Southwest Archaeology Today for April 3, 2009

Southwestern Archaeology Making the News – A Service of the Center for Desert Archaeology

– Interpretations of Colorado Clovis Cache Continue to Evolve: In the University of Colorado press release, Yohe says the discovery of the protein residue caused the investigators to change their minds about the purpose of the cache. Initially, they suspected it was a ritual deposit, but because some of the tools had been used, they decided it was a utilitarian cache. According to Bamforth, some ancient hunter buried the items, “fully expecting to come back at a later date and retrieve them.” It’s certainly possible that the artifacts represent this kind of cache, but I think it’s premature to discard the idea that the artifacts are the remains of an Ice Age ceremony.
http://www.cdarc.org/page/6dwk – Columbus Dispatch

– Did Anthrax Impact Clovis Populations? Humans were dying of anthrax in North America much earlier than thought – perhaps after scavenging the remains of infected animals while migrating from Asia during the Ice Age-a new study says. “We’ve
always thought that anthrax was an Old World disease that was brought to the New World by Europeans” around 1500, said study coauthor Paul Keim of Northern Arizona University. But the new report suggests that ancient humans entering the continent thousands of years earlier imported the disease after crossing the Bering land bridge, which once connected present-day Alaska and eastern Siberia.
http://www.cdarc.org/page/fken – National Geographic News

– Archaeology Cafe – Tucson’s Neon Legacy: The Center for Desert Archaeology and Casa Vicente invite you to the seventh meeting of Archaeology Caf