The Independent-Record from Helena, Montana • 9

www.helenair.com Independent Record Sunday, September 1, 2002 Page 9A Region Clues of ancient life emerge in Yellowstone I te. i' r- 1 i. Billings Gazette Photo Thought to be about 10,000 years old, these Cody knives were some of the important artifacts found along the shore of Yellowstone Lake. i PI early Native Americans have been drawn to the Yellow-cn stone area for at least the last 12,000 years not long after the last ice age. fci Part of the reason they came was to get obsidian jy; from the Obsidian Cliff Plateau in the northern ppr-tion of the park.

The volcanic rock, largely free of imperfections, was an ideal raw material for making spear points and other, tools. Artifacts from Obsidian Cliff have been found along the Mississippi River, as faff'c south as Texas and up into Canada. Traditionally, it was thought that native people were scared or wary of Yelp lowstone's geothermal fea- tures. But archaeological sites found in the geyser basins show that people were probably drawn to the "In my own mind, Yellow- stone plateau was likely a really attractive place and, for groups of people in the surrounding environs, was almost like a center of pre-contact universe," Shortt says. Somewhere they could acquire excellent tool stone, -'J see the wonders of the geot- uf hermal areas and hunt a vari-! ety of mammals." Billings Gazette Photo Kevin Thorson, a senior field archaeologist from Calgary working for the Museum of the Rockies, sifts through sand and gravel looking for any artifacts along the shore of Yellowstone Lake.

during the warmer months; we think most of the animals migrated out" during the winter, Johnson says. "We think the people were probably going to follow the herds." Archaeologists were also surprised to find four objects known as shaft abraders, which are typically sandstone tools used to grind and straighten shafts. "We know of only two other Cody Complex sites that have shaft abraders, and they have one each. And they're both in Colorado," Shortt says. "We think that makes this site really significant, and it suggests there was some sort of specialized activity going on here." Archaeologists know that By MIKE STARK The Billings Gazette YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK On a secluded stretch of shoreline along Yellowstone Lake, Doug Mitchell crouches in an angled pit that's been cut into the slope.

He's been on the windswept beach for days, meticulously sifting through piles upon piles of sandy soil in search of something, anything, that might tell the story about the people who came here 10,000 years before him. On this day, part of the story emerges at his feet when he notices a black object about 2 inches across. The archaeologist examines it and then hoists it in the air for the other half-dozen archaeologists to see. "What do we got?" yells Mack Shortt, who's leading the archaeological excavation on behalf of the Museum of the Rockies in Bozeman. "Scraper," Mitchell says.

Shortt moves quickly past the silver buckets, shovels and shifting screens to see the artifact for himself. Based on its shape and scars, the obsidian tool was probably used to scrape tissue from the inside of an animal hide early in the tanning process, he says. "This is a great find," Shortt says, turning the scraper over in his hand and holding it up to the dull sun- light. "This indicates that part of the daily routine here was probably the preparation of animal hides." It's another piece in the puzzle that may be rapidly disappearing from the remote beach a place where erosion constantly shapes and reshapes a landscape that holds ancient secrets about some of the first known human visitors to what is now Yellowstone National Park. The team of archaeolo-' "ttm In Named after artifacts found in 1939 between Cody, and the east entrance to Yellowstone, the Cody Complex people were believed to be primarily bison hunters who lived in low-lying open landscapes.

Older human artifacts have been found within Yellowstone but cannot be linked to a specific site or with a particular culture. With funding from the Yellowstone Park Foundation, the archaeologists returned to the Osprey Beach site for a larger excavation this summer. The growing body of evidence from the site reveals a distinct picture: Cody Complex people passed through Yellowstone, probably seasonally; stayed on the beach; probably hunted; and spent time sharpening and resharp-ening their tools. Several Cody knives have been found at the site, as well as two scrapers, four tools used for grinding and smoothing shafts and flakes that were presumably chipped off as the tools were honed. gists, which includes Yellowstone archaeologist Ann Johnson and others lending their expertise, finished a 15-day excavation at the site this week.

Dubbed "Osprey Beach," the site's radiocarbon-dated artifacts provide the oldest and most intact evidence of Yellowstone's inhabitants. "They may not be the oldest people" in the park, Johnson says, "but they're the oldest people that we know about." The site, first investigated in 2000, also is providing new clues about what people were doing here more than 10,000 years ago. In a broader sense, the site is changing what is known about the Cody Complex people, early Native Americans who, until now, were believed to inhabit only the plains and foothills of North America. The first artifacts at Osprey Beach were found on an eroding slope in the 1950s. The information was logged, but test pits weren't dug until a few years ago after a team of archaeologists from Kansas found two Cody knives uniquely shaped points identified with the Cody Complex people; 50th Celebration ThanK kW.

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Signs will be posted! Many of the findings were sent to a lab in Canada that can extract ancient blood protein from the artifacts to determine what kinds of animals were being hunted. The Teton County Historic Preservation Board funded the testing. "The results we found were surprising," Shortt says. Instead of evidence of an extinct brand of bison known as bison antiquus, which the Cody Complex people were known for hunting, the results were positive for deer or elk, bighorn sheep, rabbit and some kind of canid, which could have been coyote, wolf or fox. Perhaps most interestingly, rabbit residue was found on the portion of a knife where it connected to the shaft, leaving researchers to theorize that the owners used rabbit sinew to connect pieces of their tools.

"As far as I know, this is the first time that somebody has actually extracted those types of blood residues from Cody knives," Shortt says. The absence of bison, though odd, doesn't necessarily mean the campsite dwellers weren't eating bison. "We only ran a few samples, so maybe it's a sampling issue," Johnson says. "They were probably here a fcfi fij it; fljtj5 i i gin 1 1 1 1 Hti i fit- Energy Energy For Montana S0oFF Come See Our Displays! 2540 Cent" nnia! Dr. Off Hwy 12 i nhtnets LinkBelt HC-48 lattice boom crane Curb Machines Belly Dump Trailers Ditch Witch trenchers(R65 1420) Pickups Service Trucks Pitman digger derrick Miller Big 40 welder 1983 IR 375 cfm Compressor Cargo Containers camptravel trailers Tools shop equipment and many miscellaneous itemsl Check website for late arrivals! us at www.pateauction.com! 5 beg, at 8:30 am 3 Screening Plants 1 Crusher 2 Excavators 3 Wheel Loaders 6 Crawlers 2 JD CrawlerLoaderBackhoes 3 Backhoes (2-Cat 416 JD 510) 3 Rollers Dump, Van Logging trucks 7 Truck Tractors (iss-iaHU) 3 Triple axle lowboys (40 50 ton) 2 4 Refer Trailers (1997-1992) 5 Equipment car trailers Tlmberjack 450 Skidder Call for color brochure or visit Inspection: Sept.

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