Ashley <grubisic@netwurx.net> just forwarded the following Wisconsin State Historical Society article, which is dated 1999 but may possibly have been revised in early 2001. 13,500 years ago seems like a surprisingly early date for proven human settlement in Wisconsin, and I wonder whether anybody knows whether this date has now been nationally accepted by archaeologists. My guess, based mostly on my amateur reading of USGS maps <http://terraserver.homeadvisor.msn.com>, is that in 13,500 BP, thick glaciation may have still have covered the NE section of Milwaukee. Also tiny "Lake Michigan" (then blocked to the north and east by retreating ice sheets) was about 60 feet higher than today and probably extended westward to about South 22nd St., north of Lincoln Ave. Also, the southwestern shore of Milwaukee Bay then probably ran along the eastern edges of present Forest Home and St. Adalberts cemeteries-- both located on top of glacial moraine that has apparently remained mostly unaffected by lake and river erosion (also human intrusions) over the past 14,000 years or so. At the same time, almost all of the present site of Chicago would have been under proglacial "Lake Michigan" -- which explains why Chicago and much of Illinois is so flat (a sad fact that webmaster Bob Fay has "cruelly" sneered at recently). .........John (in Chicago) ================================================== http://www.shsw.wisc.edu/press/071599.htm Wisconsin Historical Society In the News July 15-31, 1999 "This is How It's Supposed to Work" ---State Archaeologist Bob Birmingham What began in the late 1980's as a routine compliance check of a proposed sewer system in Pleasant Prairie Township (Kenosha County) by the Society's Historic Preservation Division, has since become a myth-shattering discovery, which, if further substantiated, pushes back the earliest human occupation in North America some 2,500 years. The Society's state archaeologist's office was especially concerned about the sewer project because it was to have disturbed numerous Paleo-Indian sites considered to date to the first human inhabitants in Wisconsin (then commonly thought to be no more than 11,000 years ago). Meanwhile, curators at the Kenosha Public Museum noted butchering marks on many of the mammoth bones that local farmers had brought in after having unearthed them while plowing their fields. This discovery provided the first evidence of humans butchering mammoths up to that date east of the Mississippi River. The discovery led archaeologists David Overstreet of the Great Lakes Archaeological Research Center and Dan Joyce of the Kenosha Public Museum to apply to the Society for a planning and survey grant (federal monies administered by the Historic Preservation Division to identify and preserve important prehistoric and historic sites) to further explore their findings. The grants enabled them to record and perform test excavations of seven kill sites in Kenosha County. The remains were all well preserved because the area had been wetlands at the time when mammoths were there. The findings confirmed the association of humans with the prehistoric creature bones. More recently, Overstreet had bones from some of the sites radiocarbon dated because he questioned the commonly held belief that they could not date earlier than 11,500 years ago. The results indicated that the butchered bones do indeed date further back, probably to 13,500 years. These findings, announced in May, have led to much surprise, and some suspicion, among archaeologists. If the North American archaeological community accepts these findings, the mammoth bones in Kenosha County will provide the earliest evidence of human presence in North America. State Archaeologist Robert Birmingham notes, "Wisconsin--and specifically Kenosha County--has suddenly emerged as one of the world centers for studying early human life in North America." -------------------------------------------- ......updated: February 21, 2001 Wisconsin Historical Society 816 State St, Madison, WI 53706 ==================================================