I recently discovered one of the oldest Indian campsites ever found in Nebraska. The carbon dating comes back to 9,400 to 9,800 years old.
I was walking an old ice age stream that was a tributary to one of the Loup rivers and found a small cut bank. In the cut bank I found a small piece of bone protruding from bank. I started digging and found 10 different pieces of bone that had obvious signs of processing. Every bone was broken and had very sharp edges. This is evidence of the bones being broken shortly after death in an attempt to extract the bone marrow.
I also found bits of charcoal that could be carbon dated and also one piece flint.
All of this was found in a hole 18 inches wide, 8 inches deep, and 8 inches tall.
There was buffalo, elk, deer, bird, turtle, and rodent bones, some with obvious burn marks.
I talked to a few archeologist that I know from UNL and they believe I found a hearth. I have stopped digging because of the importance of this sight. At some point there might be a full dig by the university to fully uncover this site.
To date this is one of the oldest Indian artifacts in Nebraska found in strata that could be properly dated.
Are there any other poor man's archeologist here? I would love to hear about your finds.
I was walking an old ice age stream that was a tributary to one of the Loup rivers and found a small cut bank. In the cut bank I found a small piece of bone protruding from bank. I started digging and found 10 different pieces of bone that had obvious signs of processing. Every bone was broken and had very sharp edges. This is evidence of the bones being broken shortly after death in an attempt to extract the bone marrow.
I also found bits of charcoal that could be carbon dated and also one piece flint.
All of this was found in a hole 18 inches wide, 8 inches deep, and 8 inches tall.
There was buffalo, elk, deer, bird, turtle, and rodent bones, some with obvious burn marks.
I talked to a few archeologist that I know from UNL and they believe I found a hearth. I have stopped digging because of the importance of this sight. At some point there might be a full dig by the university to fully uncover this site.
To date this is one of the oldest Indian artifacts in Nebraska found in strata that could be properly dated.
Are there any other poor man's archeologist here? I would love to hear about your finds.
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