Archaeology: What's Hot Now: Ayer Pond (Washington State, USA)

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Ayer Pond (Washington State, USA) Nov 3rd 2011, 10:03 Ayer Pond is a site on Orcas Island in the Strait of Juan de Fuca, Washington State in the Pacific northwest, where ~11,990 RCYBP (radiocarbon years ago) a bison died and may have been butchered. The pond is currently 1.2 hectare (3 acres) in size, and at the time the bison died in it, it was part of a post-glacial environment, dominated by open pine parkland with buffalo berry, wormwood and Sitka alder. Extinct mammals documented in the region include bison (Bison antiquus), ground sloth (Megalonyx jeffersonii) and giant short-faced bear (Arctodus simus). The pond was excavated in 2003 by workmen using a track hoe, part of a drainage system project meant to create the pond and remove the peat. The workmen saw the bones and excavated further, eventually uncovering 98 whole bones and fragments with the lower bones partially articulated. The workmen worked carefully and removed all the bone they could find, placing it in a large cardboard box. They reported that the rib cage was largely missing; and they told researchers that there were no stone tools that they recognized. The workmen were familiar with projectile points, having found them at other locations, and they reported that there were no stone tools larger than fist-sized. Two years later, one of the workman contacted archaeologist Stephen Kenady, who examined the bones and identified cutmarks on the bone, that could not have been created by the trackhoe. Scholarly investigation of the location of the site where the Ayer Pond bison was excavated took place in 2007, and radiocarbon dates on the bison and charcoal within the sediment confirmed its age as 11,990+/-25 RCYPB, and 800 years older than Clovis. Ayer Pond is thus pre-clovis, and one of a number of sites, like Manis Mastodon, that illustrate megafaunal hunting strategies of pre-Clovis people. Sources This glossary entry is a part of the guide to Pre-Clovis, and the Dictionary of Archaeology. Fedje D, Mackie Q, Lacourse T, and McLaren D. 2011. Younger Dryas environments and archaeology on the Northwest Coast of North America. Quaternary International 242(2):452-462. Kenady SM, Wilson MC, Schalk RF, and Mierendorf RR. 2011. Late Pleistocene butchered Bison antiquus from Ayer Pond, Orcas Island, Pacific Northwest: Age confirmation and taphonomy. Quaternary International 233(2):130-141.

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