Loveland Archaeological Society, Inc.
A Colorado Non-Profit Corporation
LAS November 2011 Headlines:
Archaeologist Collins receives lifetime achievement
award from Texas Archeological Society
Texas State University Department of Anthropology News 2011
October 2011—Dr. Michael B. Collins, Research Professor in Anthropology at Texas State University-San
Marcos, has received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Texas Archeological Society (TAS). The
TAS, which promotes the study, preservation, and awareness of Texas archaeology, presented the award
to Collins Oct. 29.
Collins codirects the world-renowned Gault archaeological
site in Central Texas, where recent discoveries have changed
most archaeologists’ thinking about America’s earliest
inhabitants.
The Gault site, where Collins has been conducting work
since 1998, is the largest Clovis period excavation. It is
estimated that more than 60 percent of known Clovis artifacts
have come from the Gault site, which covers an area the size
of four football fields near Florence, TX. Until recently, Clovis
technology was believed to represent the Americas’ earliest
human inhabitants, who were thought to have arrived in the
hemisphere from Asia by walking across the Bering Land
Dr. Collins at the Gault Site
Bridge between 11,000 B.C. – 8,500 B.C.
However, recent discoveries at Gault and elsewhere, of stone artifacts predating Clovis, have convinced
most archaeologists that a culture existed in the Americas at least 500 to 1,000 years before Clovis,
possibly arriving by boat.
The Gault project’s Clovis-era discoveries have changed archaeologists’ ideas about Clovis culture, as
well. Whereas the people utilizing Clovis technology had been thought to be nomadic mammoth hunters,
excavations at Gault show that they were established hunters and gatherers, like the peoples that spread
across the continent a few thousand years later.
Collins began his lifelong interest in archaeology while growing up in Midland, TX during the record
drought of the 1950s, when erosion exposed artifacts and bones that fascinated Collins. By age 13, he was
a member of the TAS, and by age 17 he was a TAS director. Later, in 1997, he served as TAS president
and directed two TAS field schools.
Collins obtained bachelor’s and master’s degrees in anthropology from The University of Texas at
Austin, and a Ph.D. from the University of Arizona. He served on the faculty of the University of Kentucky,
where he directed the university’s Cultural Resource Management program and conducted lithic analysis at
the Chilean site of Monte Verde.
On his return to Texas, Collins served as Acting Director of the Museum of the Southwest in Midland and
as research associate and associate director of the Texas Archeological Research Laboratory at UT-Austin.
He joined Texas State in 2009.
After excavating at the Gault site for several years, Collins purchased the site in 2007, with his own
money, and donated it to the Archaeological Conservancy to ensure its protection. He also created the
Gault School of Archaeological Research, a nonprofit organization that pursues research and education
regarding the peopling of the Americas.
Dr. Clark Wernecke, who directs the Gault School, said about Collins, “What’s more important to many of
those who have worked with Mike is his character. He is unfailingly generous with his time and knowledge
and will set aside whatever he is working on to talk to a student, a colleague, or a non-professional about
archaeology. He is a patient teacher and mentor with a wide range of interests. He can also do what
archaeologists aspire to: tell a story about the past that can transfix an audience.”
- Sponsor of the Annual Loveland Stone Age Fair www.stoneagefair.com
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Loveland Archaeological Society, Inc.
A Colorado Non-Profit Corporation
Early hunters: Pre-Clovis weapon found in US
Posted by Keith Randall-Texas A&M on Tuesday, October 25, 2011
TEXAS A&M (US) — The tip of a bone point fragment found embedded in a mastodon rib from an
archaeological site in Washington state shows that hunters were present in North America at least 800
years before Clovis.
The finding confirms that the first inhabitants arrived earlier to North America than previously thought,
says a team of researchers led by a Texas A&M University archaeologist.
Anthropologist Michael Waters and colleagues from Colorado, Washington, and Denmark believe the
find at the Manis site in Washington demonstrates that humans were in the area around 13,800 years ago,
or 800 years earlier than was believed. Their work is published in the current issue of Science.
In the late 1970s, an adult male mastodon was excavated
from a pond at the Manis site. The distribution of the bones and
the discovery that some of the bones were broken suggested
that the elephant had been killed and butchered by human
hunters, Waters explains. However, no stone tools or weapons
were found at the site.
The key artifact from the site was what appeared to be a
bone point sticking out of one of the ribs, but the artifact and
the age of the site were disputed.
Waters contacted team member and original excavator, Carl
Gustafson, about performing new tests on the rib with the bone
point. New radiocarbon dates confirmed that the site was
13,800 years old.
A CT scan showing the embedded spear
High resolution CT scanning and three-dimensional
point. (Credit: Texas A&M University)
modeling confirmed that the embedded bone was a spear
point, and DNA and bone protein analysis showed that the bone point was made of mastodon bone.
“The Manis site is an early kill site,” Waters says. “The evidence from the Manis site shows that people
were hunting mastodons with bone weapons before the Clovis stone spear point.”
The new evidence from Manis supports extinction theories of large mammals at the end of the last Ice
Age, Waters says. During the last cold period, herds of mammoth, mastodon, camels, horses, and other
animals roamed Texas and North America. At the end of the Ice Age, these animals became extinct.
“While these animals were stressed by the
changing climate and vegetation patterns at the
end of the Ice Age, it is now clear from sites like
Manis that humans were also hunting these
animals and may have been a factor in their
demise,” Waters adds. He also notes that “there
are at least two other pre-Clovis kill sites in
Wisconsin where hunters killed mammoths.”
‘Clovis’ is the name given to the distinctive
The mastodon rib with the spear point protruding.
tools made by people starting around 13,000
(Credit: Texas A&M University)
years ago. The Clovis people invented the ‘Clovis
point’, a spear-shaped weapon made of stone that
is found in Texas and the rest of the United States and northern Mexico. These weapons were used to hunt
animals, including mammoths and mastodons, from 13,000 to 12,700 years ago.
“The evidence from the Manis site is helping to reshape our understanding of the earliest inhabitants of
the Americas, the last continent to be occupied by modern humans,” says Waters.
The study was funded by the North Star Archaeological Research Program at Texas A&M University.
- Sponsor of the Annual Loveland Stone Age Fair www.stoneagefair.com
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Loveland Archaeological Society, Inc.
A Colorado Non-Profit Corporation
LAS Find of the Year, October 2010 - September 2011:
The Find of the Year for October 2010 through September 2011 was awarded to Shane Skutvik.
August 2011 Find of the Month
Found by Shane Skutvik
Type: Scottsbluff
Material: Agate
Location: S. Platte River, Morgan County
Congratulations Shane! That’s two years
in a row!
(NOTE: I received this e-mail from Tom Westfall with information about his new book which will be ready
for purchase in December. If you would like to pre-order your copy just follow the instructions.)
“Hi All. I wanted to let you know that my new artifact book will be out soon. (picture attached) This book
is being published by my new publishing company, Mammoth Run Press, and is being printed by Gene
Hynek (Prehistoric American Magazine). It has 220 pages and is in full color. The 8" by 11" format includes
lots of color pictures of artifacts, along with many artifact related and human interest stories.
The new book is entitled, "Stone Fruit" after a quote by Henry David Thoreau in his 1848 journal
referring to the artifacts he found on the farms surrounding Walden.
I'm offering this book for sale at this time for $26.50 and this includes postage and handling. I talked with
Gene today and the books are being printed and sent to the binder and I'm anticipating that they should be
ready for sale in early December. This is a limited edition run, and I'm anticipating that the price will go up
to $28.95 after the first of the year. To order your copy, please send $26.50 to:
Tom Westfall
10512 Co. Rd. 39
Sterling, Co 80751
mammothrun@dishmail.net
970-630-3748”
- Sponsor of the Annual Loveland Stone Age Fair www.stoneagefair.com
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Loveland Archaeological Society, Inc.
A Colorado Non-Profit Corporation
LAS Find of the Month, November 2011:
Members can bring an artifact to be entered into the competition at the monthly meeting, which will be
judged based on the following rules:
1.
2.
3.
4.
Must be a member of LAS in good standing.
The artifact must be a personal find.
It must have been found within the specified time frame, i.e., within the month prior to the meeting.
The artifact doesn’t have to be a Colorado find—all that matters is that it was found in the last month.
The Find of the Month for November 2011 was made by Rohn Miller.
Type: McKean
Material: Quartzite
Location: Morrill County, Nebraska
LAS News and Upcoming Events:
Annual Elections
If you have nominations for LAS officer elections please give Rich Savino or Gary and
Sue Yeager a call. The elections will be held at the beginning of the December
meeting on December 6th.
December 6, 2011
December meeting. This will be our annual Christmas party. Bring a dish to share for
the annual feast. If you’d like to bring a Christmas beverage (non-alcoholic please)
feel free to do so. Also, we will be taking donations in the form of gifts, gift cards, or
money to provide a Christmas for Native American families in the area. If you can’t
attend and would like to make a donation please contact Sharon Lundt at
(970) 669-2375. Annual LAS officer elections will be held at the beginning of the
December meeting.
SPEAKERS NEEDED!! If you have a program you’d like to give or know of someone who would
like to give a presentation at one of our meetings please let us know. We’re trying to schedule
speakers for calendar year 2012, and January is just around the corner!
- ALSO Don’t forget to pay your dues for 2012!
- Sponsor of the Annual Loveland Stone Age Fair www.stoneagefair.com
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