Research confirms that paleoindian in eastern Wyoming is the oldest mine in the Americas

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Archaeological excavations by the Wyoming state archaeologist and with the participation of researchers from the University of Wyoming have shown that an ancient mine in eastern Wyoming used to be used by humans to produce red ochre about 13,000 years ago.

This makes the Powars II site at Sunrise in Platte County the oldest documented red ochre mine, and probably the oldest known mine of any kind, in all of North and South America. The excavations ended some time before the death in 2020 of the famous University of Washington archaeologist George Frison showed the theories he composed as a result of studies he began at the site in 1986.

The findings appear in “In situ evidence of Paleo-Indian hematite quarrying at Powars II (48PL330), Wyoming,” a paper published May 12 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), one of the world’s most prestigious multidisciplinary clinical institutions. . journals covering the biological, physical and social sciences.

The leader of the paper is Wyoming State archaeologist Spencer Pelton, who became involved in the assignment of Powars II in 2016 while at the UW.

“We have unequivocal evidence of the use of this site through the first Paleo-Indians 12,840 years ago and continued through the early Americans for about 1,000 years,” Pelton said. “It is gratifying that, despite everything, we have been able to verify the importance of the Powars II Site after decades of paintings through so many people,” adds Dr. Frison, who discovered the site in the early 1980s and participated in the studies until his death. “

In fact, Frisian, who died in September 2020 as the only UW university member elected to the prestigious National Academy of Sciences, is listed as a co-author of the new paper. Other participants were George Zeimens, Executive Director of Sunrise Historic and Prehistoric Preservation Society; Erin Kelley, UW graduate and member of the Wyoming State Office of the Archaeologist; and UW doctoral students Sarah Allaun, Alexander Craib, Chase Mahan and Charles Koenig.

Red ochre, also known as hematite, had a wide variety of purposes in Paleo-Indian societies, being added as a pigment in rituals. It has been discovered in ancient tombs, hideouts, encampments, and slaughters in the Great Plains, Rocky Mountains, and beyond. The Powars II is the only known red ochre quarry in the North American archaeological record north of southern Mexico, and one of five known red ochre quarries in the Americas.

Artifacts found in the past at the Powars II site come with Clovis problems, which are believed to have originated in the oldest population in North America, as well as other projectile, equipment, and shell pearl problems.

Excavations from 2017 to 2020 conducted through Pelton, a 6-1-meter trench that splits an undocumented quarry in the past in two, yielded several thousand more Paleoindian artifacts, as well as many well-preserved animal bones and antlers. Animal bones and antlers were used to extract red ochre from the quarry.

The spikes of the projectiles come from many places in the area, adding places as far away as the Edwards Plateau in Texas, according to the newspaper. Most likely, the red ochre discovered at archaeological sites in the middle of the American continent comes from the Powars. II quarry.

“Beyond its career status, the Powars II artifact gathering is itself one of the densest and most varied found so far in early Paleo-Indian records in the Americas,” Pelton says. , some of the oldest canid remains from an American archaeological site, and rare or exclusive artifacts, among other distinctions. “

The researchers say the evidence exposed so far indicates that the quarry was used for two main periods. During the first, which dates back 12,840 years and for several hundred years, other people not only mined red ochre (bones and antlers as equipment), but also produced and repaired weapons, as well as other activities. After an interruption of a century or more, the site was occupied by humans extracting red ochre and depositing artifacts in a quarry.

“Additional excavations at the estimated remaining 800 square meters of the site will reveal a complexity that was not captured through our sample,” the researchers wrote.

Pelton named Powars II on the National Register of Historic Places in 2021.