Research confirms eastern Wyoming Paleoindian site as Americas' oldest mine

The ancient mine in eastern Wyoming was used by humans to produce red ocher, which was used for thousands of years.

It's likely that the oldest known mine in all of North and South America is at the Powars II site in Sunrise. George Frison began research at the site in 1986 and the excavations confirmed his theories.

The findings are in the PNAS.

Spencer Pelton is a Wyoming State Archaeologist who was a PhD student at the University of Wyoming.

Pelton says they have evidence that the site has been used by early Paleoindians as long as 12,000 years ago and by early Americans as long as 1,000 years ago.

Frison, who died in September 2020 after being elected to the National Academy of Sciences, is listed as a co-author of the new paper. Other contributors were George Zeimens, executive director of the Sunrise Historic and Prehistoric Preservation Society, and the Office of the Wyoming State Archaeologist staff member.

In Paleoindian societies, red ocher was used as a pigment in rituals. It has been found at ancient graves, campsites and kill sites in the Great Plains. In the North American archaeological record, the Powars II site is the only one of its kind, and one of only five such quarries in all of the Americas.

The first inhabitants of North America are believed to have left their marks on the artifacts found at the Powars II site.

The excavation led by Pelton yielded several thousand more Paleoindian artifacts, along with many well-preserved animal bones and antlers. The animal bones and antlers were used in the quarry to get the red ocher.

The paper states that the projectile points come from a number of locations in the region. It is likely that the red ocher found at archaeological sites in the American midcontinent came from the Powars II quarry.

The site contains over 30 stone tools and is one of the densest and most diverse of any thus far discovered in the early Paleoindian record of the Americas.

The evidence shows the quarry was used in two periods. During the first several hundred years, people quarried red ocher and used bones and antlers as tools, but also produced and repaired weapons, along with other activities. The site was occupied by humans who mined red ocher and deposited artifacts in piles in a quarry pit after a hiatus of a century or more.

The researchers wrote that further excavation of the 800- square-meter remainder of the site will reveal complexity not captured by the sample.

The National Register of Historic Places was nominated by Pelton.

More information: Spencer R. Pelton et al, In situ evidence for Paleoindian hematite quarrying at the Powars II site (48PL330), Wyoming, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (2022). DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2201005119 Journal information: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences Citation: Research confirms eastern Wyoming Paleoindian site as Americas' oldest mine (2022, May 19) retrieved 19 May 2022 from https://phys.org/news/2022-05-eastern-wyoming-paleoindian-site-americas.html This document is subject to copyright. Apart from any fair dealing for the purpose of private study or research, no part may be reproduced without the written permission. The content is provided for information purposes only.