Location of the On Your Knees Cave (also called 49-PET-408).
54. Possible Relatives in the Americas
On Your Knees cave (Alaska, USA)
by George Weber
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Location of the On Your Knees Cave (also called 49-PET-408). |
Genetics
The DNA of the individual found at On Your Knees Cave has been analysed. His or her DNA was compared with mitochondrial DNA from more than 3,000 Native Americans. Correspondences were found with samples of modern and ancient individuals, with the coastal Cayapa of Ecuador accounting for more than 50% of the matches. Others included the Chumash (California), the Klunk Mound people (Illinois), the Tarahumara (Chihuahua, Mexico), the Mapuche (also known as Araucanians or Mapudungu), and the Yaghan tribe (one of the Fuegian tribes at the extreme southern end of South America, in Tierra del Fuego) . This (except for the outlying Klunk Mound people in Illinois) looks a lot like the outline of a migration route along the western coast of the Americas.
Archaeology
The On Your Knees Cave (so called by its discoverers in 1993 for obvious reasons). It was first investigated in 1994 by Dr. Heaton and Kevin Allen who found remains of brown bear, black bear and otter with bones embedded in sediment. The bones were few and so the cave did not at first attract much attention.
At first the few and fragmentary bones were disappointing, especially. But when the first bone dated from the site (a brown bear femur) was dated by radiocasrbon method at 35,365 years old and another (a black bear tibia) at 41,600 years old interest was aroused. Both dates were records for America.
In 1996 Dr. Heaton and Fred Grady began to excavating the site in earnest. Grid systems were established in the First and Second Rooms of the Bear Passage, and sediments were systematically removed and packed to the ocean for washing, using mosquito net bags. Bones were found in abundance in both organic and inorganic sediments. A stone spear point was found in the First Room by Grady in the early days of the 1996 field season, but was then considered to be an isolated find. On the last day of the excavation (4th July 1996) as Dr. Heaton was filling the last bag of sediment in the Second Room, he found the lower jaws, pelvis, and bone tool of a human. Forest archaeologist Terry Fifield met with local Tlingit groups, and they passed resolutions allowing for the study of the remains and for excavation to resume the following year. Dates of 9,730 and 9,880 years BP were obtained on the human remains, making them the oldest ever found in Alaska or Canada. The associated bone tool was dated to 10,300 years old.
In 1996, as Heaton and crew continued their excavation, they discovered evidence of human use of the cave. The first cultural materials unearthed were portions of a human skeleton: a mandible, vertebra, and pelvis fragment along with three tools. These materials were radiocarbon dated to 9,200 years before present, the equivalent of 10,300 calendar years ago, the oldest human bones known from Canada or Alaska.
The following seasons of archaeological excavation concentrated on the deeply buried residue of an ancient camp site dated to 10,300 years ago. In the ash- and charcoal-rich layer, the erarly users of the cave had discarded hundreds of stone flakes and microblades, byproducts of stone tool making.
In 1996 Dr. Heaton and Fred Grady began to excavating the site in earnest. Grid systems were established in the First and Second Rooms of the Bear Passage, and sediments were systematically removed and packed to the ocean for washing, using mosquito net bags. Bones were found in abundance in both organic and inorganic sediments. A stone spear point was found in the First Room by Grady in the early days of the 1996 field season, but was then considered to be an isolated find. On the last day of the excavation (4th July 1996) as Dr. Heaton was filling the last bag of sediment in the Second Room, he found the lower jaws, pelvis, and bone tool of a human. Forest archaeologist Terry Fifield met with local Tlingit groups, and they passed resolutions allowing for the study of the remains and for excavation to resume the following year. Dates of 9,730 and 9,880 years BP were obtained on the human remains, making them the oldest ever found in Alaska or Canada. The associated bone tool was dated to 10,300 years old.
Dr. Timothy Heaton (left, shown with Dr. Dixon) and his partner Fred Grady described the first discoveries at On Your Knees cave. Those discoveries included the bones of black and brown bear dated to over 40,000 years ago as well as lemming, heather vole, marmot, ringed seal and other species that no longer live on Prince of Wales Island.
This innocuous little cave, 500 feet above modern sea level, has given valuable clues of the environment of before, during, and after the pleistocene ice age. It has also told us that the islands off the eastern coast of the American mainland were not completely covered by ice at the last glacial maximum as had long been believed.
In 1996, as Heaton and crew continued their excavation, they discovered direct evidence of human use of the cave: portions of a human skeleton, a mandible, vertebra, and pelvis fragment along with three tools we unearthed. These materials were dated to 10,300 calendar years ago, the oldest human bones known from Canada or Alaska.
The following seasons of archaeological excavation concentrated on the deeply buried residue of an ancient camp site dated to 10,300 years ago. In the ash- and charcoal-rich layer, the erarly users of the cave had discarded hundreds of stone flakes and microblades, byproducts of stone tool making.
The finds (supported to a spectacular degree by genetic results - see below) allow a picture of an early maritime people, living on a diet rich in seafood, foraging across the open sea for stone and food resources to be built up. It also provides valuable evidence that the "coastal route" (route b in the chart of possible routes at the beginning of this chapter) has indeed be used by early humans.
The On Your Knees Cave when discovered (left) and when being excavated (right).
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Excavation goes on in the cave. The human bones found in the cave were discovered in the depression in the foreground right. |
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Bones embedded in the matrix of the cave wall are characteristic for this cave. |
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Left
Right: |
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Among web-sites with further information are:
- http://www.usd.edu/esci/alaska/oykc.html
- http://www.fs.fed.us/geology/paleo_research_overview_ak.pdf#search=%22On%20Your%20Knees%20cave%20%22
- http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v422/n6927/full/422010a.html
http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/cgi-bin/abstract/52166/ABSTRACT
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Last change 15 September 2006
