Announcement
Collapse
No announcement yet.
Michigan Clovis Encampment
Collapse
X
-
Not to far down the road from here. I must have been reading this about the same time you were!Searching the fields of NW Indiana and SW Michigan
- Likes 2
Comment
-
****oh yeah, thanks for sharing***
I got a little excited.
-
Lots of factors but there are a couple of big contributors.
First, after the glaciers melted there were massive (think cubic miles) deposits of really fine glacier "flour", and over thousands of years it washed down stream towards the Great Lakes.
Second, post the Pleistocene most of these areas were densely covered in forests that were a factory for organic topsoil creation. 10,000 years of leaves rotting and composting resulted in 4-12 feet of soil in many areas that bury most of what we look for.
I don't know the area Mendon where this site is located, but many of the areas there also have minor Loess soil deposits as well. Loess is a wind blown sediment common in the Midwest. In some parts of Indiana, Iowa & Illinois it can be over 100 feet thick. In Northern Indiana and Southern Michigan it isn't that thick, but a fraction of an inch a century could still add a lot of depth to an old site.
-
Fun to watch that and see the artifacts. Couldn’t believe they didn’t expose that whole artifact for us to see. I wouldn’t have brushed the soil away slowly. I would have snatched it right up. LolSouth Dakota
- Likes 1
Comment
-
Sites like this one get me wondering how they were found. The habitation level appears to be below where a plow would reach. Maybe later artifacts closer to the surface lead to a closer and deeper look. That would suggest a long occupation of the site. The land around that site is flat and very fertile as the St Joseph River has wound it’s way over the landscape for eons making the area a magnet for hunters and gatherers. The area has had a long history of occupation by native peoples. Hopewell mounds can be found in the area and European contact with historic tribes began in 1680. New archaeological discoveries in my local area always get my curiosity running in overdrive.Uncle Trav- Southwest Michigan
Comment
-
The paper:
https://www.academia.edu/45053149/Pa...al_Great_Lakes
And a rather severe critique of the press release posted at the start of this thread:
A large chunk of the information that the public gets about archaeology comes via non-professional media. Even as a professional, I often hear about new "discoveries" first through news articles...
I would add, that while he is likely spot on in his corrections, the video that led off that press release was a great example of how avocational archaeologists, amateur surface hunters, can make important contributions. And there was nothing sensationalist about the information in that 3 minute clip….Last edited by CMD; 09-06-2021, 09:31 AM.Rhode Island
- Likes 2
Comment
-
Thanks for the links. The paper was extremely interesting in my view. I can see how those involved in related digs and research would be a bit put off by inaccurate articles involving a lot of hard work. Hopefully the posted video sparked enough interest in a few people to delve a little deeper into the topic.Uncle Trav- Southwest Michigan
- Likes 1
Comment
Comment