New research casts doubt on Ohio’s oldest ‘house’

Did you know that Ohio supposedly has North America’s oldest dwelling – a dwelling made use of by Ice Age, mastodon-looking Paleoindians?

In the early 1990s, David Brose, then with the Cleveland Museum of All-natural History, was doing work at the Paleo Crossing web page in Medina County. He claimed to have uncovered 3 article molds, stains in the soil displaying where posts had been set into the ground. These publish molds were in the vicinity of spear points and other stone equipment of the Clovis tradition. Radiocarbon dates for a single of the put up molds proposed that the “house” was 12,250 years previous, which matched the age of the Clovis points.

Additional: Archaeology: Scientists self-confident who buried cache of stone equipment, but not why

Even at the time, having said that, not everybody was convinced. In 1995, an article in the Cleveland Basic Dealer’s Sunday magazine reported that some archaeologists had doubts about the publish molds and the radiocarbon dates.

A new examine posted in the Journal of Area Archaeology exhibits that people uncertainties had been justified.

Two teams, 1 from Kent Condition University, led by Metin Eren, and another from Southern Methodist University, led by David Meltzer, collaborated in a the latest reinvestigation of the Paleo Crossing web site. Brian Redmond from the Cleveland Museum of All-natural History is a co-creator of the report.

Just after examining the documentation from the 1990s excavations, the group concluded that Brose in fact discovered only one definitive submit mildew. The other two turned out to be a feasible root stain and a mapping error.

Among 2016 and 2018, Eren and Meltzer excavated 32 square meters in the similar space wherever Brose labored. They determined six achievable submit molds equivalent to what Brose discovered. Disappointingly, radiocarbon dates showed they ranged in age from 300 to 1,100 several years outdated.

At the very least some of these posts seem to be historic-period fence posts likely designed from wood cut from previous trees on the property, but even the oldest is extra than 10,000 a long time far too late to be element of a Paleoindian home.

Tale continues

Meltzer and his co-authors emphasize that the absence of evidence for a residence at Paleo Crossing doesn’t diminish the value of the web-site. Following all, they recovered in excess of a thousand artifacts, which include typical Clovis equipment these kinds of as scrapers and gravers, generating it just one of the richest Clovis sites in eastern North The us.

And, actually, there could have been Clovis houses there that neither Brose nor Eren and Meltzer uncovered.

Across North The usa, archaeologists have uncovered only one Clovis-age residence. It was at the Thunderbird web-site in Virginia and even it could possibly belong to a later on period of time. Meltzer and colleagues suspect that the rationale so couple Clovis residences have been observed is that these early Americans moved close to a good deal and so didn’t place a good deal of hard work into making substantial residences.

So the Clovis people at Paleo Crossing may have lived in tent-like wigwams that did not demand large posts to be set into the ground.

So what is the offer with that write-up mould Brose uncovered?

Meltzer and colleagues offer 3 feasible interpretations. Maybe it truly is the only surviving article mildew from a Clovis household. It’s possible the ancient write-up was employed for a little something other than a house. Or perhaps the radiocarbon dates are from more mature charcoal that by some means got into a more-the latest article mold.

Whatever the explanation, one postmold with a handful of questionable radiocarbon dates isn’t enough to help the assert that Ohio has America’s oldest household.

Brad Lepper is the Senior Archaeologist for the Ohio Record Connection’s Globe Heritage Program

[email protected]

This write-up originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Archaeology: New study casts question on Ohio’s oldest ‘house’