and Mysteries Byron dig unearths answers ... and questions, about area's past What does a nine foot long Mastodon tusk, fossilized bones of a California Condor and tooth of a giant beaver have in common? They were all unearthed from an archaeological dig located in Byron, NY. The active dig is recognized across the country as one of the more important and informative sites of the late Ice Age era. The Hiscock site, named after the farmer who inadvertently dug up the first Mastodon bone there in 1959 while putting in a pond on his land, is an ongoing dig done entirely by volunteers. Three weeks every summer about 150 volunteers, from all walks of life, rotate in and out of the dig to assist Dr. Richard Laub and his team of specialists as they carefully and systematically sift through layers of the soil and sometimes muck, searching for even the tiniest pieces of evidence of an era long passed. Laub, a paleontologist and curator of geology for the Buffalo Museum of Science, has headed up the dig since 1983. He says that when the volunteers go away, it is with a new appreciation for the enormous amount of labor that is required to get the bones and other artifacts out. Digging up the bones is a tedious and sometimes precarious process. The bones and tusks are fragile and it is often necessary to make a plaster cast to support them before lifting them out. Various processes are then used to preserve and protect the bones. The dig is limited to three weeks a year only because, in that time, they dig up enough artifacts, bones and other specimens to keep them busy the rest of the year cleaning, repairing, preserving, photographing and cataloging.
To date, some tens of thousands of specimens have been collected from the site including thirteen Mastodon tusks -- the longest measuring more than nine feet. It took nine people to lift the massive tusk which, fully encased in a layer of protective dirt, weighed about 600 pounds. But Mastodon bones and tusks are not all that have been unearthed from the 52 acre plot now owned by the Buffalo Museum of Science. Other finds include:
The dig has also yielded surprises, such as the fossilized Condor bones, which shattered the earlier belief that Condors could not survive this far north. Woolly or hairless? We've learned they were vegetarians and chewed moving their teeth side to side like a cow rather than front to back like an elephant. But were they hairy like Mammoths? That is more than we know, explains Laub. Unlike the Woolly Mammoth, where whole bodies with skin and soft tissue have been found frozen and intact, they have not had such good fortune with Mastodons. Mammoths have also been found with penetrating objects (fluted points) in them. No such evidence that Mastodons were hunted by man has been found. While tusks and large bones are the exciting finds, Laub insists that often the most important things are an inch or less in length. They have to look close, sometimes microscopically, for signs of man. Human presence is a matter of interest, he explains. They are not quite sure what man's relationship to Mastodons was, or if there even was one. There is some evidence that man may have used Mastodon bones -- a Mastodon rib shaped into a tool of sorts has been found at the site. But did man hunt Mastodon, Laub wonders, or were man and Mastodon just "two ships passing"? Unraveling the mysteriesThe Byron dig has left other questions unanswered as well. Only small percentages of the total skeletal structures of each of the Mastodons uncovered at the site have been found. "That's a real puzzlement," admits Laub. "There is something mysterious going on there." Laub admits it would have been nice if they had found a fully articulated Mastodon in the dig that they could take and display in the museum, but he has learned that "breakage is information." While no full skeletons have been found, the broken bones tell their own story -- and raise their unique questions. Were the bones damaged by scavengers? Were they brought here by water currents and damaged enroute? Was this a feeding ground? Or maybe a watering hole where animals stepped on bones as they drank? The ongoing search for answers to these kinds of questions can yield information about the culture and the environment of the late Ice Age era, which, according to radiometric dating methods, is believed to be eleven to thirteen thousand years ago. (Author's Note: Radiometric dating methods should not be construed as absolute since there is not unanimity among scientists concerning their accuracy. This is due to some anomalies in the results, and the fact that reasonable, yet un-verifiable assumptions about pre-existing global conditions must be made to determine dates using these methods.) "(The Hiscock site) was originally thought to be a kill site, now we no longer feel that," says Laub. Since many of the bones show wear, their current belief is that this was a migration route -- a crossing point between what was once two great bodies of water (one of which formed the current Bergen Swamp). This would explain the broken bones. The dig has yielded other mysteries -- two bones found on exactly the same level, yet with markedly different coloration. What can that mean? And a remnant of a wall found where no building has ever been recorded to exist. Could it be of American Indian origin? And the tooth from the giant beaver, an animal believed to be as large as a black bear and weighing 400 pounds. It had not been previously believed that these beavers inhabited this area. But Laub cautions about drawing firm conclusions of what a find may mean. Scientists sometimes make obvious conclusions, but further study reveals something different. For instance, the large beaver tooth may have been used as a digging tool and carried here from another area by early settlers. Pulling back layers of time Sometimes a find reveals interesting information about the area's more recent history. Roots of trees were found penetrating the Ice Age layer, three feet below the present water table. The age of these trees suggests that there was a severe drought lasting about fifteen years in the late 1400s. We knew nothing about this drought until the Hiscock site, Laub says. A drought may have caused increased environmental stress during this period leading to such things as fighting over diminishing water holes. This is reinforced by the increased number of broken antler tips that have been found at this and other dig sites. The Hiscock site has become one of the longest and largest ongoing digs in existence. To date less than twenty-five percent of the main basin has been explored. Every year they find something new and significant, says Laub. "We've learned an immense amount over the last nineteen years, but there is a lot more to learn. It's not all over. By no means do we have all the answers yet." See for yourself Those interested in volunteering can contact Dr. Laub at the Buffalo Museum (ext. 368). Volunteers must be in good health, able to negotiate uneven terrain and at least 13 years of age to volunteer and anyone under 18 must be accompanied by an adult. Donations to the Byron Dig Fund can be directed to Attention of: Michelle Rudnicki, at the Buffalo Museum of Science, 1020 Humboldt Parkway, Buffalo NY 14211-1293. |
