By Morgan Montalvo
WOAI News
Researchers have uncovered what are being hailed as examples of the oldest-known weapons in North America, News Radio 1200 WOAI reports.
The find consists of several long, narrow spear tips found in prehistoric sediment layers at a private property site about 40 miles northwest of Austin, says Professor Michael Waters, a Texas A&M University anthropologist and head of the field team from his institution, the University of Texas and Baylor University that made the discovery.
“The oldest recognizable projectile point that we had up until this time was the ‘Clovis’ projectile point, which dates to roughly 13,000 years ago,” Water says.
“Clovis points” are hand tools fashioned by early inhabitants of the Americas and for decades considered the earliest known artifacts of their type in the region. They are named for Clovis, N.M., the town near where they were first unearthed in 1929 and since have been found as far south as Venezuela.
“Now, what this does is, it adds a new style of projectile point, these kind of lancet stem points that we found,”
Waters says about the three- to four-inch long weapons, dated to about 15,500 years ago.
Anthropologists and archaeologist have been working the site for about 12 years.
The discovery, they say, answers some questions, but also raises new ones about ancient peoples who settled North America after the last Ice Age.
PHOTO COURTESY: TEXAS A&M TODAY. USED BY PERMISSION.