[Archers] 10000 yr old atlatl found

[loreleielkins at aol.com]

 Posted at request of Marco.

 

From: Marco da Verona <marcodaverona at earthlink.net>
To: loreleielkins at aol.com
Sent: Wed, Jun 30, 2010 9:23 am
Subject: 10000 yr old atlatl found


http://www.thedenverchannel.com/news/24082591/detail.html



Casey A. Cass/University of Colorado

CU researcher found an atlatl dart in a melting ice field. 

CU Researcher Finds 10,000-Year-Old Hunting Weapon

Atlatl Dart Found In Melting Ice Patch

Deb Stanley, 7NEWS Producer



POSTED: 10:58 am MDT June 29, 2010

UPDATED: 12:25 pm MDT June 29, 2010



BOULDER, Colo. -- A University of Colorado researcher has found a

10,000-year-old hunting weapon in a patch of melting ice.



The weapon, which is a dart, looks like a small tree branch, but CU Boulder

research associate Craig Lee said the birch sapling still has personal

markings on it from an ancient hunter.



When it was shot, the 3-foot-long dart had a projectile point on one end,

and a cup or dimple on the other end that would have attached to a hook on

the atlatl, according to Lee. The hunter used the atlatl, a throwing tool

about 2 feet long, for speed.  


Lee found the atlatl dart melting out of an ice patch in the Rocky Mountains

close to Yellowstone National Park.


Lee, a specialist in the emerging field of ice patch archaeology, said the

dart had been frozen in the ice patch for 10 millennia and that climate

change has increased global temperatures and accelerated melting of

permanent ice fields, exposing organic materials that have long been

entombed in the ice.



"We didn't realize until the early 2000s that there was a potential to find

archaeological materials in association with melting permanent snow and ice

in many areas of the globe," Lee said in a news release. "We're not talking

about massive glaciers, we're talking about the smaller, more kinetically

stable snowbanks that you might see if you go to Rocky Mountain National

Park."


Later this summer, Lee and CU-Boulder student researchers will travel to

Glacier National Park to work with the Salish, Kootenai and Blackfeet tribes

and researchers from the University of Wyoming to recover and protect

artifacts that may have recently melted out of similar locations.


Quick retrieval of any organic artifacts such as clothing, wooden tools or

weapons is necessary to save them, because once thawed and exposed to the

elements they decompose quickly, he said.




 
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