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.