An Archaeological Dig Site

 After our foray into Fort Laramie - we headed to a dig site.

Our Son was working on the Archaeological dig site for Paleo Indian Culture - and they allowed visitors one day. It was AMAZING!

This site was discovered in 1959 - and is believed to be home to five different cultures of PaleoIndian. One of the coolest things (to me) is they found a new projectile point. ( to laymen like me that would be arrowhead - but not really) These would have been used as weapons to be thrown.

There are people called Flint Knappers who have studied the making of these projectile points. They came to the dig site to demonstrate how that was done. The photos above are my son learning to Flint Knap. It was really cool to watch, and to see how delicate the process was. But then it creates something that can be used to take down a bison.

These are some of the research trailers. As items are found they are brought here and catalogued.

This is one of the dig sites. they work in 1 meter x 1 meter squares, and as they progress thru the layers everything is mapped, and detailed. If I remember right - they have found evidence of 5 different cultures in this area. Indicating that it was a great region for animals, water, and survival. 

Under the Black is called the Wisdom block - or something like that - I think my brain was getting full.

But you keep it so that as technology changes you can use new things on it to confirm what you have already found.

From this particular site they have found a lot of information that tells them how the Cultures lived, including the food they ate, the structures they built, even fireplaces. 

I learned something else too. They have found evidence of living things at 12,000 BP... I did not know what BP stood for. It means Before the Present. and the present was chosen as 1950AD - for a detailed reason that I can not remember.

We went on a hike around the area. My son had told me the things they looked for to indicate the presence of the culture. And the proof that they lived there. It was a lot of fun. I found quite a few things he said to be on the look out for. ( none of them were significant in new research... it was just fun to pretend I knew what I was doing!!)

This is primitive living. of course, there are NO hotels where the Previous Cultures lived - so all of these Archaeologists. lived in tents!!!  and you all!! it was hot!!! but it cooled down nice in the evening.

It was a great time. I learned way more things than I previously knew. and it was great to spend some time with my son in a place that he loved.