Archaeologists are digging centimeter by centimeter through the dirt to confirm a claim of early human occupation at Leonard Rockshelter. Modern tools and better techniques could prove some the oldest known North American people lived at the site around 13,000 years ago.
It’s a meticulous process for University of Nevada, Reno Associate Professor Dr. Geoffrey Smith and his graduate students. Smith is Executive Director of the Department of Anthropology’s Great Basin Paleoindian Research Unit. The team will extract, sift, examine and record whatever they discover in up to six feet of dirt in some of the same areas excavated in 1950.
New clues have been found in the sediment like small stone flakes, tiny shell beads, rodent bones, ancient plant and animal parts. The precise location of each “significant artifact” is documented unlike the earlier research, Smith said. His team will document more details to reveal more about the site including “anything about the environment and human behavior.”
“The University of California crew excavated a lot of sediment,” Smith said. “One of the interesting things they found was some obsidian flakes down fairly deep, about two meters (six and a half feet) or deeper below the ground surface in an area of bat guano. The archaeologists radiocarbon-dated the guano to roughly 13,000 years ago which is contemporary with the Clovis culture elsewhere in North America that for a long time was perceived to be the first Americans.”
Radiocarbon dating was a new research tool at the time. Smith and his team will date any artifacts they find with more precise radiocarbon dating of the surrounding organic material.
“Those dates are intriguing because sites that old are uncommon in western Nevada but we can’t really take them as fact,” Smith said of Heizer’s data. “One of the reasons we’re back here is to evaluate Dr. Heizer’s claim that there is a Clovis-era occupation. There are no Clovis points and actually very few artifacts at this site so we’re trying to find out how old the dirt is in the shelter and if there are some artifacts like obsidian flakes associated with the old dirt.”
Smith said that if Heizer’s claim an early occupation at the site is confirmed, it will elevate the archaeological significance of Leonard Rockshelter and there could be more excavations.
“It would move Leonard Shelter from the list of sites that may contain very early human occupation to the list of sites that definitely contain very early human occupation,” he said. If we can do that, then the question becomes, what’s left at this site and what can it tell us about human life 13,000 years ago. That’s a period, especially in the Great Basin, that we still have a lot of questions about.”
Infinite patience is required but something unexpected could appear anytime. So far, “surprisingly little” has been found, Smith said, but that could change in the coming weeks.
“We’re not finding very much yet,” he told visitors. “The main thing we’re finding is small animal bones from when owls ate the animals and regurgitated the pellets. We’ve got maybe ten chert flakes from stone tools being made and a couple of snail shell beads from the Pacific Ocean. They were traded all the way from the Pacific to here.”
Bone and plant fragments from the site could be analyzed by other UNR scientists giving more clues to environmental conditions and the lifestyles of ancient Leonard Rockshelter inhabitants.
“We’ve found a few fish bones. Someone at the university will be able to look at one of the vertebrae and say that’s a tui chub or that’s a marsh minnow or some sort of sucker fish,” Smith said. “Probably not trout but it’s certainly possible.”
The age of the site’s petroglyphs can only be guessed and are probably not more than a few thousand years old judging by the style and elevation, Smith said. Earlier, the shelter floor was lower and the carvings would have been out of reach unless the artists had ropes or ladders.
“We don’t know exactly how old those are because that’s something we can’t radiocarbon date. We can date wood or bone because they come from organisms that once lived,” he said. “We go by the styles and look at other sites where similar petroglyphs have been found with something that was radiocarbon dated like a campfire or an animal bone.”
Chase Porath, 9, was happy to get dirty as he helped Smith screen sediment for artifacts.
“My second job choice is an archaeologist,” the youngster said. “My first choice is a miner.”
Smith said the Nevada BLM Lead Archaeologist Dr. Bryan Hockett and Dr. Ken Adams of the Desert Research Institute were expected to visit the excavation site sometime this week.
“His (Adams) interest in the site lies with the fact that it’s a wave-cut shelter from Lake Lahontan,” Smith said. “He studies lake levels in this part of Nevada and he’s interested in the sediment exposure we create. He’ll probably be interested in some radiocarbon dates to understand the lake history. That helps us to better understand when people were here.”
Leonard Rockshelter is one of 500 archaeological sites across the country protected by The Archaeological Conservancy. TAC bought 640 acres of land to preserve the site for research.
“Hopefully, they’ll find something new and exciting and be able to add to the story of this place,” said Cory Wilkins, TAC Western Regional Director who checked in with the scientists last week.
Wilkins said the site to may be open to visitors during the annual Lovelock Cave Days hosted by the BLM. The BLM also keeps an eye on Leonard Rockshelter but Smith said the site no longer “pristine” and archaeological evidence has already been lost due to illegal excavations.
