Surprise Find Underground
|  Video
|
| Retha Colclasure |
| 5/8/2009 |
 |
| The Knife River Indian Villages near Stanton is dedicated to preserving the cultural and archaeological history of the Northern Plains Indians, who once called the area home. Archaeologists at the park recently found a little bit more of that history to study and protect. And it wouldn`t have happened, but for this year`s bad weather. When water in the Knife River rose earlier this year, it wiped out most everything in its way. That destructive power excavated an unexpected archaeological find in the park. Craig Hansen and a few others were walking along the river banks to look at the damage caused by flooding, when this unassuming black mark jumped out at them. "It looks just like the side of a bank," says Hansen. "There`s plenty of banks along here where you see charcoal, we`re in Mercer County, there`s coal all over the place." But this bit of charcoal is actually the remains of a hearth fire, a black line just a few inches high and over a foot long. "You can see the charcoal, where there was a fire pit at one time, and then just some scattered things around it, bone fragments and what not, and then you can see also where it looks like the baked earth for the fire," Hansen says. It`s too early to tell whether the fire was an outdoor campfire or inside an earth lodge, but the find is still significant. "Something definitely was here," h says. "The archaeologists need to do more research to really know more about it. It could be quite old, it could be as recent as 300 to 400 years ago or it could be thousands of years old." And it would have stayed hidden, except for the flood. "Erosion caused lots of damage, but to see something like this is neat," says Hansen. In some places, the Knife River cut 50 feet or more off of its banks, in others, just one or two. The park doesn`t know yet whether the erosion cut off most of the hearth fire remains, or if even more lie deeper inside the newly exposed cliff. "Archaeologists would have to excavate the area to get a better idea," Hansen says. But it`s certainly something they`d like to find out. Parts of the find have already been taken so scientists can do radio-carbon dating to determine how old the fire is. Because it`s buried so deep in the ground, there`s a good chance that it`s a few thousand years old. |
© 2009 KMOT-TV
Home | News | Weather | Sports | Webcast | Morning News | Programming | Primetime Rewind | Advertising & Sales | About Us
Community Connection | Movies | Contests & Promotions | Search | Links | Contact Us | Site Map | Follow us on: Facebook
Sister Stations: KFYR TV in Bismarck, KUMV in Williston, KQCD in Dickinson
