The newest in American art is also the oldest: Researchers have confirmed that a mammoth bone fragment found in Vero Beach, Florida, which depts an image of a mammoth or mastodon, is at least 13,000 years old, making it the oldest and only known evidence of Ice Age art in the Americas. The report appears in the latest Journal of Archaeological Science.
Amateur fossil hunter James Kennedy found the bone sometime in 2006 or 2007 during a daily search for usual bones or teeth. It sat under his kitchen sink until 2009 when, while cleaning it, Kennedy noticed the unusual carving. He decided to contact scientists at the University of Florida and the Smithsonian's Museum Conservation Institute and National Museum of Natural History.
AP Photo/Smithsonian
As is the usual case following a high profile discovery, there was considerable skepticism about the authenticity of the specimen. Researchers studied the timing of the engraving to determine whether it was made thousands of years ago or more recently, as an imitation of earlier, prehistoric art.
The researchers compared the elemental composition of the engraved bone with others from the site using optical and electron microscopy. To everyone's excitement the test revealed no discontinuity in coloration between the carved grooves and the surrounding material which means that this is indeed 13,000 year old.
"It's pretty exciting, we haven't found anything like this in North America," said Dennis J. Stanford, curator of North American Archaeology at the National Museum of Natural History, who was a co-author of the report.
The site near Vero Beach has a reputation of brining up priceless stuff and is a recoognized excavation area which was particularly active between 1913 to 1916.
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