Detail

Members of the 49th Engineer and Minesweeper Squadron, along with a team of geologists, made the discovery near a road at Holloman Air Force Base, 260 miles southeast of Albuquerque. The base is adjacent to White Sands National Park, known for its ivory-colored gypsum sand dunes and the oldest known human footprints in North America, dating back 23,000 years.

The dunes of White Sands National Park were formed at least 1,000 years after humans first visited the area. Perhaps the sands helped preserve prehistoric artifacts. “The formation of white sand dunes accidentally buried the site, and windblown silt preserved fragile archaeological remains.”said Matthew Kuba, 49th Engineer and Minesweeper Squadron cultural resources manager.

Excavations at an area called Gomolak Overlook uncovered various artifacts showing: this site may have been a seasonal encampment of early “paleo-archaic” peoples in what is now New Mexico.. Archaic peoples were descendants of the first humans to set foot in the Americas and were among the first New World cultures to cultivate and domesticate plants, according to the U.S. National Park Service.

8,200-year-old hearth ruins / Photo: Isaiah Pedrazzini

8,200-year-old hearth ruins / Photo: Isaiah Pedrazzini

Among the remains buried several feet underground, Kuba and his colleagues found evidence that early settlers made fires and burned mesquite, a type of thorny shrub in the pea family (Fabaceae) native to semiarid regions in the southwestern United States. States and Mexico

Nearly 70 objects, ranging from flaked stones to a rare example of early polished stone, were found at the site, providing valuable clues about past human activities. We also discovered numerous pits or community camps with remains of mesquite charcoal, which is a major find in itself.
– adds Matthew Kuba.

Prehistoric stone tool fragments / Photo: Isaiah Pedrazzini

Polished stone / Photo: Isaiah Pedrazzini

Parking is one of them 400 archaeological findsIt was held on the territory of Holloman Air Force Base.

The vast 16,800-square-mile Tularosa Basin region of southwestern New Mexico is home to some of the oldest archaeological sites in the Americas. Excavations over the past 10 years have unearthed 11,000-year-old fossilized human footprints chasing a giant sloth, 10,000-year-old footprints of a woman and a baby, and evidence of Ice Age children playing in muddy puddles.