An archeologic study to make way for construction has unearthed a trove of 10,000 - year - old Oliver Stone tool in western Washington . More than 4,000 stone oddball , scraper , awl and spear points were found , see back to a time when its inhabitants wander the same ground as shaggy - haired mammoths and prehistorical bison .
" We were pretty amazed , " said archaeologist Robert Kopperl , who led the theater investigation , toThe Seattle Times . " This is the oldest archaeologic site in the Puget Sound lowland with stone tools . "
The excavation took lieu near the shores of Bear Creek , a tributary to the Sammamish River , a 10 - minute drive from Microsoft headquarters . Kopperl and his team published their initial findings earlier this yr inPaleoAmerica .
During thelast icy age , an ice canvas around a international mile thick blanket the Puget Sound area . However , 10,000 geezerhood ago , the ice rink age was coming to a finis , and ice had already retreated from the area . In its wake , modest grouping of inhabitants were leave alone with Lake Sammamish , its marshy fringes and plenty of pine forests .
The ancient stone puppet were found after digging through a infantry - thick layer of peat . " It ’s operose to find this variety of site west of the Cascades , because it ’s so heavily vegetated and the Puget Lobe of the bighearted ice sheet really affected the landscape,“saidKopperl .
Chemical analysisof one of the stone tools get hold traces of food , which suggested the inhabitants ate a diet rich in bison , deer , bear , sheep and Salmon River . Once the researcher have analyzed the remaining artefact , they will turn over them over to the Muckleshoot Tribe for curation .
The digging unearthed a single salmon os fragment , an symbolical reminder of the project ’s full of life objective , addedKopperl : " Since come up the site was based on a salmon - restoration projection , it ’s kind of like coming full circle . "
Image in text : Projectile breaker point bases find from a 2009 and 2013 excavation . SWCA Environmental Consultants , published inPaleoAmerica .
