Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About The daily Astorian. (Astoria, Or.) 1961-current | View Entire Issue (Aug. 31, 2019)
A7 THE ASTORIAN • SATuRdAy, AuguST 31, 2019 North America’s oldest human artifacts found in Idaho Columbia River is key to a theory By ERIN ROSS Oregon Public Broadcasting Ancient human artifacts found in a remote corner of northwestern Idaho could deliver a major blow to a long-held theory that North America’s first humans arrived by crossing a land bridge connected to Asia before moving south through the center of the continent. The artifacts have been dated to as far back as 16,500 years ago, making them the oldest radiocarbon dated evidence of humans in North America, according to research published Thursday in the journal Science. The artifacts are part of a trove discovered where Cooper’s Ferry, Idaho, now stands. They are a thou- sand years older than what has previously been con- sidered North America’s most ancient known human remains. Together with doz- ens of other archaeologi- cal sites stretched across the continent, it helps decipher the story of when, and how, humans first arrived. “The traditional model is that people came into the New World from northeast Asia and walked across the Bering land bridge, before coming down the middle of the continent in an ice-free corridor,” said Loren Davis, an archaeologist at Oregon State University and the lead author on the study. Those people suppos- edly brought the technology to make Clovis-type blades and spear points with them, and then spread their shared culture across the continent. That’s the model taught in most history books. The site at Cooper’s Ferry doesn’t fit with this model. For one, the ice-free cor- ridor probably didn’t exist when humans first arrived at Cooper’s Ferry — scien- tists think it didn’t open up until about 15,000 years ago, which means these early people had to find a differ- ent route south. Other early sites challenged this theory, but none were this old, and Photos by Loren Davis/Oregon State University Cooper’s Ferry sits on the Salmon River in Idaho, near where it meets the Snake River. People occupied the area for thousands of years. Archaeologists work to excavate ancient human artifacts at Cooper’s Ferry in western Idaho. the oldest were dated with a method considered less pre- cise than radiocarbon dating. “This is another domino in the collapse of the Clo- vis-first idea and the idea that people walked down an ice-free corridor some 13,500 years ago,” says Todd Braje, an archaeologist at San Diego State Univer- sity, who was not involved in the study. “What’s really interest- ing about Cooper’s Ferry is that it takes things a lit- tle further,” Braje says, “It offers some potential ave- nues for figuring out these big questions.” Alternative theory Braje supports an alterna- tive theory to the ice-free cor- ridor: one where instead of traveling to the New World by land, ancient Americans came by sea. They traveled from Asia to North Amer- ica by island-hopping and hugged the shore, follow- ing a coastal “kelp high- way” full of sheltered bays and rich with food. The idea was once controversial, but in recent years it’s gained support. Just like the ice-free cor- ridor model is supported by a shared technology and shared culture found across a region, the kelp highway hypothesis also has a unit- ing technology: stemmed points. These are blades, spear points knives, and cut- ting tools all manufactured the same way, and are one of the oldest types of pro- jectiles in the world. While stemmed points are plenti- ful along the coast of Asia, there were very few found at the older sites in North America, and crucially, even fewer found along the coast. Of course, if Braje’s kelp highway theory was true, there would be very few archaeological sites along the West Coast of North America: sea levels have risen dramatically since the Ice Age, so any human set- tlements would have flooded long ago. That’s where Cooper’s Ferry comes in. Oregon State’s Davis first began excavating the site in the 1990s. His team uncov- ered stemmed points and dated them to over 13,000 years ago. At the time, there were no other examples of that technology from that time in history in North America, “we sort of sat in limbo for a time as people argued about what it might mean,” Davis said. They resumed excavation in 2009. And in 2017, Davis and his team once again started finding stemmed points. “The radiocar- bon dates we were getting started to tell the same story. And then, it started to show they were even older than we realized. That was super surprising.” The stemmed points were extremely similar to a type found in Hokkaido, Japan, also dated to around 16,000 years old. Combined, Davis said this supports the hypothe- sis that the first Americans didn’t arrive by land, but by boats. Braje agreed, “When you look at the illustration Davis had in there, of stemmed points from Japan, and the kind he was finding at Coo- per’s Ferry, it’s really strik- ing and very exciting.” Though it isn’t definitive, he says, it offers new avenues of study. Follow the Columbia Although the site at Coo- per’s Ferry is inland and far from the coast, it sits at the conjunction of two major rivers that serve as tribu- taries to the Columbia. “If you’re traveling south along the West Coast, the Colum- bia River is pretty much the first left you can take,” Davis said. It would be easy enough to then follow the river, rich with fish, to the conflu- ence of two of its tributaries, the Snake and Salmon Riv- ers, and the spot along their banks where Cooper’s Ferry Tired of being frustrated? Klemp Family Dentistry offers... • Focused prevention of damage to teeth, gum and bone • All general dentistry needs • A broad range of therapies Magnitude 6.3 earthquake rumbles off Oregon Coast Associated Press COOS BAY — A 6.3-magnitude earthquake struck Thursday off the Ore- gon Coast but did not gener- ate a tsunami or cause any damage or injuries, authori- ties said. The epicenter of the quake, which hit just after 8 a.m., was located about 150 miles from land at a depth of 7 miles in the Pacific Ocean. The quake was caused by slipping along an off- shore fault called the Blanco Fracture Zone and has noth- ing to do with the more well- known Cascadia fault, which is believed to be overdue for a major earthquake in the Pacific Northwest, said Paul Bodin, manager of the Pacific Northwest Seismic Network at the University of Washington. The event is also unre- lated to a cluster of “episodic slips” along the Cascadia tectonic plate boundary that have been releasing energy across the coastal Pacific Northwest over the past week to 10 days, he said. Those slips are not felt by humans but have been picked up by monitoring SEVENDAY FORECAST FOR ASTORIA TODAY SUNDAY MONDAY devices around the Olym- pic Peninsula in northwest Washington state and also stretching from Eugene to the Siskiyou Mountains along the Oregon-Califor- nia border, according to the Pacific Northwest Seismic Network. The slips along the Cas- cadia relented two days ago after a fairly active week, Bodin said. “Who knows what Mother Earth is trying to tell us, but as far as we know, the earthquake today is ... at a very unsurprising place,” he said. TUESDAY WEDNESDAY “This is truly “family dentistry” because the moment you enter the state of the art office you are greeted and treated just like you are a part of Dr. Klemp’s family. Everyone is caring and patient and cares about your every concern...” Come see how comfortable dentisty can really be... • Caring/friendly team • Nitrous sedation • Movies another smiling family KLEMP FAMILY DENTISTRY 1006 West Marine Drive, Astoria (503) 468-0116 www.klempfamilydentistry.com THURSDAY FRIDAY REGIONAL FORECAST Shown is today’s weather. Temperatures are today’s highs and tonight’s lows. Seattle 68 57 An afternoon shower 70 57 72 56 70 56 A couple of showers Decreasing clouds Partly sunny; pleasant 70 55 Mostly sunny 71 55 70 55 High clouds Showers possible Aberdeen Olympia 69/61 75/63 Wenatchee Tacoma Moses Lake UNDER THE SKY TODAY'S TIDES Astoria through Thursday Tonight’s Sky: The star Deneb, high overhead, is the brightest star in the constellation Cygnus, the swan. Astoria / Port Docks Temperatures High/low ................................ 71/58 Normal high/low .................. 69/52 Record high .................. 88 in 1944 Record low .................... 42 in 1985 Precipitation Thursday ................................. 0.04” Month to date ........................ 0.94” Normal month to date ......... 1.05” Year to date .......................... 25.65” Normal year to date ........... 37.99” Forecasts and graphics provided by AccuWeather, Inc. ©2019 Source: Jim Todd, OMSI Sunrise today .................. 6:34 a.m. Sunset tonight ............... 7:57 p.m. Moonrise today .............. 7:59 a.m. Moonset today .............. 9:07 p.m. First Full High (ft.) Time Low (ft.) 2:07 a.m. 3:02 p.m. Last 1:41 a.m. 2:36 p.m. 1:53 a.m. 2:49 p.m. Warrenton 2:02 a.m. 2:57 p.m. Knappa 2:44 a.m. 3:39 p.m. Depoe Bay Aug 30 Sep 5 Sep 13 Sep 21 8.7 8:54 a.m. -1.6 7.9 9:09 p.m. 0.2 Cape Disappointment Hammond SUN AND MOON New Time 8.6 7:57 a.m. -2.0 7.7 8:11 p.m. 0.0 9.2 8:19 a.m. -1.9 8.2 8:34 p.m. 0.1 9.1 8:38 a.m. -1.5 8.3 8:53 p.m. 0.3 8.9 9:55 a.m. -1.4 8.2 10:10 p.m. 0.1 12:52 a.m. 9.3 7:26 a.m. -1.8 1:48 p.m. 8.4 7:41 p.m. 0.5 City Atlanta Boston Chicago Dallas Denver Honolulu Houston Los Angeles Miami New York City Phoenix San Francisco Wash., DC Sun. Hi/Lo/W 91/69/pc 79/62/pc 74/62/r 95/75/pc 91/61/pc 90/77/pc 94/74/pc 87/66/s 87/76/pc 80/63/s 110/85/s 76/60/pc 86/69/s 89/71/c 72/63/pc 76/62/c 96/74/s 96/64/s 90/77/pc 96/76/s 91/68/s 90/77/r 78/67/pc 106/86/pc 76/60/pc 83/69/pc Weather (W): s-sunny, pc-partly cloudy, c-cloudy, sh-showers, t-thunderstorms, r-rain, sf-snow fl urries, sn-snow, i-ice. 87/58 Kennewick Walla Walla 91/65 Lewiston 95/66 94/64 Hermiston The Dalles 94/66 Enterprise Pendleton 86/52 90/62 89/61 La Grande 89/56 82/59 NATIONAL CITIES Today Hi/Lo/W Pullman 91/57 75/59 Salem 87/61 Yakima 91/61 Longview 68/57 Portland 82/65 Spokane 89/63 75/57 74/55 Astoria ALMANAC now stands. And the ancient people who first settled at this loca- tion apparently liked it there: the archaeological site, which contains fire pits full of mammal bones (includ- ing enamel from the tooth of an extinct horse) and numer- ous tools — signs that it was visited by humans for thou- sands of years. Indeed, the region was known to the Nez Perce Tribe as the site of an ancient village named Nip. If humans did arrive in Idaho by following the Columbia, there may be more archaeological sites along the river and its tribu- taries. There’s just one prob- lem: about 15,000 years ago, the massive, land- scape-shaping Missoula Floods swept down the Columbia. They just missed the location where Cooper’s Ferry stands by a few kilo- meters. Anything down- stream at a lower elevation would have been obliterated. Davis thinks archaeolo- gists could find more sites by looking at higher-ele- vation Columbia tributar- ies, but he has no plans to search for them yet. He’s got 10 years’ worth of artifacts from Cooper’s Ferry to go through. Corvallis 82/56 Albany 82/59 John Day Eugene Bend 84/60 86/50 91/57 Ontario 98/59 Caldwell Burns 90/46 96/56 Medford 91/62 Klamath Falls 84/46 City Baker City Brookings Ilwaco Newberg Newport Today Hi/Lo/W 92/53/pc 69/56/pc 66/59/pc 81/59/pc 67/54/pc Sun. Hi/Lo/W 90/50/pc 68/56/c 68/58/sh 81/56/sh 67/54/sh City North Bend Roseburg Seaside Springfi eld Vancouver Today Hi/Lo/W 72/58/pc 87/65/pc 68/59/sh 85/62/pc 80/62/pc Sun. Hi/Lo/W 70/57/sh 84/60/c 70/58/sh 84/55/c 80/58/sh
