Early Human Footprints, Ancient Clothing, and a 150-Year-Old Drink - Ep 323

Summary

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The Archaeology Show: Ep 323

Early Human Footprints, Ancient Clothing, and a 150-Year-Old Drink
February 23, 2026 | Archaeology Podcast Network
Hosts: Chris Webster & Rachel Roden

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Overview

In this engaging episode, Chris Webster and Rachel Roden delve into three recent archaeological discoveries in North America: the analysis of a 150-year-old alcohol bottle found in Utah, new dating developments for ancient human footprints at White Sands, New Mexico, and the identification of the oldest known clothing—sewn elk hide—found in Oregon’s Paisley Caves. Through lively discussion, the hosts explore how such findings provide rare and vivid windows into daily life and survival strategies of people in the late Pleistocene and the 19th century.

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1. 150-Year-Old Alcohol Bottle in Utah

[02:42 – 15:30]

Discovery and Context

• Excavation in Alta, Utah, a historic mining town near Park City, uncovered a rare intact alcohol bottle (dated c. 1870-1890).
• The site, managed by the Utah State Historic Preservation Office (SHPO), yielded many well-preserved artifacts, such as a leather hat and metal cans, likely due to an 1800s avalanche and subsequent fire that buried the town.

"This find [is] the only intact historic spirit found at the Utah archaeological site. And it's a first of its kind for the state."
— Chris [06:36]

Preservation and Analysis

• Unusual preservation: the bottle still had its original cork and liquid, extremely rare for historic sites.
• Master distiller Isaac Winter from High West Distillery was consulted. Extraction of liquid used a coravin (to protect artifact integrity).
• Winter described it as a low-ABV, oxidized beverage, reminiscent of fino sherry or port, with notes of "raisins and honey."

"It doesn't smell like gasoline or tobacco spit."
— Isaac Winter, quoted by Chris [08:47]

• Yeast presence suggested it was beer, not spirits. Sediment was sampled for yeast with the goal of attempting a recreation.

Broader Historical Context

• Alcohol in late 1800s Utah was lower strength, often locally brewed ("near-beer"), shaped by mining demand and temperance pressures.
• Mining towns had mixed populations; Mormon influence waxed during early statehood, often leading to social disputes over alcohol.
• Shipping and bottling limitations meant local beer was generally quickly produced and consumed.

Notable Points

• Archaeological value is less in the rarity or luxuriousness of objects, more in what they reveal about everyday life.
• Preservation of perishable artifacts (like the cork) gives a unique snapshot into mundane yet vital aspects of mining-camp life.

"For me, the daily life of it all is what makes archaeology so fun. Fascinating."
— Rachel [06:26]

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2. Ancient Human Footprints at White Sands, New Mexico

[15:30 – 29:37]

Background and Discovery

• White Sands National Park’s human footprints, found in ancient lakebed sediments, were previously dated to 21,000–23,000 years ago, sparking controversy by challenging the "Clovis-first" model.
• Original dating used radiocarbon analysis of seeds and pollen embedded in the prints.

"This study is actually from 2021... The original study dated plant seeds and pollen found within the footprints."
— Chris [17:04–17:22]

Challenges and New Evidence

• Critics questioned if plant material dated was out of context (possibly older, carbon reservoir effect, non-human).
• The research team responded by directly dating the surrounding mud itself (containing organic material), analyzing 26 stratigraphic layers.

"They literally dated the mud... tight stratigraphic control... very consistent dates."
— Chris [19:08-20:05]

• All three labs testing three separate material types (seeds, pollen, mud) reached matching results, further affirming the early dating for human presence in North America.

"I just, I'm so impressed with how these researchers have both done the work, but also heard and received the criticism... and been like, oh, yeah, hold my beer."
— Rachel [20:19]

Significance and Ongoing Debate

• These findings put human activity in North America thousands of years before the Clovis era (~13,000 years ago), challenging long-held views of migration via the Bering Land Bridge.
• Skepticism persists due to the limited number of artifacts; some posit short-term visits rather than settlements.
• Human attribution to the footprints is now broadly agreed upon after expert analysis of the shapes.

"There's almost 100% consensus today that these footprints are human. Nobody thinks that they were not human anymore."
— Rachel [29:15]

Notable Moments

• The hosts riff on big-claim headlines vs. gradual scientific progress.
• The rarity of perishable preservation is highlighted—both here and in the following segment.

"Everything they've done has been published in a peer review paper... They're just quietly refuting [in] peer reviewed papers and also providing more evidence."
— Rachel [25:06]

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3. Oldest Known Clothing: Sewn Elk Hide from Oregon

[29:37 – 36:58]

Discovery

• Recent study analyzed 55 perishable items from Paisley and Cougar Mountain Caves in southeastern Oregon (finds originated in 1950s; recently made available via the Favell Museum).
• Among them: two fragments of elk hide, stitched together via fiber cordage and radiocarbon dated to ~12,400 years ago—oldest known sewn hide in the world.

"These are basically the oldest known sewn hides ever found. Two pieces of elk hide stitched together about 12,400 years ago."
— Chris [31:38]

Context and Technology

• Assemblage included: 23 fiber items, 12 wood items, 3 hide items, 14 eyed bone needles, bone tools, bison bone projectile points, and more.
• Fine sewing needles suggest both practical clothing/footwear and more decorative or identity-linked work.

"Having that finer needle means they're doing something with it. You know, they wouldn't have had it for no reason."
— Rachel [35:02]

• Elk, rabbit, and bison hides were likely common, as inferred by trapper mains, rabbit bones, and preservation context.

Implications

• Demonstrates adaptation and ingenuity required for high desert survival at the end of the Ice Age.
• Highlights how under-studied museum collections and privately held artifacts can hold vital data.

"The abundance of needles found, plus adornment items and very fine eyed needles... suggest the clothing was not only utilitarian... but also could have been a means of expression and identity..."
— Chris [34:44]

Notable Moments

• The hosts enthusiastically critique the delayed public access due to private ownership, and emphasize the importance of artifact context.

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Memorable Quotes & Moments

• "I really learned a new one."
  — Chris, after Rachel uses the phrase "get our poop in a group" [02:24]
• "Welcome to the West."
  — Chris, on harsh 19th-century mining town conditions [05:07]
• "Hold my beer."
  — Rachel, about researchers welcoming peer critique [20:19]

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Timestamps at a Glance

• [02:42] — Utah alcohol bottle discovery and significance
• [08:27] — Tasting and analyzing the bottle’s contents
• [11:46] — Historic context: alcohol in mining towns
• [15:30] — White Sands: new dating methods and controversy
• [20:05] — Stratigraphic dating with “mud”
• [22:11] — Clovis-first theory challenged
• [26:47] — Addressing footprints criticisms
• [29:37] — Transition to Oregon’s ancient clothing discovery
• [31:38] — Details of sewn elk hide; needle finds
• [34:44] — Clothing as identity and expression
• [36:16] — Importance of museum collections and context

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Tone and Style

Chris and Rachel maintain a conversational, witty, and approachable tone throughout—peppered with approachable analogies, light banter, and a genuine enthusiasm for the discipline and its surprises. The science is grounded in skeptical inquiry and a respect for proper methodology.

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Final Thoughts

This episode provides a rich, accessible survey of how seemingly mundane and perishable archaeological finds—a bottle, a footprint, a fragment of hide—can dramatically illuminate the daily realities and adaptability of past peoples. The hosts’ commentary underscores the role of careful science, curation, and even serendipity in understanding human history.

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Transcript

[A]

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[B]

You're listening to the Archaeology Podcast Network. You're listening to the Archaeology show. TAS goes behind the headlines to bring you the real stories about archaeology and the history around us. Welcome to the podcast.

[C]

Hello, and welcome to the archaeology show, episode 323.

[B]

On today's show, we talk about a 150-year-old alcohol bottle found in Utah and what researchers say the real treasure might have tasted like. Then we head to White Sands, New Mexico, where a set of human footprints date to more than 20,000 years old. And finally, we dig into a discovery being described as the oldest clothing in human history and what it can tell us about early humans and preservation.

[C]

Let's dig a little deeper and find those juicy, juicy dates. Welcome to the show.

[B]

Hello.

[C]

All right, this is our potentially last recording from Mexico. No, we didn't do another one.

[B]

Oh, yeah, we have to do at least one more.

[C]

Yeah, we have.

[B]

I mean, we will be leaving Mexico when the next show comes out, but presumably we'll get our poop in a group and get that recorded before. Before we leave Mexico.

[C]

Look at our what now?

[B]

Have you never heard that?

[C]

I really haven't.

[B]

Well, you learned a new one.

[C]

Wow. All right. I don't even know where to go from there.

[B]

We've never heard that before.

[C]

I don't know.

[B]

Okay.

[C]

All right. Well, you know what didn't taste like poop beer in the late 1800s in Utah.

[B]

Yeah.

[C]

All right, so this first article was kind of cool. It's titled 150-year-old alcohol bottle found in Utah. Here's what the real treasure tasted like. The article I actually originally linked to and took some notes on was literally about the taste of the alcohol. Very little about discovery and the other stuff. But then you found some other.

[B]

Yeah, I did find a little bit

[C]

more about that, but we dug a little deeper on it.

[B]

We did dig a little deeper, which is great.

[C]

So let's set the stage here. So a rare intact bottle of alcohol was dated to roughly 1870 to 1890, was discovered during an excavation in Alta, Utah. And Alta is a really small historic mining town just outside Park City. And Park City is a big famous ski town where the Olympics have been held. And they're going to be. Well, it says Salt Lake City in 2034, which we're just guessing it's going to be Park City. Where else would you do it?

[B]

Yeah, right.

[C]

Yeah, they're just saying Salt Lake because nobody knows Park City.

[B]

Right.

[C]

Internationally anyway.

[B]

Right, right.

[C]

Everybody knows Park City well.

[B]

I mean, all the rinks and arenas and stuff like that could be down in the city and then the skiing and stuff would be up.

[C]

That's probably what they'll do. Yeah, yeah. So anyway, so that was found during the excavation, but like I said, Park City is just outside Utah. I mean, you can get there in less than an hour, maybe even less than that. I don't. Haven't done it too many times, but it's a. It's a cool little area.

[B]

So I've been to Park City a couple times. It's a really cute little mountain ski town and I'm not a skier, but I assume that you would love it if you are scared. But even if you're not, just go and enjoy the cute little mountain vibe of it all.

[C]

Yeah, pretty cool.

[B]

But this town, Alta, it's on forest service land and I'm not sure exactly why they were doing the excavation there, but it was a large scale excavation of this mining town and they found tons of stuff. They found a fully intact leather hat, which is just so cool. Like you don't usually get that kind of preservation and lots and lots of other artifacts and everything was in really great shape. And they threw think that part of the reason why everything was in such great shape is because there was an avalanche in the 1800s and the avalanche basically just like covered it, buried it. Yeah, and like a bunch of people died too. So like it was pretty tragic at the time. And then the avalanche also kicked off a fire which caused destruction in another portion of the town. So there was pretty good preservation where the fire occurred as well, Although not as good as where the avalanche was.

[C]

So you're like, survive that avalanche.

[B]

Yeah.

[C]

And then.

[B]

And then fire.

[C]

Yeah.

[B]

So anyway, yeah, welcome to the West. I mean, super tragic, you know, 120 years ago, or whatever it was that this happened. But it's left a lot of artifacts for us to find today. And they wanted to be very clear about this in the article, which I didn't think was that important. But, like, they're like, this town is not special. It's not different, it's not interesting. It was just a place where miners lived and worked. And what these artifacts do is give us a really good, like, snapshot into daily life of people like this. So it's not like it was anything, you know, groundbreaking, but that in itself, I think is so cool.

[C]

Yeah. Archaeologists are always trying to find, you know, well. Well, they're just doing archaeology. And in fact, this was a CRM project. It was for a construction project.

[B]

Oh, was it?

[C]

Okay. Okay. And it was actually run by the Utah State Historic Preservation Office. You might hear the word shipo. That's what we say, the shpo. But that was. That was who was doing it. But, you know, archeologists aren't always, you know, looking for something because people say, what are you looking for? We're not looking for anything typically. We're just observing what we find. Right. And what we love to find are not necessarily the, you know, finding an intact, like, I don't know, diamond ring or something would be kind of cool, but it doesn't tell you anything about daily life.

[B]

Yeah.

[C]

You know, finding a whole bunch of random metal cans and, you know, bottles and things like that tell you a lot more about people's lives and what

[B]

they were doing, what they're eating, what they were drinking, you know, and I. For me, the. The daily life of it all is like, what makes archeology so fun, Fascinating. So I love that. That part of it.

[C]

Yeah. So this was described, this find as the only intact historic spirit found at the Utah Archaeological Site. And it's a first of its kind for the state. So obviously, lots of bottles have been found. We found bottles in Utah.

[B]

Oh, yeah.

[C]

But nothing with a cork in it with intact liquid.

[B]

Yeah. Like, that is so unique. I think it's unique just worldwide, really. Underwater stuff sometimes, but the underwater stuff tends to be contaminated. So this is sort of like the perfect combination of preservation to. To allow that to be preserved.

[C]

Yeah. Because like we said, it still had the cork in it. And corks are rarely preserved because they shrivel, they get shrink inside the bottle. A lot of times there's only fragments that remain. And then once the cork goes, the liquid is soon to follow.

[B]

Yeah.

[C]

So.

[B]

So archaeologist Ian Wright of the Utah Shippo brought in the High West Distillery master distiller Isaac Winter.

[C]

Yeah.

[B]

To taste the contents, which I thought this was so, so cool. To like reach out to a local expert in the modern making of alcohol to help, like, figure out what was going on with this historic bottle that they found. That's so great.

[C]

Pretty sure we've had High west whiskey.

[B]

Yeah, we probably have. I mean, we've been to Utah. We worked in Utah, we lived in Nevada, so I'm sure we came across it at some point.

[C]

Yeah. I saw the logo on the bottle. I was like, I know I've seen this before.

[B]

Totally. Anyway, okay. So I was very intrigued on how exactly they went about doing this. So they didn't want to hurt the bottle or break the cork or ruin the artifact in some way, especially if the contents were not drinkable. Yeah, not even not drinkable, but just like not even going to give them any scientific information, you know. So they started by using what's called a coravin device, and that will extract the liquid without breaking the cork. They hit up a. A wine seller down the road to get some help with this piece of it, apparently.

[C]

So Isaac Winter, the distiller, he said the. Well, he said, firstly it was obvious the drink was low ABV or alcohol by volume, so lower alcohol. He compared it to a feno sherry, which I hadn't heard of, a Fino sherry, but a sherry nonetheless with oxidized fruit character and with raisins and honey notes, which tastes. Sounds more like a port to me.

[B]

Yeah, it does a little bit, but

[C]

still was low in. In abv. And he's like, well, it doesn't smell like gasoline or tobacco spit.

[B]

Yeah. So, you know. Yeah, give it a taste.

[C]

Yeah. I described it as fruity with a little leather and quite a bit of age on it, I would say.

[B]

So.

[C]

Yeah, yeah. It was like 140 or so, 150, I think we said.

[B]

Yeah, yeah. And the initial analysis revealed that yeast was used in the production, which led them to believe that it was likely some type of beer rather than distilled spirits.

[C]

Yeah. So after the initial taste and assessment, they decided to fully uncork the bottle. There was sediment in the bottom, which I can imagine there was especially way back then, and that they extracted the sediment in Hopes of getting yeast out and then that can possibly be used to be. To reproduce the beverage.

[B]

Yeah. Which would be super cool. I love that idea. And it sounds like the guys at the distillery are really intrigued about trying to recreate this too. So it's sort of become this cool, like, collaboration between the archaeologists and the distillers.

[C]

Yeah. Like we said, the Utah Shippo mentioned that this is a strong example of how this type of preservation connects people to everyday life and real stories from Utah's past.

[B]

Yeah.

[C]

So I also dove into just beer and alcohol, really more beer in Utah around that time. And this was Utah Territory early statehood times and Utah territory times talking 1870 to 1890. And it's a mix of mining town demand and what they call local near beer and a lot of legal temperance pressure.

[B]

So, like kind of beer, but not quite beer. That's that sort of thing.

[C]

Not like what we would consider beer, to be honest.

[B]

Right, right. Yeah.

[C]

So who was drinking all this? Well, I mean, these mining camps, they were. There were a lot of people who were non Mormon because Utah was, I mean, largely Mormon at that time, because they had just started moving in.

[B]

They had just started moving in there. So they hadn't really taken over the whole territory either. So you had a lot of different groups of people.

[C]

They were having an influence.

[B]

Well, they were, they were and they did early on.

[C]

And like a lot of the west, especially mountain towns in the west west, there was mining everywhere.

[B]

Yeah.

[C]

I mean, the, the, the boom. The rush was on. Right. You talk about the gold rush of 1849, and, you know, this is many years after that when people just started flooding into basically just about every mountain town in the west, from Utah, Colorado, over to California.

[B]

Yeah.

[C]

So. But these guys, you know, they wanted to drink with their money, with their paychecks.

[B]

They were not women. They were working men.

[C]

Yep.

[B]

Yep.

[C]

In Salt Lake City, just like other towns, alcohol existed but was often socially contested, especially with the growing influence of the Mormon Church and periodically targeted by reform and temperance efforts.

[B]

Yeah.

[C]

So.

[B]

So what beer often looked like in this time period and what they would often call beer in the 1800s would generally be lower in alcohol content than modern craft beers are. And that is especially if it was made quickly diluted, intended for everyday drinking. I have a feeling that, like. Because you know how you hear about. In the olden times. Let's just call it the olden times. In the olden times.

[C]

That's a time period.

[B]

Sometimes it was safer to drink alcohol than water, depending on how the water quality Was. And what was going on in the area. And I wouldn't be surprised if that was a concern in this area, especially with mining and stuff going on, so.

[C]

Yeah, well, one of the reasons why, you know, we're talking about one of the original. The original craft beer areas with these mining towns, because without modern refrigeration and consistent bottling technology, beer could go stale or oxidize really fast.

[B]

Oh.

[C]

It was created quickly and consumed locally.

[B]

Okay.

[C]

There was. There just wasn't good ways to ship it in most cases. And you know.

[B]

Yeah. And bottling working. Whatever. Yeah.

[C]

Bigger. Bigger towns and more established cities would have had ways to make better high quality stuff and store it. But these small mining towns, they were just, you know, glorified backyard brewers. Really? Yeah.

[B]

Yep.

[C]

So the difference between local production and imported. Utah did have local brewing in the late 1800s, like we said, and Salt Lake City, Ogden, those areas. Those are the two big cities on that side. But then you would see imported beer and ale coming in by wagon or rail as distribution did start to improve.

[B]

Would that be just imported from other states, other places around the United States?

[C]

Oh, yeah. We don't mean imported from.

[B]

Like, it wasn't coming from Germany.

[C]

No, no, but it was. And it, you know, place like Ulta might even mean imported was, like, from Salt Lake City.

[B]

Yeah, right, right, right.

[C]

Like, they mean it didn't come from the town that you were. You were drinking in.

[B]

Yep.

[C]

So. Oh, this is a fancy imported beer. The streets of Salt Lake, right? Yeah.

[B]

Mining areas frequently relied on whatever supply chain could reach them.

[C]

Yeah.

[B]

And sometimes that was local and sometimes it was shipped in. And like, whatever it was is what it was.

[C]

Well, and sometimes if it was a younger mining town, they might even not even have had great roads or railroad or anything coming to them. Most probably didn't have railroad. And even having roads coming up there that were decent enough to get a wagon full of stuff up was challenging.

[B]

Right.

[C]

So.

[B]

So packaging and preservation in the 1800s was also like a whole thing, which we kind of talked about a little bit. But, you know, from what we find on archaeological sites, intact corked bottles with actual contents are just super rare.

[C]

Yeah.

[B]

The corks will dry and then they will fall out or they'll fall in. They'll fail. Even if the cork is still in place, it'll fail. And, like, whatever the contents were on the inside are just destroyed. So unusual to find this in an archeological setting.

[C]

Right. So even if the bottle miraculously didn't get broken or something like that, the liquid can Change dramatically inside. Oxidation and time can push flavors toward sherry like raisin and honey notes, which

[B]

is what the distilleries, what they described. Right.

[C]

Which kind of told me too, which I didn't really see this talked about. You read another article on this, but this probably wasn't the original flavor of this alcohol.

[B]

I would think not.

[C]

I think this is the, this is the aged flavor.

[B]

Flavor. Yeah, aged flavor.

[C]

Because as we know, I mean most, most things age depending on how you do it. I mean whiskey famously doesn't really age in the bottle. Ages in barrels. Whiskey bottled 80 years ago tastes like it was 80 years ago.

[B]

Yeah.

[C]

If it's kept intact. Right.

[B]

Yeah.

[C]

But like other stuff, yeast based things and stuff like that, that will just continue to develop. Wine continues to develop. Wine will just go to vinegar at some point. Yeah, like it's unlikely it's going to be good 100 years later. Yeah, some. Some could be, but.

[B]

Yeah, exactly. So and I think that's why they're interested in getting the yeast out of the sediment if possible because that'll give them a better idea of what the actual original flavor was like. They can figure that. That out.

[C]

Yeah, for sure. All right, well, we're glad that they hadn't, you know, made this a dry. A dry mining town at some point.

[B]

A dry mining town. That's an oxymoron. That's not a thing.

[C]

Right. It might have been in Utah in some places. They may have tried.

[B]

I don't know about that. Not even in the 1800s, but sure, maybe.

[C]

All right, well, we're going to go from here over to another place in the United States, New Mexico, where some famous footprints. We've talked about it in the past. We've got some new data revisit. Back in a minute. Welcome Back to episode 323 of the Archaeology Show.

[B]

Yeah, and I totally forgot to mention. Well, we forgot to mention at the beginning of the episode that this is a little bit of a theme, this show. It's a North American theme and a. Finding perishable things. Maybe a little bit. Although this one doesn't really qualify for a perishable. But anyway. Okay, let's go.

[C]

Go for it.

[B]

So we're in North America this episode. Yes.

[C]

And one of the articles willing to was titled Archaeologists Find Footprints that Rewrite the Timeline of Humans in the Americas.

[B]

I know, I'm pretty sure that one was like Popular Mechanics or something. It doesn't favorite.

[C]

It doesn't really rewrite because the article from several years ago, three years ago, when this first came out, rewrote. The timeline of this just reaffirms.

[B]

Okay.

[C]

What they found. So let's talk about it.

[B]

And this is from earth.com and that is exactly why we picked this article.

[C]

Yeah.

[B]

Because these stupid headlines are so grabby. And, like, what it is, is scientists doing good science work. And, like. Like, maybe it's not. Also, it's not so dramatic as rewriting. We're just, like, continuing to color in the picture a little bit darker. And that's still really cool, too. So, anyway, go ahead.

[C]

So scientists discovered ancient footprints at White Sands national park dating to the last glacial maximum around 23,000 years ago. And again, this study is actually from 2021.

[B]

Yeah. That's old.

[C]

Yeah.

[A]

Old news.

[B]

We've talked about it on the show. Other podcasters on the network have talked about these footprints. They have come under heavy criticism over the years because know they're older, so people want to see, you know, big claim, big evidence. That's one of those kind of scenarios. So.

[C]

Yep. The original 2021 study dated plant seeds and pollen found within the footprints using radiocarbon dating. This suggested humans were in North America 20 to 23,000 years ago, which is incredibly controversial because there's only a handful of sites, you can count them on one hand, that have dates that go back that far.

[B]

Yeah. This is so rare.

[C]

Yeah. So rare. And then what made this even worse, I say worse from a. From a credibility standpoint. Yeah. Is that they didn't actually date something that was human. Right. They didn't date any technology. They dated the plant life that was in the footprints.

[B]

Yeah.

[C]

And that was contested because they're like, well, how do we know where this came from? Right. Did this blow in later? Was this, like, eroded out 5,000, 10,000 years later? And, you know, like, what happened? Right. Like, something. Something's crazy here because this can't be true.

[B]

Yeah.

[C]

And so let's take it apart because

[B]

the claim is so old, it just means that people are picking at it way more than they would if it were a less old claim, you know?

[C]

Well, not only that, some experts question the reliability of dating the seeds in the pollen in the original study, because these particular plants sitting next to, you know, wet areas hold on to more carbon than is sort of natural or normal. So they're like, well, maybe that was inflated, making it older because the more carbon something has. Yeah, well, it changes the date.

[B]

Yeah.

[C]

Right.

[B]

Totally.

[C]

Yeah.

[B]

And so because of the criticism that these researchers have kind of been given over the last few years since this Study was originally published, they went back to the site to do more dating, more study, to see if they could find something else to corroborate these really old dates. And this time they chose ancient mud. And we were very interested in that because. And you in particular were like, mud? How can you date mud?

[C]

Yeah. And I, I had to really dive into the journal article on this one because they literally said throughout the thing that they just dated mud. And I'm like, okay, well you can't date mutt like you dated something in the mud.

[B]

Yeah.

[C]

And I wanted to find out more specifically what that is. And if they were just saying mud because it was easier to say, you know, like from a news standpoint. But no, they literally dated the mud. They're like, we know that there's organic material in this. We can't quite suss it out because it's all just pieces and parts and blah, blah, blah. And they, I don't know if they intend to do some sort of DNA study on that stuff, if they actually can. But either way, they're like, we know there's organic material in here. We have tight stratigraphic control, which, to define that again from our stretch out episode. Stretch trigger fee just means layers. Yes, that's all it means. Right. So the really tight layer control over these things. And then they dated, I think it was 26 different layers. And they literally again just threw the mud into the, into the machine and said, let's test this thing. And they came out with very consistent dates.

[B]

Yeah.

[C]

And when I say the dates lined up stratigraphically too, they literally lined up like with the youngest being on top and the oldest being on bottom. When you see dates that are consistent like that across 26 different layers, you know you've got something that's uncontaminated.

[B]

Yes, exactly. So they, I just, I'm so impressed with how these researchers have both done the work, but also heard and received the criticism from the scientific community and been like, oh, yeah, hold my beer. Right. Like, let's do this now. So after getting these mud dates back, and like you said, they were corroborating the other dates of the other materials, the 22, 20,700 to 22,400 years ago. And so that means that we have three different materials, seeds, pollen, and mud that were all tested by three different labs. And they produced these consistent dates, dates that put these footprints in this, you know, 20,000 plus time frame years ago.

[C]

So now the real question is, why do these time travelers or aliens with Human, like footprints. Put these prints here. What?

[B]

Nope, nope, nope, nope, nope, nope.

[C]

Yeah. Because there couldn't possibly have been people there. Right, right. So.

[B]

Oh, man. Yeah.

[C]

All right, well, archaeologist Vance Holiday, which. Who's a very famous archaeologist, he's written so many things, done so many things,

[B]

also is like the best name ever.

[C]

I know, right? He's literally Dr. Holiday.

[B]

Yeah, right.

[C]

Yeah. He's. I mean, if he doesn't go by Doc Holiday at large parties, he's missing an opportunity.

[B]

Yeah.

[C]

But he said the consistency makes it extremely unlikely the dates are wrong. Yeah, extremely unlikely. Even he, though, is like, well, there's always a possibility it could be wrong. And that's where skeptics jump in and are like, you know, here it is. This can't be right.

[B]

Yeah.

[C]

But you can't ever say something is 100% when you're talking this far back.

[B]

Yeah, exactly. And that's what I, again, I love that about these researchers, is that they understand why there's criticism and critiques and they're just kind of facing it head on and doing what they can.

[C]

Yeah.

[B]

To just add more evidence to what they're saying. So.

[C]

Yep. And this, this is one more nail in the coffin of the so called Clovis first theory.

[B]

Yeah.

[C]

Which is tied to Clovis culture, which is a single type of projectile point found across North America. And that theory is that humans arrived for the first time on the North American continent. Continent. And then went down into South America too, in some cases about 13,000 years ago via the Bering Land bridge, which we drove our RV across. At least partially.

[B]

Yeah, I mean, the end of the bridge. Yeah, exactly.

[C]

So, but anyway. Yeah, that's, that's. That was a long standing theory for actually almost fewer years than we've been disputing it.

[B]

Yeah, probably. It's taken the archaeological community a long time to move away from that theory. And I think that most people at this point agree that there's a lot of evidence that there was human activity here before that time period.

[C]

Right.

[B]

It's just that I think the problem is that there's a bunch of different ways that human activity could have occurred. There's a lot of different theories, and there's no reason to think that only one of those theories is correct because people could have been moving around in lots of different ways, and it's just so hard to, like, put that picture together in the correct way.

[C]

So this location too, in White Sands, New Mexico, also fits with the time period because this was at the peak of the last Ice age. And at the peak of the last ice age, there were, there were ice sheets coming down into much of the United States. And I mean, the northern half of it, just about everywhere was completely covered in ice.

[B]

Yep.

[C]

Here would not have been.

[B]

Right.

[C]

It probably was cold in some places. But just because it was an ice age doesn't mean everything was cold. You still had warm days.

[B]

Yeah.

[C]

But it was just, you know, ice age just means most of the land was covered in ice.

[B]

Yeah.

[C]

So. Yeah, yeah.

[B]

So it makes sense that they would have been this far south at this time period because being further north would have been a much more difficult way to live.

[C]

Yeah. So this is just lending a little bit more to the picture. Like we talked about the last segment about people that lived at that time discussing things like migration routes and survival strategies during glacial conditions.

[B]

Yeah.

[C]

And white sands also. And we've talked about this in the, in one of the last times we talked about the first article was once a lake system. Right now it's a big white sandy desert.

[B]

Right.

[C]

Super dry, super hot sometimes, while also super cold. It's a high desert environment and. But it's completely sand.

[B]

Yeah.

[C]

And it used to be lakes and a good place to go hang out and get animals and food and probably,

[B]

probably like cool off if it were hot. Although I guess it wouldn't have been that hot back then, but still. Yeah, it was just, it was a great place to. To live and survive.

[C]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. You get under the current dunes and you see the preservation in ancient stream and lake beds sediments, which lake bed sediments they layer every single year, especially in this type of environment. This is why they have such tight stratigraphy and they're really good for dating things because you have so many different levels that you can look at now.

[B]

They have found very few artifacts here and that is possibly because maybe these footprints are representing, you know, a short term movement, some kind of hunting party camping sort of situation rather than long term settlement. Or it might just be that we haven't found the place that was the long term settlement yet. You know, what is that phrase? Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence. Yeah. So it could be that kind of thing too. So there was a lot of skepticism when this article first came out and I just wanted to do like a quick recap and I again, it's because I love the way these researchers have approached the criticism. Everything they've done has been published in a peer review paper. They haven't gone to the media and done like, you know, those explosive documentaries that Draw in the public, but don't really share the full story and that kind of thing. They haven't done any of that. They're just quietly refuting in peer reviewed papers and also providing more evidence also in peer reviewed papers. So I really appreciate that approach. So the very first thing that people were criticizing, I guess, was the aquatic plants that you were talking about, that they can absorb old carbon from groundwater, lakes, reservoirs, whatever, and that would make it appear older than they are. And that's a phenomenon called the reservoir effect. It's a well known and well documented phenomenon. And a lot of people use that at first, but these guys are like, no, no, no, we controlled for that. Yeah. And they did.

[C]

Right. And with these dates from the pollen and then the mud, that was not necessarily at this lake edge. Right. But nearby, the reservoir effect is less of a concern because it. It's where the plants were.

[B]

Yeah, exactly. Yeah. And now another critique was that the seeds or. And pollen that were found within the footprints initially could be out of position, you know, stratigraphically, not from the correct place. And that would then make. That could then make the footprint seem older than they actually are. But these guys, again, they have done such a good job of stratigraphically controlling the site, and they argue that the geological evidence doesn't support that anything is out of position here. So they, I mean, I guess you just have to take them at their word for that because they have very good stratigraphy evidence.

[C]

Yep. And then there's the lack of artifacts is another big detractor. But like we said, this lack of artifacts just doesn't mean there aren't any artifacts. Just means there aren't any that have been found or that preserved.

[B]

Yeah, yeah. I mean, I understand why that's one of the biggest things that critics can't get past. I get it. You want to see more actual human presence before you can say that humans were there.

[C]

Yeah. I mean.

[B]

Yeah.

[C]

The one thing that gets me is when you look at really old sites in North America, you have very few artifacts. Right. And I'm like, why is that? Because if we were looking at the 23,000-year-old site in Europe, there's tons of artifacts.

[B]

Yeah, right.

[C]

It's like, you know, and I understand it was. It could have been even different people. It could have been Neanderthals, it could have been Homo sapien. But either way, there's lots of artifacts. Right. And then you go to really old sites in North America and there's no artifacts or very Few.

[B]

It's true.

[C]

Yeah. And it's like why, why is that? Is it the smaller numbers of people? Is it the just the type of, you know, the technological developments of people here? Because they would have if people were here 23,000 years ago. I mean, chances are they've been there for thousands of years and they came over even, even earlier than that.

[B]

Yeah.

[C]

And maybe you're, you're, we should be comparing these 23,000-year-old sites to like 40, 50,000 year old sites, you know, so I don't know. Who knows?

[B]

Yeah, it's a good question. I've not, I've, I've not thought about that before, but. Yeah, like why aren't there more artifacts associated with these super old sites? It's that really good question. Maybe it's. Yeah, I don't know. I can't really speculate.

[C]

Is a good question.

[B]

And I will, I will throw one more thing out there because it's some, it's something that I have heard other people say is that these footprints might just not be human. And that alien. No, I think like sloth or something was one thing that was thrown out there. And I just want to make it very clear. There is almost 100% consensus today that these footprints are human. Nobody thinks that they were not human anymore. There's been enough, not research, but like, yeah, like experts looking at the footprints and the shape of them themselves that they really do agree that these are all. These are human.

[C]

I mean, I have been called a sloth and my footprints look like that. So was it sloth?

[B]

It was not. They were not sloths.

[C]

Okay.

[B]

And we can let go of that idea that has been said.

[C]

So yeah, the biggest question is where were they going? They could have been headed up to Oregon to shop for clothing to the

[B]

glacial sheets that were covering Oregon.

[C]

Well, it took them 8,000 years to get to Oregon where they found clothing. Let's talk about that on the other side of the break. Welcome Back to episode 323 of the Archeology Show. And this article that spawned this discussion was called Scientists discovered the oldest clothing in Human History. Human history.

[B]

Yes.

[C]

Not North American history.

[B]

Not North American history, although it is in North America.

[C]

Yeah.

[B]

But human history. Yeah.

[C]

So while we're talking about in the last segment technology being a little bit delayed. I mean, not here. No, not with clothing. And that's what happens. You live at the end of the ice age, right?

[B]

Well, yeah. I mean, clothing was not just a statement like it is today. It was functional. It was to to survive, you know.

[C]

Well, and going off what we were just saying in the last segment, I feel like if we're talking about a people that spent 20,000 years living on a continent covered in ice, I mean, the southern end of it, but then got here somehow maybe before the ice, and they came across the. The land bridge that also would have been there at the beginning of the Ice Age because of the same reverse conditions as we're at the end of the Ice Age. So if people really did come across at that time, as ice was starting to cover the landscape, I mean, it took thousands of years for that to happen. They could have come down and they would have been fairly well adapted to cold environments at that time. You know, you're talking about come across Siberia any time of the year. Yeah, any geological era, it's going to be hot.

[B]

You need to be ready to.

[C]

It's going to be cold.

[B]

Yeah, you need to be ready to, to survive in extreme temperatures.

[C]

So these were, if they came that way, these were survivors to begin with. And I. It makes sense that their clothing technology would have. Would have been there. But yeah, either way, humans in the last Ice age needed to be warm. And now there's some fresh evidence as to how they did it. And these are basically the oldest known sewn hides ever found. Two pieces of elk hide stitched together about 12,400 years ago.

[B]

Yeah, that's just so cool.

[C]

Yeah.

[B]

Now, this discovery traces back to the 1950s, when amateur archaeologist John Cowles uncovered basically the Paisley Caves and Cougar Mountain Cave in Oregon. And we've talked about Paisley Caves before because that's also where the oldest coprolites in either the world, but definitely in the United States, I think, were found.

[C]

Which is fossilized poop.

[B]

Yes, it is. But I mean, that's like, you know, the last article we're talking about not having evidence of humans. No tools, no artifacts, no nothing. Coprolite is like irrefutable human evidence because it contains DNA. Yes, exactly. Like, you can't say that. That's not. Not what it is. So. So anyway, Paisley Caves is a really well known early human site in North America.

[C]

Yeah. The items from these caves were held privately for decades, which is why you don't go out and dig stuff up and then hold them in your home over your mantle. But then the Favel Museum in Klamath Falls, Oregon, took ownership and made them available to scientists.

[B]

Yeah, that is so crazy that they, like this piece of evidence was just living in somebody's private collection. Like, are you Serious? Oh, yeah, yeah.

[C]

So a research team from the University of Nevada and the University of Oregon published a study in Science Advances that found the two cave hall. So from both caves included 55 items made from 15 different plants and animals, including the oldest known physical remains of the stone hide.

[B]

And this is just so incredibly unique because to have this organic material from plants and animals to preserve like this is just so unusual. And that just speaks to the incredible preservation that we have in these two caves.

[C]

Yeah. Aside from the two tiny pieces of alkyde that we mentioned that were stitched with fiber cordage, the cave Assemblage also included 23 fiber items, 12 wood items, and three hide items. Yeah. And they say that one sewn hide item could be a fragment of clothing or footwear. And if it is, it would be the oldest known item of clothing recovered from the Pleistocene.

[B]

Yeah. Examples of complex late Pleistocene Pleistocene technologies are extremely rare because of the perishable nature of these materials. They decompose and then they're gone and we just don't have them. So again, preservation of these caves are really, really getting the job done here.

[C]

Yep. Yeah. And it's interesting finding clothing too, because like we said, it says something about human physiological limits that they needed clothing at this time in this place, but also social and cultural roles in human history, like who made this cloth, what was, how was it maintained, you know, things like that.

[B]

Yeah. And you might be wondering, like, how can you say for sure that they use it as clothing? And I guess we don't really know for sure. But regardless, they were, they were sewing together hides, and we know they were sewing them because they also found 14 eyed bone needles. And you have an eye in the needle to thread something through, so you can then sew with it.

[C]

So pretty clear what those are used for.

[B]

Yeah, exactly. So that. That's the tool used to put these hides together or whatever other fabric they're using, and then they're doing something with it. It could have been a blanket, it could have been clothing, it could have been shoes. I mean, and all of these things, though, they're kind of used to cover the body. Right. Your. Your body to keep it warmer. So we can be pretty sure that they were trying to keep themselves warm by doing this.

[C]

Yeah. The abundance of needles found, plus adornment items and very fine eyed needles. So needles of different sizes here.

[B]

Yeah.

[C]

Suggest the clothing was not only utilitarian survival gear, but also could have been a means of expression and identity because, you know, you're doing this fine detailed work yeah, you're doing it for a reason.

[B]

Like it's entirely possible with the finer needle that they were doing some kind of decoration too that may not have survived. You know, we don't know. But having that finer needle means they're doing something with it. You know, they wouldn't have had it for no reason. The overall collection spans late Pleistocene through latest Holocene materials and includes fiber wood hide plus bison bone, projectile points, bone tools and fiber cordage. And they were able to radiocarbon date nearly all the fiber and wooden items and place them in a chronology with a really high degree of confidence. So they have a really good timeline for all of the material they found on these sites.

[C]

Yeah. Some of the cool stuff they found were trapper mains suitable for catching rabbits. And they also found rabbit bones, which corroborates that. And they speculate rabbit hides, along with elk and bison hides, were commonly used for clothing in Oregon's high desert during the final years of the Ice Age. Which all makes total sense.

[B]

Yep. Yep. The authors say the data provides a rare empirical look into sophisticated perishable technologies of the late Pleistocene. And it just highlights the resilience, ingenuity and ecological knowledge that these people had in order to survive the climate and the place that they were living at that time.

[C]

Yeah. And they said something that makes total sense. And I think we all know this as archaeologists, but that under researched museum collections may hold additional examples that could similarly expand the archeological record. Not only under researched museum examples, but whatever the hell you've got sitting in a box down in your basement.

[B]

Yeah, it's crazy though, because, like, you need the context. This is why we always say that, like, it's important to not just pick things up and take it home with you, because once you lose that context, it's really hard to draw broader conclusions about whatever the artifact is. So, I mean, at least, like, take a GPS point and say what you found with it, if you could, please.

[C]

Yeah, right.

[B]

So take a photo of it where you found it, then you've got the coordinates, like, built in with that photo.

[C]

Yeah, for sure.

[B]

Yeah.

[C]

All right, well, that's it for this week. We'll be back next time with more fun digging deeper.

[B]

Yep. More news next week probably.

[C]

All right, see you there.

[B]

Bye.

[C]

Thanks for listening to the archaeology show. Feel free to comment and view the show notes on the website at www.arkpodnet.com. find us on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter @arkpodnet. Music for this show is called I wish you would look from the band Sea hero. Again. Thanks for listening and have an awesome day. Thanks for listening to this podcast. The Archaeology Podcast Network's Chief editor is Rachel Roden. Our Executive producer is Ashley Airey. Our social media and newsletter coordinator is Matilda Siebrecht. The APN was founded by Chris Webster and Tristan Boyle on December 1, 2014. We're supported by our amazing podcast hosts, many volunteers and listeners like you. Check out [e-mail] members.

[B]

This has been a presentation of the Archaeology Podcast Network. Visit us on the web for show notes and other [e-mail] com.com. contact us at Chris at archaeologypodcastnetwork. Com.