A couple of news stories on the new blood residue studies on the Mahaffy Clovis point cache were sent on to me by faithful readers. The Mahaffy Clovis cache is a collection of 83 Clovis points and blanks found in a pit 18 inches below the ground surface on a ranch in Colorado.
- 13,000-Year-Old Stone Tool Cache in Colorado Shows Evidence of Camel, Horse Butchering
- 13,000-year-old tools unearthed at Colorado home
- Who were the Clovis People?
- Hoards and Caches
The discovery of caches of Clovis-era points and blanks is rare, but include the East Wenatchee site in Washington, the Rummells-Maske site in Iowa, the John Gale cache in Wyoming, Ryan's site in Texas, and the Fenn Cache in Utah. All contained a large number of cached Clovis points and point blanks.
The interesting thing about the Mahaffey Cache is the blood residue analysis, which looks at microscopic bits of cells and uses that to determine the species of animal; archaeologist Douglas Bamforth's analysis of blood residue on the Mahaffey cache supports the use of the tools to butcher extinct horse and camel, both parts of recognized Clovis diets.
Comments
I haven’t seen any Clovis projectile points in the “cache” or any photos of it when it was originally found.?
The first link up there, the one that starts “13,000-year-old”, has photos and a video with images of the artifacts. There’s definitely at least one of those big fancy blades. But you’re right, there are no points. That article says “The Mahaffy Cache consists of 83 stone implements ranging from salad plate-sized, elegantly crafted bifacial knives and a unique tool resembling a double-bitted axe to small blades and flint scraps.”
I just saw a talk about this by Dr. Bamforth at the University of Nevada, Reno, last week. There are no diagnostic artifacts in the cache. They established an approximate date using protein residue analysis (CIEP: cross-over immunoelectrophoresis) on all 83 pieces. Four came back with hits. The identified species were a sheep, a bear, a horse, and a camel. Unless the pieces were used in the last couple hundred years then they must date to prior to 13,000 years ago. According to Dr. Bamforth the last horse and camel species alive in Boulder County existed 13,000 years ago.
Interesting, Chris! thanks for the update…