Stone tools are a very important record left behind by hominins and they are often the only thing we find on stone age sites because they preserve well and don’t decay. Flint is a very hard rock that is part of the chert family and is particularly useful for making tools because it fractures like glass creating very sharp edges. (Author’s own image)Īrchaeologists call this type of artefact a lithic, which means ‘made of stone’, usually flint or other siliceous rock. Petrie Museum accession numbers: UC 13572 UC75136 UC13579 UC13527 left to right. Lots of these handaxes were found on river terraces suggesting these waterways were an important part of life. The stone was believed to be part of a signet ring and is more than 2,000 years old.These stone tools were made by hominins who lived in Egypt around half a million years ago, making them around 495,000 years older than the earliest ‘Egyptians’! It’s likely that Egypt was occupied by hominins during cooler periods when river systems and vegetation provided a suitable habitat. Last July, Megan Webb, who was picking up summer credits at the UW’s Tel Dor Field School in Israel, found a carnelian gemstone engraved with a portrait of Alexander the Great. The discovery of the large point was the second significant archaeological find made by a UW student this year. The Burke Museum probably will display the projectile point and the other newly uncovered artifacts, according to Phillips, but no date has been set. The UW also has promised to survey that area and other parts of campus with pending construction projects for other potential archaeological sites. The area where the newly discovered artifacts were found has been registered with the state Department of Archaeology and Historic Preservation. And in 1919 a fishing net weight and a stone tool were discovered near the Fisheries Building. In 1908 two other projectile points were unearthed during construction for the Alaska Yukon Pacific Exposition.
The group had established a museum in 1885 that became the Burke in 1899. The initial discovery was made in 1896 when members of the Young Naturalists Society found a projectile point on campus. The new finds bring the total of Native American artifacts found on campus to eight. Five years later the property was added to the campus. In fact, the Chesiahud family of Native Americans still lived on a portion of the campus as late as 1900.
#Oldest artifact plus#
Other artifacts in our collection have a vague provenance, such as ‘near the fountain.’ We can now add to the history of the landscape on which the UW is built.”Īrchaeological data plus historic research and oral history indicate that Native American people lived on what is the UW campus for thousands of years. Julie Stein, director of the Burke and an archaeologist, added: “This point is exciting because we know exactly where it was found. Seattle has had a huge amount of development in a quick period of time, so finding anything in the city limits is significant,” she said. Mazama in southern Oregon that created Crater Lake. Phillips said the point is similar in size and form to other artifacts found in the northwest from the 4,000- to 6,700-year time period which were found above an ash layer deposited about 6,700 years ago by the eruption of Mt. The projectile point found by Van Wyk is about 3 inches long and 1 ½ inches wide and is estimated to be between 4,000 and 6,700 years old, according to Laura Phillips, archaeology collection manager at the Burke.
It turned out to be a projectile point, which is much larger. Van Wyk was working near the greenhouse, turning soil to loosen it and sorting out rocks when she uncovered the artifact and thought it was an arrowhead. Archaeologists from the Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture subsequently dug three test pits near the discovery site and uncovered two more stone tool fragments. This and other archaeological finds were triggered in late October when Ellen Van Wyk, a volunteer at the UW’s botany greenhouse, found a tan and red projectile point buried in the ground next to a chain link fence. With the fortuitous turn of a pronged garden fork, a Native American artifact has been found on the University of Washington’s Seattle campus for the first time in 90 years by a freshman student.
Ellen Van Wyk, left, shows the native American projectile point she found to Laura Phillips, archaeology collection manager at the Burke Museum
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