Tuesday, December 13, 2011

Divers Retrieve Prehistoric Wood from Lake Huron

Divers examining boulders at the bottom of Lake Huron that served as caribou drive lanes for prehistoric hunters.
(Credit: Photo courtesy of John O'Shea, U-M)

ScienceDaily (Dec. 12, 2011) — "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..."

Full Story: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/12/111212221026.htm
Back Stories: http://www.pnas.org/content/106/25/10120.full.pdf+html
http://www.michigan.gov/dnr/0,1607,7-153-10366_46403_46404-241037--,00.html & http://www.independent.on.ca/site/?q=node/584

2 comments :

Norman said...

Assuming that pole was shaped and then dropped near where it was found, then the water level in Lake Huron has risen 100 feet in nearly 9000 years. About 100 miles to the east, 40 feet down in MacDonald Lake in Haliburton, ON, a pedestaled boulder with two shimmed supporting stones was found. Evidently this was manipulated by man. Does anyone know if there was a severe drought 8 or 9000 years ago that could explain this rise in water level?

Tim MacSweeney said...

Norman, the water was locked up as ice, glaciers slowly retreating. There are people who theorize that Paleo Indian People burned the landscape and actually accelerated the retreat...