Ice Age Death Trap

[CMD]

This show aired on Nova on Feb. 1st, and can now be seen online. Involves the discovery of a 45,000 year old mastadon fossil in Colorado, as well as controversial evidence the mastadon had been butchered and cached by ancient hunters. Not enough such evidence to convince most I would think, but an interesting show.

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/earth/ice-age-death-trap.html

[Hoss]

Very interesting show Thanks Charlie!
   

[rmartin]

Thanks Charie. Caught it last nite. That is an amazing site. Ray

[cgode]

Just finished watching this, very cool.....I think they'll have a hard sell placing humans there though.....thanks for posting this Charlie!

[CMD]

cgode wrote:

Just finished watching this, very cool.....I think they'll have a hard sell placing humans there though.....thanks for posting this Charlie!

  The bone with what looked like butchering marks was very interesting, but I agree, Chris, without stone tools, cannot place humans there with any certainty.

[Historian]

Excellent post CMD.  Thanks!
Personally, I don't find a 45,000 year old butchering site a very big stretch.  The old "Clovis first" theory was put to death years ago.  Evidence of human populations in North America prior to 10,000 BP have been turning up for years.  However, I agree that it would really be interesting to find stone points, scrapers, or knives somewhere in the "pile" that they brought back to the lab and are now studying.  We may still hear more about that as time goes on.
What I find most disappointing is that no additional time is being given to study the find in the field.  This is obviously a highly exceptional site yet work is continuing to make it a lake.  We can learn so much if given more time to study the various layers being exposed here.  150,000 years of history with such a rich grouping of mysteries rarely comes along.  This is a tremendously important area yet we are going to cover it in.
We have some gain here but what a loss if we let it pass us by without more study!
History

[Speedmaster]

I caught this by chance the other night also...Very interesting. I was proud to see my 4 year old girl glued to the tv watching it along side me.

[CMD]

I agree with you, Historian, but unfortunately, everything can't always be saved. At least some info was gained by the work done there. Speedmaster, sounds like you may have a young prehistorian on your hands, or maybe a crack fossil hunter

[Hoss]

This was on the sidebar. http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/earth/d...don-juice.html
They were drinking the water from the bones and nicknamed it mastodon juice. They also have a disclaimer not to try this at home. Hell if I had a vertebrae like that at home I would give it a shot!    

[rokhedred]

Guess they've never experienced Giardiasis!!!!!!! I wouldn't be drinkin' that water if I was you. LOL