Mastodon Dig Turns to Lab for Answers

A look at the Nov. 9, 2014 mastodon dig.  It's likely that some or all of the mastodon bones were washed into the excavation site from upland drainage thousands of years ago.  (Photo by Don Comis)

You can see how cold it was on Nov. 9 by the winter clothing worn by volunteers.  (Photo by Don Comis)

As the search for mastodon bones on a soybean farm in Morrow County, Ohio, winds down before winter, the work shifts to a lab at Ashland University where the excavated materials will be analyzed to decide if it’s worth continuing the excavation in the spring.

Excavation leader, Dr. Nigel Brush-- Ashland University associate professor of geology--wrote in an e-mail answer to my questions, that the lab tests “will provide the final answer” as to whether the mastodon was killed and butchered by Paleo-Indians, as it appears.

Right Site?

Even if the answer is “yes”, the next question is whether the excavation site is the butchery site.  Brush wrote that, “Based on the geological work that is being done at the site, it is appearing more and more likely that the bones were brought to their present location by a debris flow from a site at a higher elevation. “  He added that an upland kill and butchery site doesn’t make as much sense as the current excavation site, which is right near the remnants of an ancient bog where the animal could have been trapped in the soft sediment by its weight.

The bog traces back to the Pleistocene era when it was a muddy glacial lake.

Students from Ohio’s Wooster College’s Climate Change class sank a probe more than 20 feet into the mud, gaining a record of environmental change over about the past 15,000 years.   Brush said, “They also found possible evidence for an old preglacial stream channel running through the bog."

Discovering the Ice Age

Students from Brush’  'Discovering the Ice Age” class are also among the volunteers on the dig.  

Since the skeleton parts found so far are very crushed and shattered, the focus of the excavation shifted after the first month, from recovering a complete skeleton for exhibit, to finding evidence of Paleo-Indians killing and butchering a mastodon.

Brush’s e-mail to me continued, “We have ample evidence from Ohio and surrounding states that Paleoindians were present during this time period.  Butchery sites are not as common, although their number is steadily growing (due to the work of Dan Fisher at the University of Michigan, and other archaeologists).

Paleo-Indian (also written as "Paleoindian") is the term for the first people to arrive in North America, about 16,000 years ago, near the end of the Ice Age.  The website www.Indians.org says that, “Their name, Paleo, actually comes from the Greek word “palaios,” meaning ancient.”

Tools, such as flint scrapers, used to possibly butcher the mastodon are being sent to another lab for DNA analysis to test for mastodon blood.  At the Ashland lab, bones and other materials are being power washed with water and examined for cut marks made by butchering tools.

Scavengers

Brush wrote, “There are a lot of gnaw and bite marks on the bone”, suggesting the possibility that the mastodon merely died of old age, its corpse eaten by scavenging animals.  But, it’s also possible that the scavengers were just mopping up what was left after the Paleo-Indians butchered it.

On Nov. 9, volunteers found another possible hammerstone, a large round stone used to as a hammer or maul to crush things.  Amateur “surface hunters” identify hammerstones by the pecks or pockmarks caused as the stones are pounded on things.   The latest hammerstone was found in the same plot where at least one other hammerstone was found.  Volunteers also found possible vertebrae on Nov. 9.

We also found more pieces of flint and fragments of bones, including small pieces of tusk.

Other items found since the dig began include possible leg bones, ankle bones, rib bones, jaw bones, wrist bones, and all four lower teeth of the mastodon.   And we found pieces of flint brought to the area by man from other parts of Ohio as well as pieces of charcoal that could have come from fires used to cook parts of the mastodon.  A possible fire pit was also found.

As far as I know, the only proven weapon found was a tiny projectile point (a “Merom Expanding Stemmed point “)—a Stone Age spear or arrow head—that belonged to Native Americans who arrived long after the mastodon was extinct.  While the mastodon dates back to beyond 8,000 B.C., the projectile “only” dates to between 1,600 B.C. to 810 B.C.

Mastodon On Its Last Legs

An analysis of the mastodon’s lower four teeth by volunteer Scott Donaldson showed that the mastodon had lived to a ripe old age that likely made it more vulnerable to predation by man or beast, as explained in my previous blog.  Donaldson led the work on restoring and preserving the teeth and served as one of the crew chiefs during the excavation.

In the fall of 2013, a soybean farmer found two of the teeth, two feet apart, after they were unearthed when a ditch was dug to lay drainage pipe.  This triggered the excavation which began Aug. 23, 2014.

The Nov. 9 dig was planned as the last dig before winter, but Brush later said that, weather permitting, he would schedule one more dig, after the weekend of Nov. 15-16.

Note:  I also have a website where I post information and photos on archaeology finds as well as all other aspects of natural history.  This blog and website began to catch the spillover from the monthly stories I write for the Apple Valley Cider Press, mainly a regular "Nature Article" feature.

Mastodon Site Materials Await Winter Lab Tests

Cedar Creek Mastodon Site's Unit 13, excavated to the "O to 50 centimeter level" (0 to  1 toot 7 and 11/16 inches) had this photo taken for scientific documentation of exposed features.  One volunteer speculates that Feature D  could be part of a leg bone that extends into adjacent Unit 14--and that Features A1 to A4 could be part of a fire pit used to process some of the mastodon.  (Photo by Don Comis)

Possible hammerstone used to smash bones (near two red flags).   Unit 5 leader Richard Gross  lets high school freshman  Susanne Klein take a break from sifting dirt to join him in the more hard core work of excavating with a trowel.   On Oct. 25, we found flint carried to the site, presumably by prehistoric Native Americans, as well as two possible bone scrapers made from the flint.  (Photo by Don Comis)

It was a great day back at the Morrow County (Ohio) mastodon dig after my three week absence.  As soon as I got there I was struck by how many bones were exposed in the pits.   There are several pits—plots or Units--each 2 by 2 meters square (almost 7- by 7-feet square).

I was assigned to Unit 5 and it already had a possible hammerstone exposed from the last dig.  And our volunteer Unit 5 leader, Richard Gross--from the Sandusky Bay Chapter of the Archaeological Society of Ohio--said it has been very productive, providing a lot of evidence of Paleo-Indians butchering the mastodon.   This included the possible hammerstone—large round stones used as hammers or mauls, which the Indians may carry around in their “tool belt”.  In this case, the hammerstone might have been used to break mastodon bones.

Largest rock (upper part of photo), shown in Unit 5 on Oct. 25,  could be a hammerstone used to smash mastodon bones.  For scientists, lab tests for mastodon blood are needed for proof.  Amateur archaeologists look for marks from the stone used to hammer objects.  (Photo by Don Comis)

Richard Gross led the excavation on Unit 5 on Oct. 25.  His excavated dirt goes into the bucket for sifting.  Bones, flint, charcoal, etc., go into the paper bag, with possible flint artifacts wrapped in tinfoil.   The possible hammerstone lies near his yellow kneeling pad.   There are so many finds in the 7-foot-square plot that Gross only allows one other person with him at a time.   (Photo by Don Comis)

In response to a question I e-mailed him after the Oct. 25 dig, Dr. Nigel Brush, the Ashland University professor leading the excavation, said, “The only way to determine if the large rock from Unit 5 was a maul for breaking up bone is to send it to a lab for residue analysis (which we may do this winter).”   I guess that would be a DNA analysis to test for the presence of mastodon blood.  

    

Brush had other cautions in an e-mail message to me before the Oct. 25 dig:  “We may work at the site again next summer and or fall, depending on what our analysis turns up over the winter.  Given the shattered state of the bones, this is not a good site for recovering specimens for display.  Moreover, we have yet to find any definite artifacts.  Therefore, unless protein residues can be found on the flint flakes, or cut marks on the bone that reveal this was a butchery site, there is not much reason to continue excavating (in my opinion).”

Bone Scraping Tools?

We found two possible used scraping tools made from flint as we sifted soil dug from Unit 5, along with a lot of similar pieces and chunks of flint.   Brush said he hasn’t checked possible artifacts from the Oct. 25 dig yet and that he hasn’t seen any flint scrapers at the site so far.  If they do turn out to be flint scrapers, the one I found would be the first artifact I've found in my lifetime (because I've only searched once, for 15 minutes, on a farm field, to date).

 

Some of the flint found at the site seemed to have come from out of the area, presumably brought to the site by the people who butchered the mastodon.   Brush confirmed the flint was from out of the area, saying, “…Delaware chert was apparently brought to the site, as well as a piece of Upper Mercer chert from Coshocton County."

Upper Mercer chert (flint), found in bedrock  that is about 300 million years old,  is one of two of the most widely used flints in Ohio, the other being the colorful flint from Flint Ridge.  Delaware chert, found in bedrock that is more like 400 million years old, was used mostly locally where it was found, from Columbus north to Lake Erie.

I and other volunteers think it is likely the Paleo-Indians carried chunks of flint in their tool kits, available to make tools or weapons when needed.

New Finds From Oct. 25 Dig

In his Oct. 28 e-mail to the volunteers, Brush cited these new finds from the Oct. 25 dig:  “1) a possible feature in Unit 13, (2) a bovine incisor, and (3) a bone with something embedded in it (possibly just the root of a mastodon tooth).”

The unspecified features in Unit 13 were noteworthy enough to have photo documentation taken (see photo above).    In an e-mail to the volunteers on Oct. 29, Glen Boatman-- one of the participants-- shared his thoughts and ideas about the features, including that one might be part of a crushed leg bone found in adjacent Unit 14, and another might be a fire pit used to process parts of the mastodon.  Boatman also suggested that the fire pit may have been built with cobblestones from a nearby creek bed since cobblestones were found in Unit 16, at a depth of 2 to 3 feet.

The bovine incisor, found only on the lower jaw, might be from the mastodon.*  If so, that would be the fifth tooth found so far, and the first incisor found, I think.

The significance of something embedded in bone is that Brush is looking for spear heads or other weapons that were used to kill the mastodon.

The volunteers included several members of the Sandusky Bay Archaeological Society Chapter, as well as members of two other chapters—including one I belong to, the Kokosing Chapter in Mt. Vernon, Ohio.  In his Oct. 28 e-mail to the volunteers,   Brush said that besides Archaeological Society members, there were people from four universities, a number of visitors, two film crews, and about a dozen PhDs.

Hunting the Mastodon Documentary

I met Aaron Martin who is filming a documentary on the excavation called Hunting the Mastodon. He reads this blog and promises to send me a link to some of the footage he has shot in mid-November, so I can post it here!  Aaron works for Detroit Public Television, but the documentary is his own independent project, and he is planning to continue to follow the investigation into the mastodon site as it moves into the lab for the winter.

We found so many small pieces of bone on Oct. 25, some from tusks, that the first little brown bag we filled from sifting dirt from Unit 5 seemed to weigh 10 pounds.  We then switched to a new bag.   One of the new participants called me eagle eye, because, three weeks of experience, coupled with plenty of bones to uncover in the soil dug down to the 18-inch level, made it easy.  And, the autumn angle of the sun helped too.   The sunlight easily highlighted many pieces of bones so that their reddish clay-like color stood out.

The Unit 5 leader told me that flint similarly shines in a farm field after it is plowed.  That day, I learned what should have been obvious to me long ago:  When looking for tools or weapons made by prehistoric Native Americans (Paleo-Indians), learn what flint looks like and only look for flint.   This is good for beginners like me to avoid collecting a pile of stones that happen to look man-made. 

Naturally there are exceptions, like hammerstones, which are big heavy round rocks, I guess of many types.  But it would be hard for beginners like me to distinguish these from any other round rocks.

Context is important—so such a rock found near mastodon bones like at our site would be highly suspect as a hammerstone.   And hammerstones and other artifacts are most likely to be found near rivers Indians might have traveled on, exposed on farm fields by plowing.

On Oct. 25, I learned another tip about spotting bone pieces—when scratched with a fingernail, they show a shiny spot.  So the day was very productive for me, for sure.

*Correction:   On Nov. 4, I learned that the incisor was probably from a cow--mastodons don't have incisors.

Note:  I also have a website where I post information and photos on archaeology finds as well as all other aspects of natural history.  This blog and website began to catch the spillover from the monthly stories I write for the Apple Valley Cider Press, mainly a regular "Nature Article" feature.