To all,
A little late with this, but there was a news story from the city of Walker, Minnesota that broke last month, announcing a possible 13,000-15,000 year old archaeological site discovered in 2005 while conducting a required archaeological survey prior to beginning construction of the Walker Area Community Center. Visiting scientists (as far as I can tell, these are mostly State of Minnesota archaeologists and geologists) seem to agree the stone artifacts, although crude, are genuine, but the dating has some uncertainties.
A news report dated January 24th, 2007, from the Walker Pilot-Independent, by reporter Molly MacGregor, has a good introduction to the circumstances of the discovery.
HEREThe same day, this news report drew some comment from Palanth member Greg Laden, on his weblog
HERE. Greg expresses concern about "the crappy industry. Sort of like the Eolithic." While perusing this entry, I clicked on the hyperlink to a previous weblog entry, dated January 19, 2007,
HERE, which has some interesting background on the City of Walker, and some Laden family reminiscences, but has an interesting photograph of one of the purported artifacts (although the link to the Minneapolis Star-Tribune story no longer works) and more caution from Greg about acceptance of these purported stone tools.. In any case, if this photo really is one of the 'artifacts' from the proposed 13,000-15,000 year old Walker archaeological site, it is the first I've seen published.
Finally, a story dated February 14, 2007 from the Walker Pilot-Independent, by staff writer Gail DeBoer
HERE provides a follow-up and more interesting tidbits about the discovery, news of a report given February 9-10 to a state conference of archaeologists (although no details of this are given), and that "the press aspect" will halt while "initial findings will be distributed to national and international experts through professional channels" including "peer review. "
As all reports are very preliminary, not much can be said about the pre-Clovis prospects of the Walker site, but it is a promising story to be aware of.
Dar
