SCIENCE

Deep below the surface of Lake Huron, scuba-diving researchers have found an elaborate network of hunting blinds and animal-herding structures dating back roughly 9,000 years. (USA Today)

Can you find the sunken treasure?

Discussion Ideas

The USA Today article reports that 9,000 years ago, water levels in Lake Huron were about 76 meters (250 feet) lower than they are today. The shallower lake exposed a hilly ridge where ancient Native Americans hunted caribou. Why were water levels so much lower? During the Ice Age, the Great Lakes were much less great! Although most geologists think glaciation had created lake basins much earlier, prior to the melting of the great Laurentide Ice Sheet, their water levels were much lower.



Our comprehensive encyclopedic entry on archaeology defines two types of materials studied by archaeologists: artifacts and features. Did the archaeologists studying the site in Lake Huron discover artifacts or features? Both! Artifacts are portable remains, such as tools, clothing and decorations. Artifacts discovered at the Lake Huron site includes “debris from the manufacture or repair of stone tools, probably spear points.” Features are big, heavy, non-portable remains, such as pyramids and post-holes. Features discovered at the Lake Huron site include boulders used as hunting blinds.



Take a look at the spectacular bathymetric map of Lake Huron above. The archaeologists profiled the USA Today article found their artifacts and features on the Alpena-Amberley Ridge, which clearly cuts straight across southern Lake Huron. Where else in Lake Huron would you look for evidence of ancient cultures? Where wouldn’t you look? Archaeologists would probably look for artifacts and features in the shallower parts of Lake Huron—less than 76 meters (250 feet) deep. These regions would have been dry land (or at least swampy) during the last ice age and may contain evidence of ancient Native American culture. The deeper parts of Lake Huron would probably not hold evidence of ancient cultures. Manitoulin Basin, Cockburn Basin, and Bruce Basin would probably not be good places to excavate.



Play our underwater archaeology game, “Find the Sunken Treasure.” The tool digital underwater archaeologists use in the game is a gradiometer. Do you think the archaeologists studying Lake Huron used a gradiometer? Why or why not? No, archaeologists probably did not use a gradiometer. A gradiometer measures evidence of metal. The Lake Huron site is a Stone Age site. The tools used by ancient Native Americans at the site were mostly stone, not metal. (Many Stone Age cultures did use naturally occurring metals, such as those found in meteorites, to form tools. However, a gradiometer is not most valuable tool in searching for primarily Stone Age cultures.)



Thanks as always to Sam, one of our very favorite geographers, for the heads-up on this great current-event connection!