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Webinar Presentation: Evidence of Ancient Horse Hunting on the Columbia Plateau
March 5 @ 7:00 pm - 8:00 pm
Free
Join the Wenatchee River Institute and the Methow Conservancy to learn about new evidence of hunting the extinct North American horse.
Recent re-analysis of selected artifacts from a 1974 archaeological salvage excavation at the pre-contact Rock Island Overlook site, 45CH204, in central Washington state indicates that cultural deposits are much older than previously reported. Projectile point chronology and obsidian hydration dating suggest the Rock Island Overlook site was first occupied 13 to 16 thousand years ago at the end of the last Ice Age (Pleistocene). The assemblage also contains evidence of hunting now extinct Pleistocene horses. Horse blood residue was identified on a Windust type projectile point. This result also supports the age estimate for the site as Pleistocene horse extinction occurred about 12,700 years ago. Other data from the site are consistent with a Pleistocene age, although more information is needed to confirm and refine the dating.
About the presenter:
Terry Ozbun is a Senior Archaeologist at Archaeological Investigations Northwest, Inc. (AINW), and has worked in central Washington as an archaeologist for over 30 years. His area of specialization in archaeology is in ancient stone tool technologies which he has learned to replicate in order to understand how stone tools were made and used. Terry presented the results of the Rock Island Overlook site artifact re-analysis at professional scientific meetings in 2023 and the results are being published in the Journal of Northwest Anthropology.
Please click the link below to join the webinar:
https://us06web.zoom.us/j/84239001930
