Once Lake Huron was above the water level as it is today. Humans tended to live the near the water edge so there may be ancient clues under the lake waters. Under the cold clear waters of Lake Huron, University of Michigan researchers have found a five-and-a-half foot-long, pole-shaped piece of wood that is 8,900 years old. The wood, which is tapered and beveled on one side in a way that looks deliberate, may provide important clues to a mysterious period in North American prehistory. "This was the stage when humans gradually shifted from hunting large mammals like mastodon and caribou to fishing, gathering and agriculture," said anthropologist John O'Shea. "But because most of the places in this area that prehistoric people lived are now under water, we don't have good evidence of this important shift itself– just clues from before and after the change."
Once Lake Huron was above the water level as it is today. Humans tended to live the near the water edge so there may be ancient clues under the lake waters. Under the cold clear waters of Lake Huron, University of Michigan researchers have found a five-and-a-half foot-long, pole-shaped piece of wood that is 8,900 years old. The wood, which is tapered and beveled on one side in a way that looks deliberate, may provide important clues to a mysterious period in North American prehistory. "This was the stage when humans gradually shifted from hunting large mammals like mastodon and caribou to fishing, gathering and agriculture," said anthropologist John O'Shea. "But because most of the places in this area that prehistoric people lived are now under water, we don't have good evidence of this important shift itself– just clues from before and after the change."
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Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), O'Shea and U-M colleague Guy Meadows began exploring the area in the middle of modern Lake Huron several years ago. In 2009 they reported finding a series of stone features that they believe were drive lanes used by ancient PaleoIndian hunters to funnel caribou to slaughter, a technique still used today by the Inuit.
These drive lanes were located on the Alpena-Amberley Ridge, a land connection across the middle of modern Lake Huron that linked northern Michigan with central Ontario during the low-water periods of the Pleistocene and early Holocene ages.
Piloting their 25-foot boat about 40-60 miles out into Lake Huron from Alpena, Michigan, the researchers first spotted the ancient wood object using a small hand-deployed remote operated vehicle (ROV) equipped with a video camera. Then a team of divers – including O'Shea – went down about 100 feet to retrieve it.
Initially stored in a PVC tube filled with lake water, the specimen's age has now been fixed using carbon dating. It is currently undergoing more detailed analyses to determine whether there has been human modification, which visual examination suggests.
"The first thing you notice is that it appears to have been shaped with a rounded base and a pointed tip," O'Shea said. "There's also a bevel on one side that looks unnatural, like it had to have been created. It looks like it might have been used as a tent pole or a pole to hang meat."
For further information: http://ns.umich.edu/new/multimedia/9-videos/20120-u-m-divers-retrieve-prehistoric-wood-from-lake-huron
Photo: Tane Casserly
