Lazaro Aleman: Greene Publishing, Inc.
The Page-Ladson archeological site in the Aucilla River keeps getting national and international attention, the latest being the site’s inclusion among a selection of the most exciting discoveries in the world of archeology in 2016, as reported by the BBC.
It’s a fact of today’s interconnected world that whatever happens in one corner of the globe is almost instantaneously known everywhere else. And naturally, any national or international notice of local sites accrues recognition to Monticello and Jefferson County alike.
On Tuesday evening, Jan. 3, Dr. Anne Holt, a member of the Aucilla Research Institute (ARI), brought the BBC article to the attention of the Monticello City Council.
Titled “Big digs: the year 2016 in archeology,” and authored by Dr. Louise Iles of the University of Sheffield in England, the article, found under the Science and Entertainment Section of the BBC website, cites what it calls a selected few of the most inspiring archaeological findings of the year 2016.
And near the very top, following the description of an excavation in Britain that revealed the remnants of a 3,000-year-old settlement that contained numerous enigmatic artifacts offering yet another glimpse into life in Britain’s Bronze Age, is a summary of the Page-Ladson dig.
Subtitled “Crossing continents,” the article notes that underwater archaeologists at the Page-Ladson site found tools dating around 14,550 years old. The significance of the discovery, according to the article, is that it adds to the growing evidence that humans populated North America much earlier than previously believed.
“Traditionally, hunter-gatherers are thought to have crossed the Bering land bridge into the Americas from northeast Asia no earlier than 13,000 years ago, quickly hunting local populations of megafauna to extinction,” the article states. “The Page-Ladson site pushes back that date by more than a thousand years.”
The article further notes that the stone tools found alongside the remains of now-extinct megafauna at the Page-Ladson site showed human-made cut marks on a tusk, proving that whether people hunted or scavenged a mastodon, the bottom line is it proved that humans “coexisted with such megafauna for at least two thousand years before they became extinct.”
The ARI, a nonprofit founded in 2014, focuses on identifying and building long-term relationships with individuals, foundations and organizations that will help support the development of a major earth sciences research institute near the Page-Ladson site and that will additionally promote original scientific research in the area.