Use wear analysis confirms human activities at 130k year old Cerutti mastadon site in CA.

Abstract
Cobbles from the Cerutti Mastodon (CM) site have impact marks and usewear suggesting that mastodon bones were placed on stone anvils and struck with stone hammers to produce two concentrations of broken bones and stones. Critics have suggested that the stones may have broken by rolling down slopes rather than in situ at the two concentrations. Our analysis of two cobbles (pegmatite CM-254 and andesite CM-281) identifies bone micro-residues that are not evenly distributed over the cobbles, and are unlikely to have been transferred from sediment or from passive contact with adjacent macro-bones. Bone micro-residues on cobble CM-254 were recovered from surfaces associated with usewear, but were absent from the naturally broken surface found in direct contact with a mastodon rib. In addition, bone micro-residues on cobble CM-281 were recovered from upward facing locations with impact marks and other usewear; but were absent on the downward facing surface. Bone micro-residues are absent in sediment away from the bone concentrations. These new data support the argument that the associated concentration of broken stones and mastodon bones is in situ, and that bones in this concentration were likely broken by the pegmatite cobble (comprising CM-254 and other fragments), when it struck mastodon bones placed on the andesite cobble CM-281. These findings add to the totality of evidence that supports human agency rather than geological processes as the driver responsible for the CM taphonomic pattern.

www.sciencedirect.com...

I have the full paper and will post more later



Once again the elephant in the room has been ignored, the pegmatite that travelled 20 miles to be found where it was.

a reply to: punkinworks10
Wow!! are they saying it was modern "us"

:

a reply to: punkinworks10

130,000 years is just a tad older than they say humans have been in North America... right?

a reply to: Spider879
There has been no postulation as to who it was, but from the evidence at this site, and the general shape of the artifacts found at another site, I would say it was an archaic, and I'm going with Denisovans.

a reply to: punkinworks10

what are the chances that a population of humans made it here to north america, and died out. Then was subsequently replaced by beringians, with maybe some south american folks thrown in?

On a side note, the story in the central/south is long from being written I think. Dense foliage hides an awful lot of smaller clues that a desert environ just can't cover.

originally posted by: punkinworks10
a reply to: Spider879
There has been no postulation as to who it was, but from the evidence at this site, and the general shape of the artifacts found at another site, I would say it was an archaic, and I'm going with Denisovans.

This was something I mused over. If we could just find bones.

What would the method of entry into the US have been for them?

a reply to: punkinworks10

Spark-up the BBQ honey : we're having mastodon steaks for supper !!



A reply to FFT : ..."...What would the method of entry into the US have been for them ?"

And how dit they get past customs with mastodon bones in their bags ?

( S&F : sorry for acting silly, but you know : madness takes it's toll... LoL !! )

originally posted by: butcherguy
a reply to: punkinworks10

130,000 years is just a tad older than they say humans have been in North America... right?

That's the issue: "that "they" say." The conventional theory that has been around for years is that humans migrated via the Bering Strait when the sea level was lower approximately 12,000 years ago. That is still true. DNA proves that the modern "Native" American populations are descended from Asians. They are "native" only in that they got here first by a few thousand years. But that is a simplistic view. All it really says is that the LATEST migration was via the Bering Strait. No credible contemporary anthropologist maintains that this was the ONLY migration or that the Bering Strait was the only route. There is credible evidence that the South Sea route was used by mariners migrating east from Polynesia. There is also evidence of Africans migrating west to South America. And not to put too fine a politically incorrect point on it, there is evidence that Portuguese fishermen from Europe got to the American east coast prior to the "native" Americans.

In other words, people have been moving around for a long time and it violates no rules to suggest there have been humans in North and South America far longer than we can prove. The issue, really, is how and when did a given population reach sustainability? (Like, what happened to the Roanoke colony?) Likely, the migration that happened 12,000 years ago. Once again, refer to the DNA.

So what happened to the earlier migrations?

1. They were too small to achieve sustainability and died off on their own, leaving very little behind.
2. They were killed off by subsequent populations, e.g just like Europeans vs. Indians.
3. They we assimilated as they were found.
4. The whole story is wrong and there was an advanced civilization that was wiped out by "X" (sea level rise, asteroid, etc.)

At this point the evidence is not definitive so you get to pick whatever explanation suits your psyche and claim you are right. I personally tend to favor the "all of the above" answer. Nobody really knows for sure. I know I do not, and neither do you.

a reply to: Nothin
You, as well as other fell into the "hunting/kill site" trap.
It is not a hunting or kill site, it is a resource procurement site, the animal had been dead long enough for the flesh to have been stripped from the carcass, they were after the bones and teeth for tool material, and the marrow for fats.

Seems logically legit. If the grey matter aligns and ‘they’ thought like ‘us’
a reply to: punkinworks10

originally posted by: bigfatfurrytexan
a reply to: punkinworks10

what are the chances that a population of humans made it here to north america, and died out. Then was subsequently replaced by beringians, with maybe some south american folks thrown in?

On a side note, the story in the central/south is long from being written I think. Dense foliage hides an awful lot of smaller clues that a desert environ just can't cover.

It is certainly possible and might explain Hueyatlaco also. They may have come and fallen victim to the vast space - they became so scattered that they couldn't keep up their population and died out or were killed off by other means.

originally posted by: bigfatfurrytexan
a reply to: punkinworks10

what are the chances that a population of humans made it here to north america, and died out. Then was subsequently replaced by beringians, with maybe some south american folks thrown in?

On a side note, the story in the central/south is long from being written I think. Dense foliage hides an awful lot of smaller clues that a desert environ just can't cover.

Yep

Forested areas also tend to have much more soils that are either acidic or support the micro-organism that 'prey' on bones (the kind that eat up bones) and have lots of water which dissolve them over time .

Excavations in wooded areas are also severely disrupted by roots.

a reply to: Hanslune

i could imagine terror birds would not have been a fun creature to have to live around

originally posted by: bigfatfurrytexan
a reply to: Hanslune

i could imagine terror birds would not have been a fun creature to have to live around

Yeah and sabre tooth cats and all manner of large stomping creatures to content with.

For the lurkers:

www.wired.com...

media.wired.com...

Hey furry I seem to remember that a newer study found that the big chickens were wiped out as early as 2 millions years ago in North America - but I cannot find it now - by Faddock or somebody

a reply to: Hanslune

I have seen something on that. Don't recall the date, only that they were gone prior to humans existing.

Timelines are something that would be nice to tie together. What is contemporary with what.

originally posted by: punkinworks10
a reply to: Nothin
You, as well as other fell into the "hunting/kill site" trap.
It is not a hunting or kill site, it is a resource procurement site, the animal had been dead long enough for the flesh to have been stripped from the carcass, they were after the bones and teeth for tool material, and the marrow for fats.

Well, you know : the hunting/kill trap for the mastodons was probably rather large, and rather easy to fall into...

Ok ok : so it was perhaps a site close to their settlement, where they stored extra bones from recent kills, or found carcasses.
In one place, for some reason that they couldn't do at the kill site, or found carcass site.

Anywho : if they were digging for the marrow, would have to be rather fresh, no ?

Cool OP! Thank you

a reply to: Nothin
The hammer and anvil stones, as I have maintained, are the key. My feeling is that they happened across the carcass while returning from the area they found the pegmatite, 20 miles away in Ramona. They possibly had their camp where the Sweetwater River empties into the bay, this is where the andesite comes from. They left( there were at least two people involved) the hammer and anvil stones behind. because they now had plenty of light weight bone flakes to last them a while, and there was no need to haul the stones back to the lagoon as there were plenty of cobbles there.
Evidently bone marrow is still edible for several months after the probicid has died, but I figure they also had other uses for the fat.

a reply to: bigfatfurrytexan

Yeah here it is the cite the link appears broken at the moment

McFadden, B.; Labs-Hochstein, J.; Hulbert Jr., R. C.; Baskin, J. A. (2006). "Refined age of the late Neogene terror bird (Titanis) from Florida and Texas using rare earth elements

originally posted by: bigfatfurrytexan
a reply to: Hanslune

I have seen something on that. Don't recall the date, only that they were gone prior to humans existing.

Timelines are something that would be nice to tie together. What is contemporary with what.

I remember one of my instructors saying something like: Timelines are good for about 24 hrs.

Meaning they tend to get overcome by new evidence before they get too old.