A study confirms the oldest red ocher mine in North and South America is in Southeastern Wyoming

Archeological excavations led by Wyoming’s state archaeologist and College of Wyoming researchers have confirmed that an historic mine in Southeastern Wyoming was used practically 13,000 years in the past to gather crimson ocher. This discovery signifies that the Powars II web site is the oldest documented crimson ocher mine and the oldest mine in North and South America. Wyoming Public Radio’s Kamila Kudelska spoke with Wyoming State Archaeologist Spencer Pelton on the invention.

Spencer Pelton: We did not but know if there have been intact deposits left on the web site. We suspected there have been…that these artifacts had been all coming from this type of mat of iron ore and hematite that we might see type of perched up on a hill. However no one had but excavated that deposit. And so my objective going into this web site was to doc whether or not or not there have been intact deposits. And if there have been, to get a very good understanding of how that archaeological web site shaped, how outdated it was, and what sort of actions had been happening there…actually particularly to substantiate that individuals had been truly coring hematite on the web site. And it wasn’t simply this bizarre accumulation of artifacts, but it surely was truly a…mainly a crimson paint mine.

Kamila Kudelska: And so what did you discover out?

SP: We had been capable of finding out much more than I assumed we might. We had been in a position to verify that, yeah, it’s a hematite quarry. And past that, we acquired a variety of good bone to radiocarbon date, and we had been in a position to present that it is the oldest hematite quarry within the Western Hemisphere. On high of that, we had been in a position to set up, type of, totally different phases of use of the location from the earliest phases the place individuals had been pioneering this quarry, forsaking a stickman of quarry tailings. After which we’re in a position to truly see what individuals got here again a whole bunch of years later, and needed to excavate by the quarry tailings of the pioneers of the location, mainly, to get right down to that mineral once more, they usually reuse the location once more later. So we had been in a position to get a very nuanced, fairly nuanced understanding of how the location was used over a interval of 1,000 to 1,500 years, between kind of, like 13,000 and 11,500 years in the past or so.

KK: So that you’re saying that is the oldest identified crimson ocher mine within the Western Hemisphere, is that proper?

SP: Yeah, it’s. And there is solely 5 of these items at this level which were recognized. The opposite ones are in Yucatan, one in Peru and one in Chile. That is it. They’re tremendous uncommon archaeological websites. Anytime you have been enjoying in a creek and also you choose up a crimson rock, you name it a paint rock and you’ll type of draw on your self or no matter. That is technically hematite. However hematite like this, which is mainly mined out of an iron ore deposit, kinds out of an iron ore deposit, is admittedly uncommon. If you concentrate on mining on this nation, iron deposits, actually wealthy iron deposits, are simply not all that frequent and this hematite is forming in that. So it is a fairly unusual factor typically, after which discovering proof for individuals mining it nearly 13,000 years in the past, is unprecedented, mainly.

KK: So what is the significance of discovering this?

SP: I feel the broader significance is that crimson paint appears to have held a reasonably necessary position within the lives of Paleoindians on the Plains and the Rocky Mountains. We have discovered it in mainly each context that exists within the archaeological document at the moment – burials and caches, animal kills, on the flooring of homes. There’s been a variety of concepts thrown round about why individuals had been so drawn to these items or what they had been utilizing it for. A number of the extra useful explanations had been that it was used to deal with conceal. Hematite appears to have some type of antiseptic properties that may have made conceal working with it a great factor. Individuals have recommended it has been utilized in sunscreen; you possibly can unfold it on your self to maintain the solar off. However then there’s additionally so much much less sensible purposes of it. I imply, amongst fashionable Native People, it is used for a bunch of formality functions and symbolic functions, used to attract rock artwork. Principally, simply utilized in each a part of life amongst Paleoindians, at the least it appears. So I feel the broader context of the location is that we discover this, we discover this crimson ochre, hematite websites, all all through the Plains, from North Dakota, down in Colorado, Texas, after which all the way in which west into the Rocky Mountains. I strongly suspect that a variety of that hematite got here from this web site, the Powars II web site. This was a spot the place individuals had been coming from a very lengthy distance, or at the least buying and selling for these items over a very lengthy distance, for the primary a number of thousand years of human prehistory in North America.

KK: Are you able to paint an image of what possibly it regarded like after they had been there? Have been they mining they usually created group and that is why all these artifacts are there?

SP: I envision it type of like a hangout. I think about there was a campsite fairly close by. It was most likely a reasonably bustling place stuffed with individuals scraping hides, cooking meat, that type of factor. And, you recognize, simply over the hill, there’s the crimson paint quarry. And so that you go up there, possibly with some rock to flip nap, and also you go to the hematite quarry. Your buddy could be over there digging hematites, getting ochre out of the bottom. You could be sitting there napping a projectile level, repairing your spear. It definitely looks like, at the least the earliest interval of use, it wasn’t simply individuals going up and digging hematite. It was individuals congregating with their stone instruments and really engaged on stuff. The attention-grabbing factor, although, is that within the later section of use, we might see the place individuals would excavate by the quarry tailings of the prior occupations. That appears very a lot centered solely on hematite quarry. The place individuals had been exhibiting up, it was a vacation spot. And by this time, it was a very troublesome process to get to this hematite, as a result of the prior use had simply constructed up a few meters deep of quarry tailings on high of the mineral. And so it most likely would have taken days to excavate by that stuff to truly get right down to the hematite deposit. The later occupation appears very rather more centered solely on simply attending to the mineral, extracting it after which shifting on.

KK: Are there any extra analysis or questions that you just all have concerning the Powars II web site? Or is it type of stagnant now?

SP: I feel the largest line of analysis that we’re pursuing proper now could be simply attempting to nail down the geochemistry of the mineral in order that we are able to truly begin sourcing the hematite to those different archaeological websites the place we discovered crimson ochre. As a result of you possibly can’t simply take a look at a crimson ochre and be like, ‘Sure, that is from the Powar II web site.’ All of it type of appears related, particularly after it has been included within the archaeological document. It has been messed with by the final 12,000 years of prehistory. So proper now, we’re simply attempting to nail down the geochemistry of this explicit hematite supply and the way it compares to different hematite sources throughout the plains and Rocky Mountains. And attempting to construct an understanding of the place this ochre was truly going, what distances it was going throughout the plains, and what instructions and at what time. That is, I feel, essentially the most thrilling a part of the analysis, to me at the least, is doing stuff not essentially on the location itself, however on all the opposite websites which can be probably linked to it all through the Northern Plains within the Rocky Mountains.