geo000665 28

By Phil Jordan SUN Staf Writer After less than five days of the' Nevada State iseum Expedition at Tule rings has already become 1 hut- swamped” with ar- ?ological and paleontologi- 'finds. >r. Richard Shu tier y ester-. 9 joked that his team glht just as well go home d work oh what they've ah M$y found,, but he then ide it clear they have no ini ition o f doing so. Work at the site just 16;miles from downtown has Vegas is slated to continue for. four and a ha 1 f months. 5j | Expedition, members and backers hope to discover proof humans were, living in this area, up to 30,000 years ago — and. the oldest proof of human existence in. the Western Hemisphere dates back only f5,000 years or so. Using modern earth-mow­ing equipment, the group at Tule Springs plans to exca| vate an area 300 feet by 3000 feet, Flags have already been planted in the land to be studied, so that finds' hi ay be plotted in relation to each other, The flagged strip runs from southeast to northwest along the banks and, bottom of a dry wash. : ' | | Dr, Shutler yesterday em­phasized that all finds so far have been on or near the sur­face, but expedition mem­bers were obviously fexcited by what has been discovered in. the. first -few days of searching at their desert camp. ly 'ff gd Stone scrapers, a knife and a drill, as well the remains of an eons-old fire, give evi­dence that men lived here b e f o re climatic ch anges created a' desert where a gust of wind can stir pip a ddst storhi that cuts visibility|to feet or even inches. • An expedition iheimlber said | stone todl^ aitead^ gtorned^ longing to ' type — perhaps 7000 years bid. . But definite proof of the age of any finds will be made by dating radioactive carbon found at prehistoric camp­site fireplaces, Nobel Prize ^winner Dr. willand' Dibby of iUOLA will be in charge of |id s phase' of the; work. p ; f Other discoveries to date, thbiudg nd/ longbr "todhd-Jiyihg; any­where,. These are a horse tooth, a tooth, and a bone from a camel, and a frag­ment of tusk from a mam­moth w" an extinct relative of the present-day elephant. But' expedition members yesterday showed excellence in activities not archeological — they are experts at needl­ing the press. Best story came from one man who had met the press before. i “I was trying to explain the Soturdciyjr e already been e land to be finds may elation to each rged strip runs t to northwest ks and bottom yesterday em­ail finds so .far ?r near the sur-pedition mem-tti /M i.d ir o Vip'l f.p O searching at their desert camp, , Stone scrapers, a knne and a drill, as well the remains of an eons-old fire, \ give evi­dence that men lived here b e f o r e climatic changes created a desert where a gust of wind can stir up a dust storm that cuts visibility to feet or even inches. An expedition member said he would guess that the stone tools already turned type — jperhaps 7000 ye ars old. But definite proof of the Hige of any finds will be m ade by d atin g radioactive carbon found at prehistoric camp­site fireplaces. Nobel . Prize winner Dr. W illani Libby of UCLA will be in charge of this phase of the work. Other discoveries to date Include remains of. animals no longer found native to ' * m "l T T t r rvv« i i r v l i i i s n T V P where. These are a horse tooth, a tooth and a bone from a camel, and a frag­ment of tusk from a mam­moth t an extinct relative of the present-day elephant. But' expedition members yesterday showed excellence in activities not archeological __they are experts at needl­ing the press. Best story came from one man who had met the press before. possible uses of some stone implements to a reporter,” he said, “ and I casually mentioned th a t in later socie­ties similar tools had been used for tattooing. j ‘Sure enough, next day the reporter had a big story DO - Year - Old Tattoos Found.” The scientists at Tule Springs are hoping it won’t happen again, but they don t seem to have much faith in