“TULE EATERS.”

Otago Daily Times, Issue 20743, 14 June 1929, Page 11

“TULE EATERS.”

LIVED 3000 YEARS AGO. Evidences of a pre-historic tribe *f Indians, dating back almost 3000 years, n® ve been discovered, in a cavern in Nevada, according to announcement by anthropologists of the Universitv of Califorma (says the Christian Science Monitor). The cave-and its contents, located on the slopes of Humboldt Mountains in the semi-desert stretches of west-central Nevada, have been the subjects of an investigation by the university since 19] o I 4 revealed. The people who inhabited the cave were known as “ tul« eaters,' according to the university* announcement. Many possessions of the ancient people were found in the cave, preserved by the a chmate in a state comparable with that of material found in Egypt and Peru. The age of the oWest deposits has been worked out by M. R. Harrington, of the Museum of the American Indian, on the basis of the workmanship shown in the basketware and other artifacts, which is comparable with the earlier ages of the well-known tribes of.the south-west. In some places deposits in the cave measured 14 feet deep. Commenting upon tho discoveries of the university of the Lovelock cave. Professor A. L. Kroeber said: “ The preservation conditions in Lovelock cave are unusually favourable, recalling those of Egypt and Peru, and being equalled at only a very ’ few site* digcovered in North America. The material was wholly pre-Caucasian. It was obvious on casual inspection that the ancient culture represented had strong relations with the native culture of California in histone times. “ The roateral secured was therefore of more than local interest. It gave a pic* ture more or less coeval and cognate with that of the shell-mound-dwellers and other ancient people in California, hut far fuller and more vivid because of richness in wholei senes of objects such as baskets and wooden implements, of which only th» barest traces, if any, remain in most archaeological sites. . K .l’ u4^ er * tliex-o were evident definite similarities with ancient material from south-west sandals, woven bags, snearthrowers, and the like."