‘Science’ cites Sandweiss about promising archaeological find
University of Maine archaeologist Dan Sandweiss was quoted in an article in “Science” about stone tools and butchered mastodon bones dating to 14,550 years ago being found at the bottom of a Florida river. That’s about 1,000 years before scientists previously thought humans were in the New World.
“It’s still a limited number of really good cases,” says Sandweiss, adding the Florida site “may be the best so far” regarding being free of problems such as lacking radiocarbon dates or where older and newer sediments were mixed together.
Michael Waters, an archaeologist at Texas A&M University, College Station and the study’s co-author, said sea levels were much lower 14,550 years ago, and other similar sites are likely submerged and “just waiting to be found.”