Morrow County Mastodon Site May Yield Rare Evidence of Paleo-Indian Involvement

Big mastodon bones being uncovered last Saturday, observed by Dr. Brush.  (Photo by Don Comis)

For a change, there were too many volunteers last Saturday, but it was a productive day with finding of possible flint tools near bones with possible cut marks, changing the dig's working hypothesis to a Paleo-Indian mastodon kill and/or butchering site.  (Photo by Don Comis)

In his September 24 e-mail report on the results of the Cedar Creek Mastodon site excavation in Morrow County, Ohio, on September 20, Ashland University’s Dr. Nigel Brush said, “The discovery of clusters of bones in association with some large flint flakes last Saturday, as well as possible cut marks on one of the bones…”  leads to “our present working hypothesis… that this site may be a Paleoindian [Also spelled "Paleo-Indian"] kill and/or butchery site.  This changes the goal of our excavation.  Instead of   trying to recover large bones from the mastodon skeleton, we will primarily focus on recovering evidence to validate our hypothesis that this is a human kill/butchery site.  Many mastodon sites have been found in Ohio and surrounding states, but only a few have good evidence for human interaction.   Therefore, we must change our excavation methodology….Our site has the potential to be rather significant, if we follow proper scientific procedures and are careful in our work.”

The changes include:

·         “Since we want to show the association between bones and possible flint tools, we must leave the bones and flint flakes/tools in place when we find them in undisturbed soils…” ;

·         Not touching flint flakes or tools “since we will be sending these off for blood residue analysis and oils on your skin may negate the analysis…”;

·         “Since we will be looking for additional cut marks on the bone, we must be very careful not to scratch the bones when exposing them.”

·         “Floors of excavation units must be kept flat so we can see what materials are in association at each level. Take each 10 cm level down in 5 cm (2 inch) stages.  In other words, take the whole unit down 5 cm. see what is showing up and record if necessary, then go down the other 5 cm.”

·         “…the final removal of bones, flint flakes/tools, and charcoal samples from excavated levels” will be supervised “to insure that they are properly handled, labeled, and stored.  Materials removed from these assemblages will be stored in separate containers from the regular excavation and screening bags…”.

The reason for these changes is that the new working hypothesis makes it important to document what materials are found near each other, as evidence they are related.   Flint flakes or tools  found near bones can be evidence that Paleo-Indians killed the mastodon at this spot and/or butchered it there.   Charcoal nearby could indicate a fire built by the Paleo-Indian hunters.

Paleo-Indians are prehistoric Native Americans that are generally thought to have arrived in North America from Asia at the end of the last Ice Age by crossing a vast ice and land bridge over the Bering Strait.   They were in Ohio during the time the mastodon being excavated probably died, about 13,000 years ago.  Some have blamed these hunters and a warmer climate for the extinction of mastodons.

Dr. Brush also said that, “When we first began excavating this site, we thought most of the mastodon skeleton might remain undisturbed, except for the damage caused by the backhoe during the digging of the drainage ditch.  That scenario is now much less likely since we are recovering fragmented mastodon bones from various parts of the body.  The skeleton could have become disarticulated by the activities of Ice Age predators, or by human hunters. “

But the discovery last Saturday of the large flint flakes near bones with possible cut marks led him to focus on the human hunters, at least for now.

"Discovering the Ice Age" Students Volunteer

Last Saturday’s excavation was in the fourth week of the mastodon dig and we had 62 volunteers, including 8 students from Dr. Brush’s  “Discovering the Ice Age” class, 12 students from Ashland’s  Geology Club and the club advisor, and 7 students from the University of Toledo. 

There were so many volunteers that I couldn’t find a spot to dig so I ended up sifting dirt all day, which was fine with me.  I shared a sifting screen with two novice students and another novice, the wife of an experienced volunteer.

Boy, did I feel great after finding two small pieces of the mastodon’s ivory tusk, before the other volunteers joined me.  I had learned the previous week to identify bones.  This week I learned to identify many tusk pieces because they tend to look like part of a wooden matchstick.

I had brought one to an experienced volunteer and he identified it as a piece of tusk.  When I found a similar piece I identified it as a piece of tusk.  It made me feel like an expert.  And when the complete novices joined me, they were asking me to confirm "bone or no bone" on their finds.  Soon they were finding bone after bone as well.  It was probably because the soil we were sifting had a lot of bone fragments, but it felt nice for them to say I was a good teacher when I complimented them on their finds.

A 300-million-year-old brachiopod fossil was a mere distraction during the mastodon excavation last Saturday.  (Photo by Don Comis)

  

One found a fossil and took it to her geology club advisor and he identified it as a 300-million-year old brachiopod.  It was exciting for us but of no interest to the mastodon diggers because they are only looking for bones or other things are about 13,000 years old, about the time the mastodon lived.

More big bones were emerging in Unit 14, which has been excavated to the 12- to 16-inch depth.  A new set of bones could be a wrist of the mastodon, but it hasn’t been completely unearthed yet.

The work continues this Saturday, September 27, but I’ll probably miss it because I had an earlier commitment to collect prairie seed at Guy Denny’s prairie in Fredericktown.

As a sidenote, Dr. Brush added that the University of Michigan has developed a 3-D image of a mastodon that we can use to identify the bones as we find them .  It can be seen here.   It is great, allowing you to rotate the skeleton in any direction, including upside down to see inside the rib cage. And  by clicking just right on a particular bone, you can examine the actual bone close-up and rotate it too!

The story behind the creation of this image by using new technology and scanned images of mastodon bones in the collection of the University’s  Museum of Paleontology is here.  It includes a nice video.

Dr. Brush also said that Brian Redman from the Cleveland Museum of Natural History will be visiting the site on Saturday, as well as a reporter from the Columbus Dispatch.

Note:  I'll try to add more of last Saturday's photographs to my "Mastodon Dig" slideshow on my website.

Kenyon College Trees Have Roots Back to 1614

Kenyon College grounds manager Steve Vaden leads the Apple Valley Garden Club on a tour of its trees, with some dating back 300 to 400 years.  (Photo by Don Comis)

This northern red oak is one of Kenyon's senior trees, 300-to-400 years old.  (Photo by Don Comis)

I went on a tour of Kenyon College trees with the Apple Valley Garden Club on September 17.  It was a nice homecoming to my alma mater, but it also showed me more of what I missed seeing when I was there.  Apple Valley is a development in Howard, Ohio, about 5 miles from Gambier, where Kenyon is located.

I was especially surprised to realize I never saw an “upside down” tree that is a favorite of many people, even though it is located near Pierce Hall, where I ate meals three times a day for three years.

The tree is a European weeping beech tree.  Its branches all reach down so low to the ground that you can hardly see the trunk.  Only when you step over one of Kenyon’s old stone and chain fences and enter through a break in the branches do you see the wild tree trunk which has fantasy-like shapes, including one that looks like an elephant.

Sure enough the beech tree is carved with initials and professions of love, but I didn’t see any dates back to the sixties when I was there, when it was an all-male college.

I imagine it is a great place to relax or read a book!

This European weeping beech tree is so upside down that you can't see its trunks or branches from the outside.  (Photo by Don Comis)

Once inside, the tree reveals the fantastic shapes of its trunks and branches.  (Photo by Don Comis)

Grounds manager Steve Vaden led the tour, telling us that the oldest trees were in the 300 to 400 year old range and the tallest tree was about 170 feet high.   It didn’t take long for Vaden to show us examples of the oldest trees, such as a northern red oak next to one of the buildings.

Naturally having so many old trees can cause problems.  Vaden described the time one of the oldest trees fell in the part of the campus where the graduation ceremonies are held—the day before the ceremony.

Vaden said that Dave Heithaus, facilities manager of the Brown Family Environmental Center at Kenyon, will do a timeline of a big oak tree that had to be removed, by examining the rings on a slab saved from the felled tree.

That should be quite a timeline if the tree goes back to 1614 or 1714!

One of the ways the college earned its Arbor Day Foundation “Tree Campus USA”  is by setting a goal of always keeping at least a 14 percent tree canopy cover on campus.  Kenyon has thousands of trees, Vaden said.

The tree program is part of Kenyon’s overall commitment to sustainability.   We were reminded of one example as we arrived for lunch in Pierce Hall---Kenyon was a pioneer among colleges nationwide in serving locally grown food (40 percent of the food).

The tree tour made me think back to the trees just cut in my Apple Valley yard, the oldest of which only dated back to about 1955, when it was all farmland.   I was older than the two trees cut down and one that was trimmed.  I figured their ages by doing my own ring-counting.

A "Tree Campus USA" banner hangs over us as we have a meeting before having lunch in a new addition to Gothic Pierce Hall.  (Photo by Don Comis)

Minnesota May Lose Two Icons--Moose and Loons

Story in current issue of National Wildlife magazine about the mysterious decline of moose in Minnesota and New Hampshire.

Illustration accompanying story of moose decline in National Wildlife magazine.   The causes may be a mix of  ticks and brain worms, aggravated by milder winters.

Global warming could rob Minnesota of not just its iconic loons, but also its moose.  And ,it could end the storied island life of wolves in Lake Superior’s Isle Royale National Park .

A story in the current issue of National Wildlife magazine describes the “deepening mystery” of why the “moose population in northwestern Minnesota has plunged from 4,000 animals to just 100.  Moose numbers are declining fast in northeastern Minnesota, too, and as far away as central and southern New Hampshire.”

The story also says that “some biologists believe” global warming “is behind the decline of moose in parts of Minnesota.”   Global warming may be working in conjunction with “a triple whammy of parasites, pests and predators.”   In New Hampshire, milder winters  have already increased tick populations to the point where they are draining all the blood out of moose.  Less snow cover also draws in more deer, and with them comes an increase in a brain worm that causes moose to “start walking in circles or just stand around until they become prey or die.”

The opposite is true on Isle Royale where there are no deer and therefore no brain worm.  There also soon may be no more wolves, which depend on the lake freezing periodically to allow wolves to walk to and from the mainland, to avoid inbreeding.   During the past 17 years, a “news of the wild” story in the magazine reads, “ice bridges formed only three times…As a result researchers have tallied the lowest number of wolves ever—an average of fewer than nine yearly during the past three years (the population typically fluctuates between 18 and 27 animals).”

The study of wolves on this island is now in its 56th year.  The study had found long ago that wolves maintain a healthy moose population.   Now moose kills by wolves have dropped to a record low and the moose population has doubled, to about 1,050, threatening the forest on the island, including the balsam fir that is the main food source for moose, demonstrating once again why healthy wolves are crucial to moose survival.

(Sidebar to article in Audubon magazine, listing loons as one of 314 bird species threatened by global warming.)

My copy of the October/November issue of the National Wildlife Federation's National Wildlife magazine arrived in the mail the day after I received Audubon magazine which said, "Minnesota will likely have no more loons in summer by the end of the century."

Extinction for 314 Birds, Including Eagles?

In the 1970s in Maryland I could only see bald eagles in cages.  By the 2000's, I lived a half mile from an eagle nest in Maryland, about 15 miles from the U.S. Capitol building.  And within two weeks of moving to Ohio, in 2012, I saw an eagle's nest about 5 miles from my new home.  Now, climate change threatens a second attempt at extinction for our Nation's symbol.  (Photo by Debbie Hurlbert, Howard, Ohio)

Pick a favorite bird that comes to your yard and it’s probably one of the 314 North American bird species at risk from climate change, according to a recent Audubon report, based on a  seven-year study of 588 species by Audubon’s science team.  The report is published in Audubon Magazine’s special issue, titled “Birds & Climate Change.”

The study suggests that “Nearly half of the bird species in the United States will be seriously threatened by 2080, and any of those could disappear forever.”

Shockingly this would also mean the reversal of one of the biggest conservation success stories, the revival of the bald eagle in my lifetime.  The study projects the bald eagle could lose 71 percent of its current range by 2050.  The report says, “It may see a 56 percent range expansion into areas opened up by global warming, but it will still need prey and nesting habitat in those new areas.”  That means that both their prey and their desired nesting trees must also survive global warming in their new areas, if the bald eagle is to survive there.

The same is true of the golden eagle, whose “breeding range is forecast to shrink 58 percent by 2050 and 79 percent by 2080, although it could potentially colonize new areas,” the report says.

No Loons in Minnesota

As the climate continues warming, all 314 species could lose their preferred habitats.  For example, loons are predicted to be totally gone from Minnesota as its climate warms, shrinking their non-breeding range by 63 percent and their summer breeding habitat range by 32 percent.   Shrink enough and the loons could be extinct.  That’s the basic idea with all the species-on-the-brink listed.

The study used hundreds of thousands of birdwatcher observations for the Audubon Christmas bird counts and the North American Breeding Bird Survey to determine each species’ “climate envelope”.  This envelope pinpoints the range of temperatures, rainfall amounts, and other climate characteristics of the habitats occupied by each species.  As the report states, “Then they looked for each combination of characteristics within sophisticated computer projections of the global climate, finding the future climate envelopes—and, by extension, the potential future ranges—of the species and mapping them to a resolution of 10 square kilometers.”

The study divides the 314 birds into two categories:  188 “climate-threatened” and 126 “climate-endangered”.   The climate-threatened birds” face losing more than half of their current range by 2080, although they have the potential to shift into new areas.”  The “climate-endangered” species, like the bald eagle, "are projected to lose more than 50 percent of their current range by 2050, with no net gain from range expansion.”

Although only nine birds species have gone extinct in continental North America in modern times, the losses were spectacular and caught the general public by surprise.  This is especially true of the passenger pigeon, which flew in such awesome numbers that no one believed they could become extinct.  But it happened.  On September 1, 1914, the last passenger pigeon, Martha, died at the Cincinnati Zoo, where it was kept as part of an unsuccessful attempt to save the species through a breeding program.

So, it’s appropriate for Ohioans to take the lead in in accepting  Audubon’s challenge to act now to prevent these predictions from being fulfilled.  After all, because Martha died relatively close to Columbus, the National Audubon Society chose the Audubon headquarters in Columbus to be the home of the sculptures of the passenger pigeon and four other extinct birds:  Labrador Duck, the Great Auk, the Heath Hen, and the Carolina Parakeet.  The other North American birds that went extinct since records were kept are:  Bachman’s Warbler, Dusky Seaside Sparrow, Eskimo Curlew, and Ivory-Billed Woodpecker.

Even Chad Robbins , the father of modern ornithology who organized the North American Breeding Survey, told me he never believed that the Kirtland warbler would be so close to extinction in his lifetime.

 I have never seen such an alarming issue of Audubon magazine—All 314 names of the threatened species runs along the top of 57 pages of the 102-page issue.

The Audubon study is undergoing peer review for journal publication.

Put “Weeds” in Your Garden

Ironweed provides a nice accent for this wild meadow in Apple Valley in Howard, Ohio.  (Photo by Don Comis)

Joe Pye weed grows wild in Apple Valley too, but it's one of the "weeds" that should be in more gardens.  (Photo by Don Comis)

Jo Ann Graham has run two interesting columns in the Mount Vernon (Ohio) News praising garden plants often thought of as weeds (in two cases it could be because of their names):  Joe Pye weed, ironweed, and goldenrod.

In her September 13 column, she notes how the roadside flowers have shifted from the purple of Joe Pye weed and ironweed to the yellow of goldenrod.  I’ve enjoyed watching the goldenrod displays fill out over the past weeks.

Graham says that goldenrod is no longer a weed, proving the maxim that a weed is a plant you don’t want in your garden.   And it proves that people change their minds about what they want.

Choosing native plants like these is good for not only our gardens but for the environment and bees and other pollinators.  Plus these plants attract butterflies and birds for our enjoyment.

It also attracts bumble bees and other native bees and other insects that are interesting to watch, harmless to us, and very beneficial to plants.  Bumble bees, one of the native bees that can partly replace the pollination work of European honey bees, are on the decline along with honey bees.

And, as Graham explains, because it is pollinated by bees, butterflies, moths, and other bugs, goldenrod doesn’t deserve its reputation for causing hay fever.  She says it got this bad rap because it blooms the same time as ragweed, which is the culprit, because, unlike goldenrod, ragweed spreads its pollen by wind.

I didn’t realize that.

Knowing that goldenrod doesn’t cause hay fever makes me glad that it’s included—along with Joe Pye weed and ironweed--in a pre-planned  “96 Plant Monarch Habitat Garden”  for “medium soils” which I ordered from Prairie Nursery.    Native plants like these not only provide habitat for the endangered monarch and other butterflies and pollinators and birds, but also make a self-sustaining garden that, once established, needs no watering, no pesticides or fertilizers, and little weeding.  Just look at how well these plants fare without any management on roadsides and vacant lots.

In her August 30 column , Graham noted the “beautiful tall deep purple blooms of ironweed” seen on roadsides then.  She says that because of the popularity of native plants, “ironweed is popping up in perennials beds, alongside Joe-Pye weed, another native plant. “ Joe Pye weed has lavender flowers that pale next to ironweed’s bright purple.  I’ve noticed the two tend to grow together wild on roadsides.  And Graham has seen the two growing together with perennial phlox in Kingwood Center’s perennial beds.  The Apple Valley Garden Club, which I am a member of, is trying to get Graham as a speaker at a future Garden Club meeting.

Graham says that the nectar of ironweed flowers “attracts bees, flies, hummingbirds and butterflies. Some bees collect pollen for their larvae. Caterpillars of various moths feed on the pith of the stems and their roots. Aphids suck juices from the upper stems and leaf undersides. Hummingbirds and butterflies just love the nectar.”

I’m finding that the bright purple of ironweed has already been replaced by a similar purple in New England asters on roadsides.  There is one New England aster plant in the Monarch habitat shipment I expect to receive next week.

 I’m not seeing as much of Joe Pye weed now either.

All in all, Graham, past president of The Ohio Association of Garden Clubs, Inc., and Kingwood Center have given at least a few of these “weeds” a great endorsement!

Also check out my website.

Mastodon Tusks and Ankle Bones May Have Been Located

The 8-inch wide re-assembled mastodon tooth that launched the dig was on display at the site on September 14.  (Photo by Don Comis)

On Saturday, September 14, an archaeologist switches from metal trowel to wooden instrument for the delicate work required for uncovering more of the large bones found on Sunday, September 13, in Unit 14.  I think he skipped lunch because he was so caught up in the task.  (Photo by Don Comis)

Well they said the big bones would start showing up and they did for our Sunday, September 14 mastodon dig in Morrow County.  Learning my route for my third weekend of digging and sifting, I got there early and saw what a special dig the day before had uncovered—what looks like mastodon leg bone from the ankle down as well as assorted other good chunks of bone half buried still in Units  14 and 15.

In his latest report to volunteers, Dr. Nigel Brush, with Ashland University, said that, “The tusk fragments are getting larger and Cathy Hancock noted that most of the material from Unit 4 this week were tusk fragments, so undisturbed portions of the tusk may lie in that direction (the two teeth were found in Unit 5)."

It was the discovery of a tooth by a soybean farmer about a year-and-a-half ago that launched this dig that began on August 23.  The tooth had been unearthed during the digging of a ditch to lay drainage pipe.

I’ve only got three days of digging experience but the finding of teeth in nearby Unit 5 and the possibility of the tusks being in Unit 4  makes me wonder if the mastodon’s head isn’t under Units 4 and 5—and I can begin to visualize the body connecting the head to the legs reaching Units 14 and 15.  I’m hoping anyway.

I was sifting soil for Unit 4 on Sunday and I noticed we were seeing more and more little fragment s of tusk and other bones and I started finding bone fragments on my own for the first time, including one that was not so small.  However, three youngsters outdid me even though this was their first day:  While helping us sift soil dug from Unit 4, Garrett Harvey, 9, found 5 small pieces of tusk, Kendra Harvey, 12, found 7 tusk pieces, and Miranda Harvey, 15, found 4 tusk pieces and 3 pieces of flint.  Flint pieces are saved in case they turn out to be parts of weapons that could indicated the mastodon was killed by prehistoric Native American hunters.

 Kim Harvey, a 6^th grade science teacher, brought her children to the dig because she shares my belief that youngsters should do more outdoor science.

We were sifting dirt dug from the 8- to 12-inch deep layer on Sunday.   I was also digging in Unit 4 on my very first day of digging, removing soil down to 8 inches and we found nothing.  The first foot of soil is the plow layer, where it’s less likely to find much because of the disturbance of plowing.  On September 6, I was working in Unit 16 and my partner, Jeff, was finding bones, including a good-sized one that was near Unit 15.

While an archaeologist in Unit 14 carefully uncovers large bones that may include ankle bones, markers have been laced in Unit 15 where large bones were also found.  (Photo by Don Comis)

Some of the units have been dug down to 16 inches.

There was very careful trowel and wood pick work going on in Units 14 and 15, to slowly uncover the larger bones.

One of the volunteers told me that the fact the mastodon seemed buried in a shallow grave meant that he may have died “only” 11,000 years ago, rather a million or more years ago, promising a better preserved skeleton might be found.

I sifted dirt from Unit 4 with Steve House,  president of the Muskingum [County] Chapter of the Archaeological Society of Ohio.   It took me a while to realize he had done the atlatl demonstration at the annual potluck and auction of the Kokosing Chapter which I belong to.

The re-assembled mastodon tooth that started this dig was on display.  Seeing it and asking questions I learned that I should say the tooth is about 8 inches wide, rather than 8 inches long.  The teeth are not long because a mastodon is a vegetarian that just chomps on small trees and other plants.   Each tooth can have about 10 cusps or ridges, compared to about four each for our teeth, which tend to be longer than they are wide.

It turns out that the tooth gives the mastodon its name because the cusps look like nipples.  And the tooth is one of the best ways to distinguish a mastodon from a wooly mammoth.  The mastodon is a forest animal that eats small trees, twigs and leaves, so its teeth are designed for crunching.  A wooly mammoth is a grasslands animal with teeth suited for cutting grass.

The next dig occurs Saturday, September 20—the day after my birthday.  Maybe I’ll get a mastodon for a present!

For more photos, go to "Mastodon Dig" on my website.

Three Hours at Your Desk Saturday Could Save Bumble Bees Worldwide

Talk About Citizen Science Conserving Species!

Here's an interesting e-mail from Sam Droege, with whom I  participated in bird counts at the Beltsville (Maryland) Agricultural Research Center which shares land with the USGS Patuxent Wildlife Research Center.

This is a blitz you do from your computer, indoors, transcribing data that can help save bumble bees, one of the native pollinators that are more efficient in the United States than the European honey bees, which are also in decline.

I can't do it because it's this Saturday, from 1 to 4 p.m., and it's a worldwide event because bumble bees are in decline worldwide.  (I didn't know that!)

Droege, Sam' sdroege@usgs.gov [VA-MD-DE-Bugs]

To

BCC

VA-MD-DE-Bugs@yahoogroups.com

Today at 8:26 PM

BUMBLE BEE BLITZ

[Feel free to send this message to other related listservs]

Worried about the declines and changes in worldwide populations of Bumble Bees?  No? Well you should and now you can help as long as you have a computer with Internet access.

The U.S. National Museum Entomology Department has just scanned in the labels and pictures of 44,000 Bumble Bee specimens in their collection (many more to come)  and this Saturday the objective is to harness the online power of the world to get them all transcribed and into their database.

These Bumble Bees form the baseline for comparisons with current populations, but are useless unless the data are accessible.  

This is where you come in.....

The event will take place this Saturday from 1-4 p.m. 

You can participate simply by clicking into the Smithsonian's Bumblentry  website:

(hint:  you can actually start transcribing now, only 1% of the labels have been transcribed so far)

or, if you are local to the Washington D.C. area and want to join the Entomological elite you can come down to the museum (with your laptop) and enter away.  

You can register for the local event [here]:

Thanks to you the world will be a better place.

-------

Note the contact for more information on the event is:  Robert Costello NOT Sam Droege

sam

Sam Droege  sdroege@usgs.gov                     
w 301-497-5840 h 301-390-7759 fax 301-497-5624
USGS Patuxent Wildlife Research Center
BARC-EAST, BLDG 308, RM 124 10300 Balt. Ave., Beltsville, MD  20705
Http://www.pwrc.usgs.gov

            "Old maids are the support of the British Empire: Old maids keep cats: cats catch field mice that otherwise would destroy humblebee nests; humblebees enable red clover to set seed; red clover is good food for cattle; and roast beef gives strength to men who are the support of the British Empire." 

       - Extracted from the 1948 edition of  Lutz’s Fieldbook of Insects of the United States and Canada

--

Bees are Not Optional

Apes sunt et non liberum

__._,_.___

---

Posted by: "Droege, Sam" <sdroege@usgs.gov>

Sampling Mud Down to 13,000 Years Ago to Shed Light on Mastodon's Grave

The two volunteers in the foreground are standing in a trench that reveals some of the soil layers in the excavation site that could reveal how the site was formed over the past 13,000 years or so--and how it fits in with the nearby bog that was once a glacial lake when the dead mastodon roamed its shores.   (Photo by Don Comis)

Pieces of mastodon tusk (left) and other bones (right) collected from the surface of the ditch area on April 26.   More complete bones should show up soon as we hone in on our quarry, during a dig that is in its third week.  (Photo by Don Comis)

On September 10, Ashland University's Dr. Nigel Brush sent me and other volunteers a link to Dr. Greg Wiles' latest blog (September 7) “on the sediment cores that were taken from the bog near the Morrow County (Ohio) mastodon site last Saturday, September 6.”  

Wiles will collaborate with the soil core team, giving his Climate Change students at the College of Wooster (Ohio) the opportunity of working with the cores over the next several weeks—a wonderful way to spend the first semester back at school!

The team—Dr. Tom Lowell and  his graduate student Stephanie Allard, at the University of Cincinnati, and University of Illinois student Jacklyn Rodriguez-- found many species of snails and possibly clams in one three foot (one meter) core sample of  lime-rich mud (clay “marl”).   In answer to one of the questions I e-mailed him after the September 6 dig, which I participated in, Dr. Brush said that that “Clay marls are light gray to whitish in color and are composed of a mixture of clay and small shell fragments of various organisms, such as gastropods (snails) and pelecypods (clams) that lived in glacial lakes.”

They team took samples—in 3-foot sections--down to 21 feet (seven meters).  The last 3-foot core sample represents the late glacial period, about 13,000 years ago, about the time when mastodons roamed the shores of the glacial lake that is now the bog.

The blog includes some nice photos, including one showing the soil layers (stratigraphy) in a trench cut in the nearby mastodon excavation area to locate the path of the machine that uncovered an 8-inch long mastodon tooth and pieces of other teeth and the jaw bone as it laid drainage pipe.

The caption says that “we hope to be able to link the bog cores to this site.  It may take a backhoe pit from the excavation to the bog to really understand how the stratigraphy here {in the nearby bog] links with the former lake.”

Another caption reads, “We look forward to the analyses of the cores…”

My Post-September 6 Dig Questions Answered

In answer to other questions in my e-mail, Dr. Brush said that the large bone, about 3- by 6-inches, might be part of the mastodon’s jaw bone, based on the bone’s angle, “but we haven’t been able to verify that yet.”

He also said that the charcoal found where we were digging could have “come from an earlier land clearance by one of the farmers who previously owned this property (i.e. cutting down trees near the bog and burning them).  There is always the possibility that the charcoal might also be from Native American campsites.  However, since we are still digging in disturbed soil from the recent ditch digging activities, as well as plowing, it’s impossible to say at this point.”

Big Bones Soon

The action continues this upcoming weekend.  On Saturday, a small team will dig down to the drainage pipe to find clues as to where we should concentrate our excavation work on Sunday.   The big bones should start showing up soon!

Whole Mastodon Bones Expected After Next Weekend

The main mastodon skeleton is likely near Unit 15, the middle left plot.  I worked with Jeff (wearing gray t-shirt) on Unit 16, the far left plot.  (Photo by Don Comis)

On Saturday, September 6, Ashland University students and other volunteers sift through all the soil carefully dug up by volunteers in the excavation plots.   (Photo by Don Comis)

In today’s e-mail (Monday, September 8) to those of us involved in the Morrow County mastodon dig, Ashland University’s Dr. Nigel Brush said that, “By the end of this coming weekend, we have a good chance of having found some intact bones (rather than bits and pieces).”

Dr.  Brush also said that “Dr. Gregory Wiles from the College of Wooster, Dr. Thomas Lowell from the University of Cincinnati, one student from the University of Cincinnati, and one student from the University of Illinois were also at the site this past Saturday in order to collect sediment cores from the bog for environmental analysis. “

Climate Change

He also said that earlier this fall, Dr. Wiles and his Climate Change students mapped the mud depth in and around the bog near the excavation site and found the sediment reached a maximum depth of over 20 feet.   The website describing this work says that the 20-plus feet  of mud is “a record of environmental change” over about the  last 15,000 years.   It also said that they found blue glacial lake clays overlain by a [lime-rich mud] (with snail shells), which is overlain by organic-rich mud. This sequence and its details will become clearer when the site is cored on 6 September."

Dr.Brush said , “They also found possible evidence for an old preglacial stream channel running through the bog.”

A photo caption on their website shows three of the mapping participants “Washing up and wondering about how the Mastodon may have met its fate along the shore of a muddy lake during the Pleistocene [era].”

Dr. Brush's e-mail report said that last Saturday they determined that many of the bones “we have recovered at the site have been from the disturbed soil in Unit 15, so it is likely that the remaining skeleton is nearby. “

8-Inch Long Teeth

As a result, they are changing the next excavation date to  Sunday, September 14, so a smaller team can finish Unit 15 down to the drainage pipe.   The machine that lay this corrugated pipe (tile) uncovered the 8-inch long mastodon tooth that launched this excavation.

Dr. Brush explained that ,”This work would allow us to see if there are any bones in the undisturbed soil on the east wall of the ditch.  If not, we may shift our excavation to the south or west on Sunday.”

Last Saturday, I was assigned to Unit 16 with Jeff, a fellow member of the Kokosing Chapter of the Archaeological Society of Ohio.  This proved to be a more promising site than Unit 4, where I worked  the week before.   Plus Jeff, who even though this was his first dig, has a lot of experience finding prehistoric artifacts of Native Americans on the soil surface.  So he has a good eye and spotted a lot of little fragments of bones.   He also seemed to have the big find of the day, with a piece about 6 inches by 3 inches that Jeff Dillard, who directed the excavation that day, said was probably part of a much bigger bone.  That bone and most of the other pieces found in Unit 16 were adjacent to Unit 15.

With some help, even I spotted my first small bone pieces while excavating.  And I found some more while sifting, increasing my confidence level.  The small pieces are easily missed or mistaken for stones.  I’ve learned a few rules of thumbs so far:

· Sandstone often impersonates as bone.

· Bones are usually not white.

· Bones make a duller sound, like hitting wood, when tapped with a trowel, while stones “sing” when tapped.  Bones also feel like wood.

· Bones usually have holes in their cross sections and lines on the outside.

I also learned that black areas can indicate charcoal which is interesting to archaeologists because it could indicate a possible cooking fire, either new or ancient, or it could just be from natural causes.

It was also fascinating to see a soil core about three feet deep that had been removed from the nearby bog for sampling.  The two university students who showed us the core said that the bog had once been a glacial lake.

The contractor who had uncovered the bones also visited the site last Saturday to check on our progress.  He told me he had found many things over the years, including a stone ball used by Native Americans for play, but never a mastodon skeleton.

He explained to Dillard and others  how his tile-laying machine worked, saying it cut a swatch 12-inches wide, but disturbed the soil on either side of the ditch as well, leading to more soil disturbance than the archaeology team had expected.  One of the dig volunteers told me that it would just shake the soil on either side, disturbing an area no more than four feet wide.  He also thought this shaking disturbance would only loosen soil, not break bones.

Brush Your Teeth, Not a Mastodon's!

And, I learned something that should make us all want to brush our teeth more and get rid of tartar:
The tartar on mastodon teeth covers particles of food they've eaten, helping archaeologists learn what they ate.   Just the thought of even just traces of food particles lasting that long should make us brush more!  But not when the teeth are thousands of years  old.  We were told not to brush any we found , to avoid removing tartar.

My excavation partner, Jeff, told me that a shoulder blade found earlier in the excavation showed the type of cut marks that could indicate the mastodon was slain by hunters and butchered.  Dillard noticed that some of the bones we found in Unit 16 also showed signs of having been broken long ago, possibly by butchering.

We scared up some living creatures in the plots, at least three frogs, one mouse, a beetle, and three frogs.

It was a nice cool day, with some misty rain, much more comfortable than the hot day the week before.

Eight of the volunteers were members of local chapters of the Archaeological Society of Ohio: Seven were members of the Johnny Appleseed Chapter and I represented the Kokosing Chapter—along with three Johnny Appleseed members who also had memberships in the Kokosing Chapter.  Ashland University students were also among the volunteers.

To see more photos of the mastodon excavation work go to my website and click on "Mastodon Dig" in the menu.  

Closing in on a Mastodon

Ashland University and College of Wooster students make up a substantial portion of the volunteers on the Morrow County, Ohio, mastodon dig that began on August 23, 2014.  Photo, taken during lunch break on August 30, shows trench dug  to locate the path of the backhoe that first exposed mastodon remains. Plots are marked by string, with teams of four removing and examining soil, one 10-centimeter- deep layer at a time   (Photo by Don Comis)

Mastodon teeth.   (Photo of teeth from an unrelated dig,; photo found online, in public domain.)

After the second Saturday (August 30) of the Morrow County mastodon archaeological dig, co-leader Dr. Nigel Brush, said, “We believe that we are closing in on our quarry.”

He reported that on this second day—the first day I began participating in the dig—“We continued to find even more bone fragments, tusk fragments, and part of another tooth (in Unit 15).  Much of the bone is coming from disturbed soil in Unit 15.  The two teeth that have been recovered so far are from Unit 5.  Therefore, it is beginning to look like these two units are at the heart of the site.  For the past two weeks we have been focusing our efforts on Units 4-6 and 14-16, because this is where most of the surface scatter of broken bones and tusks was concentrated.

“However,” Dr. Brush, associate professor of geology at Ashland University, continued in an e-mail report, “we are beginning to wonder how much of the skeleton has been damaged.  It appears that most of U-15 has been disturbed.  This is why we cut such a long, deep cross trench through this unit before the excavation began - we were looking for the disturbed soil of the drainage ditch, but we found disturbed soil throughout most of the unit.  We were in hopes that the damage to the skeleton was confined to a 12-inch wide cut made by the backhoe.  Unfortunately, the disturbance seems to be more widespread than this.  By taking these units down in 10 cm. levels, we hope to better understand the nature of this disturbance, as well as recover any bones, flint flakes, or tools that might be in this disturbed soil."

I guess that means we’re narrowing down where the skeleton is, but it could be really broken up.

This was my first archaeological dig and I had a great time.  During my lunch break, on the grass by a bog, I just enjoyed staring at the trench and the square plots marked with staked string and the tools--all under a tent--and the nearby screens to sieve the soil removed from each plot.  And I was sobered by the thought that this was the cemetery of a mastodon who died maybe 12,000 years ago!

To keep up our morale, Dr. Brush made sure we all got to see and touch every find; the one I remember was a piece of tooth which seemed to be about an inch in diameter and length.  I read that a mastodon tooth can be 6 ½ inches long.

I spent the day on the Unit 4 team, with three of the  ten College of Wooster students volunteering on the dig.  Two of us worked on removing the first 10 centimeter layer, while other two sifted the soil and put anything possibly interesting into a small paper bag.   To dig carefully, we stuck the point of a trowel into the dirt and then twisted the trowel, to upend the soil.  If we struck something hard or interesting, we put the trowel aside and brushed away dirt to expose it and then carefully removed it.

Once it became obvious that we weren’t likely to find anything in the first 10 centimeters of Unit 4, I was able to dig with a regular size scraper shovel, shoveling off thin layers while the student members of the team sifted.

I soon learned to spot sandstone, since it easily resembles bones to a novice like me.  One of the students also advised me that bones usually don’t show up as white.

I also met co-leader Dr. Nick Kardulias, chair of the archaeology program at the College of Wooster.

Dr. Brush said that there were more than 30 volunteers on both Saturdays.  In an earlier report, he said that on the first day the volunteers included 10 Ashland University students and 5 College of Wooster students.  The Ashland students couldn’t come on August 30, because unlike the Wooster students, they had a Labor Day break from school.

I'll return for the next dig on Saturday, September 6.

The soil from the plots is sieved through a screen at the teepee-like frames to the right of the tent-covered plots.  (Photo by Don Comis)