MarkGelbart Posted February 19, 2010 Share Posted February 19, 2010 I found this in an article in a journal called Current Research in the Pleistocene, also published by the Center for the First Americans. In 1938 an Ohio farmer digging a ditch to drain a bog on his land found 8 mastodon teeth. 45 years later, two scientists from the University of Akron re-located the site. After digging many test plots, they rediscovered the rest of the mastodon skeleton on each side of the drainage ditch. Moreover, they found even more exciting evidence--stone flakes used for butchering, along with specimens of white tail deer. They sent the stone flakes to a lab at the University of Calgary, and the flakes tested positive for elephant and deer blood. Apparently, this site along Martin's Creek was a penninsula that extended into a glacial lake formed when a glacier dammed the creek. It was easy for the paleo-Indians to trap big game on the penninsula forcing them to escape into the lake where the muddy bottom slowed the beasts down and made them easy targets. Based on all this evidence, this clearly is a confirmed mastodon kill site. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ashcraft Posted February 19, 2010 Share Posted February 19, 2010 Probable yes, confirmed, no. Brent Ashcraft ashcraft, brent allen Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Xiphactinus Posted February 19, 2010 Share Posted February 19, 2010 Mark - is this online anywhere? I'd be interested in reading how they determined there was blood on thousands of year old flakes. Haven't heard of that before. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jesta384 Posted February 19, 2010 Share Posted February 19, 2010 that blood thing sounds a little fishy to me. blood encased in soft tissue within the deeper recesses of a bone? sure....but on the outside of a relatively smooth rock (flint isnt exactly the most porous of stones) thats been "out in the elements" for the better part of a few thousand years? riiiiiiiiiiiiiight.............. regardless... here is what you may be looking for. https://kb.osu.edu/dspace/bitstream/1811/37021/1/seeley_mastodon.pdf Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Auspex Posted February 20, 2010 Share Posted February 20, 2010 that blood thing sounds a little fishy to me. blood encased in soft tissue within the deeper recesses of a bone? sure....but on the outside of a relatively smooth rock (flint isnt exactly the most porous of stones) thats been "out in the elements" for the better part of a few thousand years? riiiiiiiiiiiiiight.............. Surprisingly enough, it can be done! They successfully used this test on the "Clovis Cache" found in Boulder to find out what the blades had been used on. "There has been an alarming increase in the number of things I know nothing about." - Ashleigh Ellwood Brilliant “Try to learn something about everything and everything about something.” - Thomas Henry Huxley >Paleontology is an evolving science. >May your wonders never cease! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MarkGelbart Posted February 20, 2010 Author Share Posted February 20, 2010 It's based on the same techniques that forensic police use. I couldn't really find a good article online that explains how they do this in detail but at www.jstor.org/pss/2694181 there's an abstract to an article about how they used it to find horse blood on Clovis-aged arrowheads. If you go to google books and look for the book The Early Settlement of North America by Gary Haynes type in "blood residue" in the search in this book box. There's a table noted, but google books won't let you see it. However, I have the book and here is the table. Site of Clovis tools................ Taxa identified (using blood residue analysis) East Wenatchee WA..........................human, bison, bovine, deer, rabbit Shoop, PA..................................Cervid Alaska.....................................mammoth Wallys Beach, Alberta......................horse, bovid Martin's Creek, Ohio.......................elephant and deer Western Iowa...............................cervid Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ramo Posted February 20, 2010 Share Posted February 20, 2010 The fact that they can find blood on these stone tools thousands of years old is amazing! I still can't hardly believe it. If I accidently cut myself with a piece of flint, Wash it in water, mix it with concrete in a concrete truck, dump it in a river, and someone finds it 3,000 years from now they will be able to find my blood on it! I just can't hardly believe it. I think I'll stop doing dishes. It seems to be a waste of time! Ramo For one species to mourn the death of another is a new thing under the sun. -Aldo Leopold Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Xiphactinus Posted February 21, 2010 Share Posted February 21, 2010 I love it! Learned something new today. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now