Animal bones dating back to the Ice Age, including a potential femur from a mammoth, were discovered this week at the Reser Stadium construction site at Oregon State University.
Advertisement
Clark says the school’s archaeologist believes it could have been the location of a pond or watering hole. Instead, they got a nearly-intact 10,000 year old mammoth femur.
Construction work has been moved to other areas while experts examine the bones.
Be proactive – Use the “Flag as Inappropriate” link at the upper right corner of each comment to let us know of abusive posts.
Ten thousand years ago, long before a nearby Fred Meyer and Cabela’s outdoor-gear emporium was built, the traffic-choked streets, like Southwest Nyberg Street, was a prehistoric ice age trail for mammoths.
According to Davis, the discovery of the ancient bones is not surprising in the Willamette Valley.
“Some of the bones are not in very good shape”, Davis said in the school’s release.
While the find is exciting on many levels, Davis also mentioned that a find like this isn’t unusual, especially in this area.
That’s mainly due to the fact that no human bones were found on the site, which according to Davis means the site isn’t considered “part of an archaeological site”.
He added: ‘It’ll be a great learning experience for them, to learn how to identify extinct animal bones.
Fortunately, Oregon State has archaeology professors, and an ample supply of eager archaeology students more than willing to help with the find.
“It just goes to show there’s a whole world of the past that exists underground”, Davis said.
Advertisement
Welcome to Reser Stadium… “As you’re watching a football, you can think, beneath your feet, lie the bodies of extinct animals that relate to the past”.
