New Evidence for a Possible Paleolithic Occupation of the Eastern North American Continental Shelf at the Last Glacial Maximum

Introduction

Researchers have postulated the presence of submerged archaeological deposits on
the Middle Atlantic continental shelf of North America for decades (Emery and
Edwards 1966; Edwards and Emery 1977; Kraft et al. 1983). However, archaeological
discoveries on the continental shelf made during commercial shellfish dredging
have gone unrecorded or have escaped detection. By contrast, numerous vertebrate
remains including the bones, teeth, and skulls of mammoth, mastodon, and walrus have
been reportedly discovered by deep-sea fishermen and dredgers on the continental
shelf (Edwards and Merrill 1977; Whitmore et al. 1967).
In 1974, Captain Thurston Shawn and the crew of Cinmar, a scallop trawler
working 100 km east of the Virginia Capes, were dredging at a depth of 70 m
(Fig. 5.1). Just after starting their run, the dredge became very heavy and when
reeled in, it contained a mastodon skull. While cleaning the bone from the dredge,
a large bifacially flaked rhyolite knife was discovered. Shawn carefully plotted the
water depth and the exact location of the find on his navigation charts and noted
that all of these items were dredged at the same time. To expedite getting back to
dredging, the Cinmar crew broke up the skull and removed the tusks and teeth for
souvenirs, throwing the rest of the bone overboard. Later the tusks were sawn into
pieces and distributed among the crew.
Captain Shawn retained for himself a tusk section, a complete tooth and the
biface, and gave one of the molars to his sister, Mrs. Sylvia Cannon of Mathews,
Virginia. Shawn was not an artifact or fossil collector and, subsequently, sold his
specimens to Dean Parker of Hudgens, Virginia. Parker in turn loaned them to the
Gwynn’s Island Museum where they have been on exhibit since 1974 (Stanford and
Bradley 2012).
The significance of the Cinmar’s discovery was not recognized until Darrin
Lowery conducted an archaeological survey in Mathews County, Virginia, and saw
the biface, mastodon tooth, and tusk segment at the museum. Subsequent interviews
with Captain Shawn and his sister confirmed the fact that all of the specimens were
recovered at the same time and place, as described here. The importance of the
Cinmar evidence concerning the timing of the New World settlement and human
occupation of the now-submerged coastal settings initiated the study reported here.
The find location, designated the Cinmar site, is on the edge of the outer continental
shelf, south of the last glacial maximum (LGM) Susquehanna Paleo-River
Valley, which is referred to as the Cape Charles channel (Fig. 5.1). During the LGM,
19,000–26,500 years ago (Clark et al. 2009), sea stand is estimated to have been
130 m below the present sea level (Milliman and Emery 1968; Belknap and Kraft
1977). The site was on the edge of the LGM James Peninsula, immediately west of
a LGM barrier island and channel. This terrestrial landscape, which existed between
at least 14,500 years ago and possibly more than 25,000 years ago, would have
been 10–14 meters below sea level (mbsl) by the time Paleoindians occupied North
America approximately 13,500 years ago (Waters and Stafford 2007).
The Cinmar stone tool is a large, thin knife with evidence of well-controlled percussion
thinning flake scars on both faces (Fig. 5.2). It represents the workmanship
of a highly skilled flint knapper because rhyolite is very difficult to flake correctly.
The obverse face has a full face, possibly large overshot flake across the basal half.
Because the overshot flake resulted in the removal of an excessive portion of the
artifact’s surface, subsequent flaking adjustments were made, resulting in a slight
longitudinal curve and variable thickness. For measurements and proportions of the
Cinmar stone tool, see Table 5.1.






Stanford et. al (2014). New Evidence for a Possible Paleolithic Occupation of the Eastern North American Continental Shelf at the Last Glacial Maximum. Prehistoric Archaeology on the Continental Shelf, Springer Science+Business Media New York, 2014

 https://www.academia.edu/8000103/New_Evidence_for_Paleolithic_Occupation_of_the_Eastern_North_American_Outer_Continental_Shelf_at_the_Last_Glacial_Maximum