting question, although, i wonder if remaining clues would be visible because of the warmer water. I am just wondering, I have no idea.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThe question can be asked even more broadly: when ocean levels were lower, most river valleys were deeper than now (and the flows smaller) and the present flood plains cover river bank areas that would have been attractive places to settle are now under deep soil deposits. Water from melting glaciers may have scoured most of the evidence away, but maybe there's a remote-sensing technique to look around.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThe North Sea, between Britain and Norway, was dry land during the ice ages. Today, trawlers raking the sea-floor for flat-fish regularly haul in bones of mammouths or other pleistocene fauna, and no doubt prehistoric tools if only they looked harder amongst the debris in the back of their nets. Most of the unrecognised items go back overboard, but enough has been set aside for scientists to learn a great deal about the period.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI find it intriguing to know that the natives there used driving lanes and blinds to hunt. That being 7500-10000 years ago. What happened to these people? I don't think modern natives used the same techniques, maybe with buffalo you don't need to, but I still think it's an interesting change in hunting styles.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisFor a map of the ridge, go to: http://www.ngdc.noaa.gov/mgg/image/images/huron.jpg
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisFor a map of this ridge, go to: http://www.ngdc.noaa.gov/mgg/image/images/huron.jpg
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisIt appears these techniques were only used with caribou, and were still being used by the Inuit in Canada's north. The terrain was probably much more similar to Canada's arctic in recent times, as the glaciers were receding. The Inuit may be more closely related to these peoples, at least hunting technique wise, the the plains Indians of more recent times:
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thishttp://www.newscientist.com/article/dn17275-stone-age-hunting-traps-found-deep-in-great-lakes.html
I'm still wondering why the archaeological/scientific community's are not exploring possible submerged areas along the Atlantic coastlines, Is this somehow a conflict with those favoring a Beringian immigration into the Americas ???
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI have a notion that in the decades to come,that discovery's made under water in the Pacific,and Atlantic ocean's, on both east,and west coastal area's,both here,and around the world, will be spectacular!The history books will have to be rewritten.Much of human history perhaps as much as 90%, was flooded over when the last ice age ended.There may be entire civilization's waiting to be found.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisSpace Odyssey the planet Earth site www.mammoths.50megs.com
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisSpace Odyssey the planet Earth www.mammoths.50megs.com
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisWe already know bottom of Chesapeake Bay has a lot of old tires, bottles, and bones of politicians.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisMy question to everyone thinking. When everyone talks about Ice Age and mammoths - why there must have been frozen and cold arctic weather? I see paralell between todays elephants and mammoths. Ok they must feed enormously avery day. }according Wikipedia "They eat 10% of their body weight each day, which for adults is between 170-200 kilograms of food per day" So what would mammoyh eat in "ice age" there? Question is: Wasn�t Ice Age less icy then we thing? or was it maybe more like todays mild climate or even warmer?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisFelix : From what I remember about studies done on the stomach contents of frozen siberian mamouths, they ate mainly serpolet, a small plant that we also eat sometimes to give flavour to food. The mamouths were perfectly adapted to the cold, as were wooly rhinos, sabre-tooth tigers etc that roamed the tundra.
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