PREHISTORIC CASE

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 72, Issue 150, 25 June 1929, Page 3

PREHISTORIC CASE

NEARLY 3000 YEARS AGO ANCIENT TEIBE OF INDIANS Evidence of a prehistoric tribe oi Indians, dating back almost 3UOU year?, have been discovered in a cavern m Nevada according to the announcement by anthropologists of the University o. California. The cave and its contents, loci<._ on the slopes of Humboldt. Mountain in the semi-desert stretches of we:central Nevada, have been the subjecof an investigation by the universisince 1912, it was revealed. The peop who inhabited the cave were known a.

“tule eaters/’ according to tnc university's announcenieni.. Al any possessions of the ancient people were found in the cave preserved by the dry Nevada climate in a state comparable with that, of material found in Egypt and Peru.

The age of the oldest deposits nas been worked out by Al- It. Harrington, of the Museum of the American Indian on the basi s 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 14ft. deep. Commenting upon the discoveries o± the university at 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 sites discovered 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 historic times.” “The material secured was therefore of more than local interest. It gave a picture more or less coeval and cognate with that of the. shell-niounci dwellers and other ancient people m California but far fuller and m(**e vivid because of richness in whole, series of objects such as baskets and wooden implements, of which only the barest traces if any, remain in most archaelogical sites.”

“Further there were evident definite similarities with ancient material from south-west sandals, woven bags, spearthrowers and the like.”