30,000 Years Shown as Age of “Americans”

Manawatu Times, Volume LV, Issue 7294, 2 August 1930, Page 4

30,000 Years Shown as Age of “Americans”

CAMP TIRE REMAINS IN CAVE IN NEVADA REVEAL SIGNS OF EARLY MAN LOS ANGELES. The first conclusive proof that man lived on the American continent 20,000 or 30,000 years ago was claimed May 19 by Dr. James A. B. Scherer, director of the Southwest Museum. Ashes of a camp fire under Pleistocene rock, discovered by a field party led by Dr. Mark E. Harrington, 21 miles from Las Vegas, Nov., were cited by Dr. Scherer in support of his assertion. Dr. Scherer described the discovery of the campfire ashes as the "most outstanding anthropological find ever made in the United States.” - The Southwest Museum, in conjunction with the, California Institute of Technology, has been exploring tbe cave since last March. Dr. Harrington, curator of the museum, and Dr. Chester Stock of the institute, early in their explorations discovered darts from an atlatl, a weapon that antedates the bow and arrow, and the skull of a giant ground sloth. The work since that time has been directed toward discovery of some evidence that man preceded the sloth in the cave. Dr. Harrington in reporting 1 lie discovery by telegram to Dr. Scherer said : "Have found in one of gypsum cave's rooms a camp fire of our sloth hunters, a patch of real charcoal under layer of unbroken strata (of the Pleistocene era) in the topmost of which are found basket maker and early Pueblo artifacts. This find establishes association of man and sloth beyond question. Will leave in position for Dr. Stock of institute to sec.” "Until recently,” Dr. Scherer said, "it was believed that man was a late comer to North America, but Dr. Harrington now has proved conclusively that men of high intelligence lived hero 20,000 and perhaps 3Q,000 or more years ago instead of less than 10,000 years, ns formerly believed. "It now appears that America was discovered originally by wandering groups of Mongloids and that these came from Eastern Asia by way of the Bering Soa. ” Reading the history of mail on this continent from the racks, Dr. Scherer said that men of great skill and intelligence, both of which arc necessary tc construct and use the atlatl, lived in the cave before the sloth invaded the region. The sloth ousted them, and made Ills homo tbero until a landslide down the craggy mountains that then were present, where the Colorado River now flows, blocked the door, locking him in. The men with the atlatl, Dr. Scherer said, were shooting at targets in the cave thousands of years before Robin Hood lived in tbe English forest. The atlatl itself consisted of a long, grooved shaft in which darts were inserted. The darts were expelled with great force and accuracy by the marksman, who grasped the shaft at one end and swept it forward with a jerk.