Researchers uncover 10,000-year-old stone tools in unrelated dig
Researchers have uncovered stone tools estimated to be about 10,000 years old in an unrelated dig in the United States.
Archaeologist Robert Kopperl was heading a survey for a construction project near Seattle when his team discovered over 4,000 stone tools. The 10,000-year-old items they dug up include scrapers, spear points, awls, and flakes, according to University Herald (UH).
Kopperl's team was digging in Washington, near the Redmond town Center, when they found the ancient tools. Kopperl will talk about the stone tools on Saturday at the Redmond Historical Society.
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"We were pretty amazed," UH quotes Kopperl's statement to The Seattle Times. "This is the oldest archaeological site in the Puget Sound lowland with stone tools."
Based on the results of chemical analysis of the tools, the materials were used for eating. The researchers found traces of bison, deer, salmon, sheep, bear, and other animals on the tools, the report details.
The survey project in Redmond started in 2009. While Kopperl's first discoveries were not remarkable, recent development proved that his team's finds are of great value. His crew first found an assorted set of artifacts, but when they went deeper, they discovered a foot-thick layer of peat that was found to be 10,000 years old, the Financial Express reports.
Kopperl explained that the site was a very good place for a camp because humans could have gone hunting and fishing from there. He added that the shores of Bear Creek appear to have been used by small groups of people to gather and create stone tools, the report relays.
Allyson Brooks of the Washington State Historic Preservation said the ancient layer of peat determined that they have stumbled into a significant archaeological find. The ancient tools have now shed light onto the time near the end of the last ice age when prehistoric mammoths and bison used to exist in Western Washington.
