Early Man in America

Abstract

A FURTHER detailed research report on the discoveries of flint implements said to be associated with fossil remains of Pleistocene mammals in Nebraska, to which we referred in our issue for July 16, p. 87, has been made to Science Service, Washington, D.C., by Dr. W. D. Strong, of the Bureau of American Ethnology. It presents several points of interest. The Cumro find of an arrow-head, or rather?point?? associated with the extinct Bison occidentalism lay under 16 ft. of loess of?Peorian age?, which is thought by the discoverer to be prior to the last or Wisconsin glaciation? but Dr. A. L. Lugn, of the University of Nebraska, the specialist in Nebraskan and Iowan Pleistocene deposits, regards this dating with some doubt, as some?Peorian? deposits are unquestionably recent. On the other hand, the same authority, after a personal examination of the site of discovery of the second flint implement on the Platte River, also said to have been associated with B. occidentalism while recognising that the exact age cannot be determined with finality, is of the opinion that the deposit shows considerable antiquity. It may be of?Peorian? age? and it shows Kansan sands and gravels as the basal member. It has also transpired that the association of flint artefact and remains of B. occidentalis is supported by a hitherto unreported discovery in 1923, when a chipped point was found in association with a skull and part of the skeleton of this extinct bison in the Meserve quarry. By far the most interesting find, however, from the point of view of dating, is that at Angus, where the?Folsom type arrow-point? was associated with the mammoth. Unfortunately, here the association lacks corroboration? but the sands and clays in which the mammoth bones were laid down appear to belong to the Yarmouth interglacial, which corresponds with the Mindel-Riss of Europe. In any event, the implements belong to a hunting culture hitherto unknown in Nebraska.