Evening star., 1937-10-14

Discovery OF what may be the oldest
human remains yet known in the New
World-the badly disinteerated skeleton
Of an infant under a year old-in a cave
near Great Salt Lake was reported today
by the Smithsonian Institution.
The baby may have been buried as
long as $4,000 years ago. The most con-
servative possible estimate makes 1t by
several thousand years the most ancient
human being of whom any trace remains
in the Western Hemisphere.
1t may have been contemporaneous,
and possibly OF the same stock. with
those wraith-like nomad hunters who
camped in the eastern foothills OF the
Rocky Mountains in the closing years
of the last ice-age and who left their
characteristic arrow points scattered
widely over the country but Of whom 1t
has been impossible to date to find the
slightest skeletal remains. They were
the country's inhabitants while the
mammoth was still alive and they some
times hunted this hairy beast.
In any event the infant represents the
second chapter in the pre-hstory Of
North America. 1t is curious illustra-
tion OF the Biblical last shall be first"
that this helpless little mite of humanity
should be all that is left to record the
existence of what may have been a proud
and warlike people.
The find was made by DR.. Julian H.
Steward, Smithsonian Institution arche-
ologist in conjunction with the Uni
versity of Utah.
Great Salt Lake was approximately
1000 feet above its present level near the
end Of the last Ice age, approximately
10000 years ago. With the retreat of
the ice came prolonged drought.
Streams flowing into the lake were dried
up and the level OF the lake itself began
to shrink. During the thousands of years
Of this shrinkage, which apparently was
prolonged by wet periods from time to
time, various shore lines we're left which
can be detected by geologists Also caves
were cut in the banks. The times when
these caves we're first above water, and
thus open for human habitation, can be
dated crudely by calculating the rate of
shrinkage of the water For several
thousand years. it is probable, the lake
has remained in approximately its pres
ent condition.
1t so happens that this long period of
shrinkage corresponds to an almost COM
plete blank in the story OF man on this
continent. At about the end of the last
glaciation, it is known, a race Of nomadic
hunters. the first known inhabitants of
North America, lived in the eastern foot
hills of the Rocky Mountains. They
are known by their curious projectile
heads, found in association with long
extinct animals.
Finds of these artifacts west of the
Rockies are very rare. The mountains
may have been too much Of a barrier for
the ancient people, unfortunately for
the archaeological significance OF the
Salt Lake caves. Following the makers
Of the artifacts there is a long gap to
the earliest traces Of the basket makers
in the Southwest. These people can be
fairly definitely dated by tree rings in
ancient timbers. At the utmost they do
not extend back much more than 1000
years They are closer to the present
than to the ancient nomads.
This interval of many thousands Of
years is filled in very sparsely and un-
certainly. II there had been any peoples
living west of the Rockies during this
long period the Great Salt Lake caves
would have been natural shelters.
Dr.. Stewards actual fnds are some-