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Stone tools found in Texas at least 16,000 years old

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  • Stone tools found in Texas at least 16,000 years old

    Source: https://www.sciencenews.org/article/texas-toolmakers-add-debate-over-who-first-americans-were?utm_source=email&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=latest-newsletter-v2




    Texas toolmakers add to the debate over who the first Americans were Unearthed spear points and other stone tools go back at least 16,000 years
    BY BRUCE BOWER 2:10PM, JULY 11, 2018

    N. VELCHOFF/THE GAULT SCHOOL OF ARCHAEOLOGICAL RESEARCH ©

    People inhabited what’s now central Texas several thousand years before hunters from North America’s ancient Clovis culture showed up, researchers say.

    Excavations at the Gault site, about 64 kilometers north of Austin, produced a range of stone artifacts that date to between around 16,700 and 21,700 years ago, reports a team led by archaeologist Thomas Williams of Texas State University in San Marcos. An analysis of 184 of those finds identified 11 spearpoints unlike any others that have been found at ancient American sites, the scientists conclude July 11 in Science Advances.

    Researchers have long argued about whether people reached North America before the rise of Clovis culture 13,000 years ago. Evidence from the Gault site joins other recent reports of humans venturing deep into North America far earlier (SN: 6/11/16, p. 8), which would take Clovis people out of the running for the title of first New World settlers.

    Williams’ group estimated the age of the Gault pre-Clovis discoveries with a method that calculates the time since artifact-containing sediment has been exposed to sunlight.

    Previous work at the Gault site uncovered Clovis spearpoints and other implements from roughly 13,000 years ago, as well as tools and other artifacts made by groups dating to as recently as a few thousand years ago. Some of the newly described stone tools at Gault, such as small, rectangular cutting implements, display similarities to Clovis tools, the investigators say. Overall, though, the earlier artifacts belong to a toolmaking tradition separate from Clovis, the team asserts.

    © Copyright Original Source

    Glendower: I can call spirits from the vasty deep.
    Hotspur: Why, so can I, or so can any man;
    But will they come when you do call for them? Shakespeare’s Henry IV, Part 1, Act III:

    go with the flow the river knows . . .

    Frank

    I do not know, therefore everything is in pencil.

  • #2
    Well, there are alleged global flood fossils common on both sides of the Atlantic dating some 300,000,000 years ago too.
    . . . the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; . . . -- Romans 1:16 KJV

    . . . that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures: . . . -- 1 Corinthians 15:3-4 KJV

    Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God: . . . -- 1 John 5:1 KJV

    Comment


    • #3
      Originally posted by shunyadragon View Post
      Source: https://www.sciencenews.org/article/texas-toolmakers-add-debate-over-who-first-americans-were?utm_source=email&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=latest-newsletter-v2




      Texas toolmakers add to the debate over who the first Americans were Unearthed spear points and other stone tools go back at least 16,000 years
      BY BRUCE BOWER 2:10PM, JULY 11, 2018

      N. VELCHOFF/THE GAULT SCHOOL OF ARCHAEOLOGICAL RESEARCH ©

      People inhabited what’s now central Texas several thousand years before hunters from North America’s ancient Clovis culture showed up, researchers say.

      Excavations at the Gault site, about 64 kilometers north of Austin, produced a range of stone artifacts that date to between around 16,700 and 21,700 years ago, reports a team led by archaeologist Thomas Williams of Texas State University in San Marcos. An analysis of 184 of those finds identified 11 spearpoints unlike any others that have been found at ancient American sites, the scientists conclude July 11 in Science Advances.

      Researchers have long argued about whether people reached North America before the rise of Clovis culture 13,000 years ago. Evidence from the Gault site joins other recent reports of humans venturing deep into North America far earlier (SN: 6/11/16, p. 8), which would take Clovis people out of the running for the title of first New World settlers.

      Williams’ group estimated the age of the Gault pre-Clovis discoveries with a method that calculates the time since artifact-containing sediment has been exposed to sunlight.

      Previous work at the Gault site uncovered Clovis spearpoints and other implements from roughly 13,000 years ago, as well as tools and other artifacts made by groups dating to as recently as a few thousand years ago. Some of the newly described stone tools at Gault, such as small, rectangular cutting implements, display similarities to Clovis tools, the investigators say. Overall, though, the earlier artifacts belong to a toolmaking tradition separate from Clovis, the team asserts.

      © Copyright Original Source

      The whole Clovis culture being the first ones in America is dead and buried.

      I'm always still in trouble again

      "You're by far the worst poster on TWeb" and "TWeb's biggest liar" --starlight (the guy who says Stalin was a right-winger)
      "Overall I would rate the withdrawal from Afghanistan as by far the best thing Biden's done" --Starlight
      "Of course, human life begins at fertilization that’s not the argument." --Tassman

      Comment


      • #4
        Originally posted by 37818 View Post
        Well, there are alleged global flood fossils common on both sides of the Atlantic dating some 300,000,000 years ago too.
        Odd confusing answer needs explanation. The tools were not found in flood deposits, and where did you get the date 300,000,000 million years ago.
        Glendower: I can call spirits from the vasty deep.
        Hotspur: Why, so can I, or so can any man;
        But will they come when you do call for them? Shakespeare’s Henry IV, Part 1, Act III:

        go with the flow the river knows . . .

        Frank

        I do not know, therefore everything is in pencil.

        Comment


        • #5
          Originally posted by shunyadragon View Post
          Odd confusing answer needs explanation. The tools were not found in flood deposits, and where did you get the date 300,000,000 million years ago.
          Especially since it was announced just a few days ago that the earliest tools found outside of Africa where discovered at the Shangchen palaeolithic archaeological site in Shaanxi, China which date to 2.12 mya.

          Source: Tools from China are oldest hint of human lineage outside Africa


          2.1-million-year-old stone tools suggest hominins reached East Asia much earlier than thought

          Hominins reached Asia at least 2.1 million years ago, researchers assert in an 11 July Nature paper. Stone tools they found in central China represent the earliest known evidence of humans or their ancient relatives living outside Africa.

          Other scientists are convinced that the tools were made by hominins and are confident that they are as old as claimed. And although the tools’ makers are unknown, the discovery could force researchers to reconsider which hominin species first left Africa — and when. “This is a whole new palaeo ball game,” says William Jungers, a palaeoanthropologist at Stony Brook University, New York.

          Most researchers say that hominins — the evolutionary line that includes humans — first left their African homeland around 1.85 million years ago. This is the age of the oldest hominin fossils discovered beyond Africa — from Dmanisi, Georgia, in the Caucasus region of Eurasia. The oldest hominin remains from East Asia, two incisors from southwest China, are around 1.7 million years old (see 'Travelling Hominins').

          Archaeological finds made between 2004 and 2017 at a site called Shangchen in central China now challenge that orthodoxy. By studying and dating a sequence of ancient soils and deposits of wind-blown dust, a team of Chinese and British geologists and archaeologists led by Zhaoyu Zhu at the Guangzhou Institute of Geochemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, has uncovered dozens of relatively simple stone tools. The youngest tools are 1.26 million years old, and the oldest date back to 2.12 million years.

          The 2.12-million-year-old geological layers might not even represent the earliest hominin occupation of the region. John Kappelman, an anthropologist and geologist at the University of Texas at Austin and one of the paper’s referees, points out that the deepest — and so oldest — layers at the site are currently inaccessible because the region is actively farmed. Investigating them should be a priority, he says.




          Source

          © Copyright Original Source


          Story continues at link above

          Source: Hominin occupation of the Chinese Loess Plateau since about 2.1 million years ago


          Abstract

          Considerable attention has been paid to dating the earliest appearance of hominins outside Africa. The earliest skeletal and artefactual evidence for the genus Homo in Asia currently comes from Dmanisi, Georgia, and is dated to approximately 1.77–1.85 million years ago (Ma). Two incisors that may belong to Homo erectus come from Yuanmou, south China, and are dated to 1.7 Ma; the next-oldest evidence is an H. erectus cranium from Lantian (Gongwangling)—which has recently been dated to 1.63 Ma—and the earliest hominin fossils from the Sangiran dome in Java, which are dated to about 1.5–1.6 Ma. Artefacts from Majuangou III and Shangshazui in the Nihewan basin, north China, have also been dated to 1.6–1.7 Ma. Here we report an Early Pleistocene and largely continuous artefact sequence from Shangchen, which is a newly discovered Palaeolithic locality of the southern Chinese Loess Plateau, near Gongwangling in Lantian county. The site contains 17 artefact layers that extend from palaeosol S15—dated to approximately 1.26 Ma—to loess L28, which we date to about 2.12 Ma. This discovery implies that hominins left Africa earlier than indicated by the evidence from Dmanisi.



          Source

          © Copyright Original Source


          I'm always still in trouble again

          "You're by far the worst poster on TWeb" and "TWeb's biggest liar" --starlight (the guy who says Stalin was a right-winger)
          "Overall I would rate the withdrawal from Afghanistan as by far the best thing Biden's done" --Starlight
          "Of course, human life begins at fertilization that’s not the argument." --Tassman

          Comment


          • #6
            Well, if a global flood occurred some 300,000,000 years ago then any younger finds would be a post era to that flood.
            . . . the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; . . . -- Romans 1:16 KJV

            . . . that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures: . . . -- 1 Corinthians 15:3-4 KJV

            Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God: . . . -- 1 John 5:1 KJV

            Comment


            • #7
              Honest question, how do you determine a stone tools approx. age of manufacture?
              "What has the Church gained if it is popular, but there is no conviction, no repentance, no power?" - A.W. Tozer

              "... there are two parties in Washington, the stupid party and the evil party, who occasionally get together and do something both stupid and evil, and this is called bipartisanship." - Everett Dirksen

              Comment


              • #8
                Originally posted by 37818 View Post
                Well, if a global flood occurred some 300,000,000 years ago then any younger finds would be a post era to that flood.
                Where did the idea of a world flood 300 million years ago come from? An alien message from space?
                Glendower: I can call spirits from the vasty deep.
                Hotspur: Why, so can I, or so can any man;
                But will they come when you do call for them? Shakespeare’s Henry IV, Part 1, Act III:

                go with the flow the river knows . . .

                Frank

                I do not know, therefore everything is in pencil.

                Comment


                • #9
                  Originally posted by Littlejoe View Post
                  Honest question, how do you determine a stone tools approx. age of manufacture?
                  Several possible ways. If they're found at a site that can be dated and if they were used and have traces of organic material on them that could be dated immediately spring to mind.

                  I'm always still in trouble again

                  "You're by far the worst poster on TWeb" and "TWeb's biggest liar" --starlight (the guy who says Stalin was a right-winger)
                  "Overall I would rate the withdrawal from Afghanistan as by far the best thing Biden's done" --Starlight
                  "Of course, human life begins at fertilization that’s not the argument." --Tassman

                  Comment


                  • #10
                    Originally posted by Littlejoe View Post
                    Honest question, how do you determine a stone tools approx. age of manufacture?
                    There are new methods that can date the isotopes on oxidation of tools surfaces, but I do not know enough about this method. Stone tools found outside settlements are difficult to date, stone tools at times can be dated by style as with Clovis tools. Enough settlements with Clovis tools have been found to date that style of tool.

                    In this case the tools were found at this continuously occupied site over thousands of years in discrete layers, and this culture and tools is the lowest inhabited layer. There were carbon materials in each layers associated with different tools in each layer. On the site more advanced Clovis tools were found in layers 13,000 years old and it is correlated as roughly the same period as other Clovis sites.. Later layers found settlement and different tools only a few thousand years old.

                    Previously the Clovis culture was the oldest dated culture in America. This is no longer the case.
                    Last edited by shunyadragon; 07-19-2018, 08:15 PM.
                    Glendower: I can call spirits from the vasty deep.
                    Hotspur: Why, so can I, or so can any man;
                    But will they come when you do call for them? Shakespeare’s Henry IV, Part 1, Act III:

                    go with the flow the river knows . . .

                    Frank

                    I do not know, therefore everything is in pencil.

                    Comment


                    • #11
                      This well documented find confirms the following less well documented two finds:

                      Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clovis_culture#Other_sites



                      Meadowcroft Rockshelter in southwestern Pennsylvania, excavated 1973–78, with evidence of occupancy dating back from 16,000 to 19,000 years ago.[107]

                      Cactus Hill in southern Virginia, with artifacts such as unfluted bifacial stone tools with dates ranging from c. 15,000 to 17,000 years ago.[108]

                      © Copyright Original Source

                      Glendower: I can call spirits from the vasty deep.
                      Hotspur: Why, so can I, or so can any man;
                      But will they come when you do call for them? Shakespeare’s Henry IV, Part 1, Act III:

                      go with the flow the river knows . . .

                      Frank

                      I do not know, therefore everything is in pencil.

                      Comment


                      • #12
                        Originally posted by shunyadragon View Post
                        This well documented find confirms the following less well documented two finds:

                        Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clovis_culture#Other_sites



                        Meadowcroft Rockshelter in southwestern Pennsylvania, excavated 1973–78, with evidence of occupancy dating back from 16,000 to 19,000 years ago.[107]

                        Cactus Hill in southern Virginia, with artifacts such as unfluted bifacial stone tools with dates ranging from c. 15,000 to 17,000 years ago.[108]

                        © Copyright Original Source

                        IIRC it was the Monte Verde site in South America that really broke open the flood gates concerning the realization that humans were in the Americas prior to the Clovis culture.

                        I'm always still in trouble again

                        "You're by far the worst poster on TWeb" and "TWeb's biggest liar" --starlight (the guy who says Stalin was a right-winger)
                        "Overall I would rate the withdrawal from Afghanistan as by far the best thing Biden's done" --Starlight
                        "Of course, human life begins at fertilization that’s not the argument." --Tassman

                        Comment


                        • #13
                          Originally posted by rogue06 View Post
                          IIRC it was the Monte Verde site in South America that really broke open the flood gates concerning the realization that humans were in the Americas prior to the Clovis culture.
                          The Monte Verde site, now dated ~14,800 confirms the model of coastal migration model, and fits the time line of the Texas site, Meadowcroft and Cactus Hill sites.
                          Glendower: I can call spirits from the vasty deep.
                          Hotspur: Why, so can I, or so can any man;
                          But will they come when you do call for them? Shakespeare’s Henry IV, Part 1, Act III:

                          go with the flow the river knows . . .

                          Frank

                          I do not know, therefore everything is in pencil.

                          Comment


                          • #14
                            The Bluefish cave site in the Yukon, Alaska dated ~24,000 also fits the model of coastal migration beginning human presence in America.

                            https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bluefish_Caves
                            Glendower: I can call spirits from the vasty deep.
                            Hotspur: Why, so can I, or so can any man;
                            But will they come when you do call for them? Shakespeare’s Henry IV, Part 1, Act III:

                            go with the flow the river knows . . .

                            Frank

                            I do not know, therefore everything is in pencil.

                            Comment

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