Scientists discover Ancient Caribou hunting site beneath Great Lakes 9,000 years old

A 9,000-year-old hunting site at the bottom of Lake Huron reveals seasonal approaches to hunting by early humans

Ancient caribou hunters were also apparently great architects.

A 9,000-year-old underwater hunting site discovered by scientists at the Alpena-Amberley Ridge beneath modern Lake Huron shows an elaborate arrangement of limestone rocks and artifacts used for hunting caribou. Back then, the ridge was a piece of dry land that connected northeast Michigan to southern Ontario.

The submerged site consists of a stone lane where limestones are arranged on either side, running parallel to each other. The lane is funnel-shaped that's broad in the beginning before narrowing down.

The stones are arranged in a line, exploiting caribou's strange fascination with linear landscape, says John O'Shea, the Emerson F. Greenman Professor of Anthropological Archaeology at the University of Michigan and lead author of the study. The lane, dubbed "Drop 45 Drive Lane," has a dead-end, where most of the animals were hunted down. The stones alongside the lane were used for concealment.

In addition, outside the lane, three circular hunting blinds were built to further conceal the hunters and approach the animals.

Source

The historical site has been preserved so well underwater that O'Shea compares the site to Pompeii. Had this site been situated on land, it would have become very difficult to preserve, as it could have been destroyed from activities such as farming -- even before archaeologists would have found it. This study emphasizes the importance of carrying out archaeological investigations of submerged prehistoric landscapes.


Ancient Caribou Hunting Site Discovered Beneath Lake Huron

Researchers based at the University of Michigan think the roughly 9,000-year-old-structure helped natives corral caribou herds migrating across what was then an exposed land-corridor — the so-called Alpena-Amberley Ridge — connecting northeast Michigan to southern Ontario. The area is now covered by 120 feet (347 meters) of water, but at the time, was exposed due to dry conditions of the last ice age.

Oh wow im a moron! Excuse me OP.

a reply to: snarky412

I'd love to see a herd of caribou on the shores of Lake Huron.....or herds of buffalo roaming America's plains, or a pack of wolves playing in the prairies of the Midwest (wait, what prairies of the Midwest?)....as the song goes, "we don't know what we've got to it's gone" (and even then, most people never even knew they were there).

Good find about a sad human trait - if it moves, eat it!

originally posted by: Aleister
a reply to: snarky412

I'd love to see a herd of caribou on the shores of Lake Huron.....or herds of buffalo roaming America's plains, or a pack of wolves playing in the prairies of the Midwest (wait, what prairies of the Midwest?)....as the song goes, "we don't know what we've got to it's gone" (and even then, most people never even knew they were there).

Good find about a sad human trait - if it moves, eat it!

That's what we talked about when we saw the movie 'Dances with Wolves' years ago
The sight/sound of seeing a huge herd of buffalo like that in the wild had to be awesome!!

a reply to: snarky412

I woiuld love to have seen both the caribou and the buffaloes and bet the sights would have been magnificent. I must admit I do keep wondering, when looking at how ancient homes were constructed with their doors on the roof, no windows and ladder access only, exactly what animals were lurking around. I did see somewhere that leeches grew to 12' long and the thought of that grabbing you when swimming or paddling makes one shudder.

Doesn't this open up the whole argument about how far back the history of the USA/Canada etc really goes and what, if there were no people there, caused them to leave in the past?

a reply to: Shiloh7

It also makes me wonder what it looked like before the Great Lakes came to be
All dry land once upon a time where now it's lakes

Just goes to show how the Earth evolves on it's own over time and is in constant change

a reply to: Shiloh7

You can still see immense herds of wild animals in East & South Africa, northern Canada, Alaska and Siberia

Nice thread. Its always cool when sites like this end up being preserved that give us a window into the world of such early people.