Ice-Age Baby

Southland Times, Issue 23544, 25 June 1938, Page 13

Ice-Age Baby

By

J. N. MILLER

A BABY’S bones found in a Utah cave have set the scientific world agog. For the discoverer of the infant’s skeleton, Dr Julian H. Steward, Smithsonian archaeologist, not only claims it may be 10,000 years old, but thinks it is America’s long-sought “missing link.” Close by the bones were found dart shafts, flint points and other evidences of primitive man, and also skeletal remains of ex-

tinct animals such, as mammoths and bison. According to Dr Steward, the baby’s skeleton becomes an important clue to a race of men who roamed the American continent when the great ice gap was receding to the Arctic. Had a discovery of this nature been made in central or western Europe under conditions pointing to Pleistocene time, no great excitement would have been caused, for the fossil records of these regions already afford convincing evidence that man of the modem type had appeared in Europe before the close of the Pleistocene period, which ended, according to generally accepted views, from 15,000 to 20,000 years ago. In America, however, the case is different The opinion has been held by many scientists that the Americans were peopled at a relatively late time by races presumably coming from Asia by way of Bering Strait Climatically, conditions in North America during Pleistocene times were much the same as those which prevailed in Europe. A great belt of ice encircled the pole, the frontal margins of which travelled Successively southward, over-riding much of the land even well down towards the ..middle of. Asia and North America, only to recede. at intervals, leaving great areas in each continent covered by masses of

sand, gravel and boulders of all sizes up to many' tons in weight, as the melting ice released its load. The great oscillations of climate attending the repeated advances and partial retreats of the polar ice sheets profoundly affected the plant and animal life of the northern hemisphere. Dr Steward found the baby’s bones about 364 feet above the present level of Great Salt Lake, and estimated its age as somewhere between 10,000 and 12,000 years. Great Salt Lake was approximately 1000 feet above its present level near the end of the last ice age, some 20,000 years ago. Following the retreat of the ice a prolonged dry period set in. Streams flowing into the lake were dried up and the level of the lake itself began to sink. During the

thousands of years of this shrinkage, wbicH apparently was prolonged, by wet periods from time to time, various shore lines were left which can be detected by geologists. Also, caves were cut in its banks. The times when those caves were first above water, and thus open for human habitation, can be dated crudely by calculating the rate of shrinkage of the water. For several thousand years, it is probable, the lake has remained in approximately its present condition. It so happens that this long period of shrinkage corresponds to an almost complete blank in the story of man on this continent. At about the end of the last glaciation, it is known, a race of nomadic hunters, usually referred to as “Folsom men,” the first known inhabitants of North America, lived in the eastern foothills of the Rocky Mountains. They are known by their finely fashioned dart points, skilfully chipped from flint and found in association with long extinct animals. Similar discoveries have been made in many parts of America, and scientists now conclude that the Folsom nomads, probably at a somewhat later period, wandered over much of the continent Following Folsom man there is a long gap in the earliest traces of the Basket Makers, the first dwellers in the southwest. They were long-headed, of short stature, slight and with wavy hair. Scientists can date these people fairly closely by means of the tree rings in ancient timbers. At the utmost they go-*back not over 2000 years, according to Dr Steward. / ' ■< • The interval of many thousands of years is filled in very sparsely and in uncertain fashion. If there had been any primitive people living west of the Rockies during this long period the Great Salt Lake caves would have been natural shelters.. With the object of bridging this gap Dr Steward explored the caves hundreds of feet above the present level of the lake, hoping to find evidence of early man. It was in one of these caves, first habitable between 10,000 and 15,000 years ago, that he came upon the infant’s bones. Dr Steward computed that the cave was occupied very soon after it was left div by the receding lake. There is no interval whatsoever between the floor of lake gravel left behind by the water and the human artifacts. In fact, fragments of charcoal show that the ancient people built fires on the gravel itself. There can be no question, Dr Steward says, but that these people preceded by several thousand years the earliest Basket Makers. The period might have been as long as 10,000 years. Six inches deep in the lake’s gravel floor was found the buried skeleton. The bones were very immature. Beside the skeleton lay a sharp bone “dagger.” At this level were found some very small projectile points, probably dart heads and knives, scrapers and bone awls. They are entirely different in design, however, from the finds associated with Folsom culture. There' 1 intervenes a thin layer of debris, above which is found evidence of a different and later culture. On top of this is found evidence of still another culture which, evidence from other caves shows, was contemporaneous with, or even later than, the earliest Basket. Makers. This culture, says Dr Steward, is new to archaeology, having a peculiar type of pottery and a distinctive style of moccasin. It is possibly that of very early Navajo, who are presumed to have migrated south from Canada. With Dr Steward’s spectacular new find, the entire story of man’s sojourn in North America can now be pieced together.