Alaska researchers turn up 12,300-year-old artwork

1/2. Bone pendants found at the Mead archaeological site in Interior Alaska. Photo by Ben Potter.

 

FAIRBANKS - At the edge of a spruce forest in Interior Alaska, archaeologists have unearthed bone pendants that might be the first examples of artwork in northern North America.

During the last two summers, teams led by the University of Alaska Fairbanks’ Ben Potter have expanded the breadth of the Mead Site, a white spruce bench that overlooks Shaw Creek Flats north of Delta Junction. Within the boundaries of the Mead Site, researchers have found what they believe are tent outlines. Inside the oval of what was probably a hide-covered structure 12,300 years ago, a student working with a trowel found a tiny bone pendant with delicate crosshatching on the edge.

“It made my heart stop when I saw it,” Potter said at a lecture recently at the UA Museum of the North in Fairbanks.

Made of bone, the pendants resemble zipper pulls. A second pair found at the site look like tiny fish tails. At the tapered end of each are broken remainders of a round opening, like the eye of a needle. [...] newsminer.com via archaeology.org


Actualización 15-05-15: Colgantes de 12300 años descubiertos en Alaska
Colgantes de hueso tallado se han encontrado en un yacimiento prehistórico en Alaska que pueden llegar a ser los ejemplos muy conocidos de la primera obra en la región norte de América del Norte.

Dos pares de pendientes fueron revelados en el sitio de excavación arqueológica Mead en el desierto del interior de Alaska Fairbanks y entre Delta Junction. En una reciente conferencia en el Museo de la UA Norte , antropólogo Ben Potter de la Universidad de Alaska Fairbanks , dijo del hallazgo, "hizo que mi corazón se detuviera cuando lo vi."...