Meadowcroft
Coordinates: 40 ° 17 ′ 11.5 ″ N , 80 ° 29 ′ 28.7 ″ W.
The alcove of Meadowcroft (Engl. Meadowcroft rock shelter ) is an archaeological locality near Avella in the southwest of the US state of Pennsylvania . During excavations by James Adovasio between 1973 and 1977, traces were found in the niche , which are among the oldest finds of human settlement on the American continent. The niche was certainly made between 10,000 BC. BC and around the year 1300 used by humans. 14 C data from the Paisley Caves in Oregon and OSL data from the Buttermilk Creek Complex in Texas, however, point to a much earlier use and could thus be proof that the colonization of America by Paleo-Indians even before the approximately 11,000 years old Clovis culture began.
Meadowcroft has been listed as a site on the National Register of Historic Places since November 1978 . Since April 2005 the site has the status of a National Historic Landmark . It is integrated into the Museum of Rural Life and can be visited.
Dating
The Abri has eleven strata that were dated with 70 different measurements. Stratum IIa contains the oldest human traces and can be divided into three substrates. The youngest of these was dated between 10,950 and 7950 ( BP ), the middle to 12,950 and 10,950 BP, while the oldest substratum allowed seven measurements to be taken between 19,600 and 13,230 BC. Chr. Lie. Criticism of the data published in 1982/84 assumed that the deeper layers were contaminated by carbon washed down by acid rainwater. Sedimentological investigations by Paul Goldberg and Trina Arpin at the end of the 1990s could not determine any contamination of the measurement results and thus confirm the integrity of the radiocarbon chronology . According to this, the minimum age of the human-influenced layers is 12,000-10,600 years, the average calibrated age of the six lowest finds is between 14,555 and 13,955 years. Adovasio therefore does not assume a revolutionary revaluation of the settlement of America, but postpones its beginning to 2000 to 3000 years before Clovis .
use
The finds show that use was interrupted again and again for long periods of time, but was remarkably consistent over the long term. The hunters and gatherers only stayed temporarily in the region and went hunting from the niche to collect wild plants and freshwater mussels and prepare their food on site. The finds are mainly stone tools , including projectile points and various knockoffs , blades and scrapers. In addition, bones from hunted animals and a surprising number of well-preserved plant remains from most periods of use have been found. There were also ashes and charcoal from cooking fires. In addition, there are individual finds of tools made from bones and traces of wickerwork, probably baskets. However, there are no fragments from stone processing, traces of the manufacture of ceramics or other artefacts , so that one cannot speak of a settlement of the niche, rather it was only a temporary hunting and collecting base for a highly mobile population.
The highest intensity of use was in the transition period from the Archaic to the Woodland period , before and after the finds were significantly poorer both in number and in diversity. Atypical for the region of western Pennsylvania is the scarcity of foundations in the last few centuries, after an undetermined point in time between the years 285 and 650. It is attributed to a collapse of the cave roof around this time, which significantly reduced the usable part of the semi-cave has been. Afterwards it was probably no longer suitable for larger groups of people and was only visited sporadically.
Web links
literature
- Brian M. Fagan : Ancient North America . New York, Thames and Hudson Inc, 1991, ISBN 0500276064 , pp. 74-77
Individual evidence
- ↑ M. Thomas P. Gilbert, Dennis L. Jenkins et al .: DNA from Pre-Clovis Human Coprolites in Oregon, North America. In: Science , Vol. 320. no. 5877, pages 786-789 - doi : 10.1126 / science.1154116
- ↑ Meadowcroft Rockshelter on the National Register of Historic Places , accessed February 13, 2020.
- ↑ Listing of National Historic Landmarks by State: Pennsylvania. National Park Service , accessed February 13, 2020.
- ↑ Paul Goldberg & Trina L. Arpin: Micromorphological analysis of sediments from Meadowcroft rockshelter, Pennsylvania: Implications for radiocarbon dating, 1999, Journal of field archeology vol. 26, no3, pp. 325-342
- ↑ This chapter is based on: James M. Adovasio: Moments in Time - Differential Site Use Patterns at Meadocroft Rockshelter (36WH297) . In: North American Archaeologist , Volume 31, No 3-4 (2010), pages 287-303