The Hiscock Site is an archaeological and paleobiological site in Byron, New York, United States that has yielded many mastodon and paleo-Indian artifacts, as well as the remains of flora and fauna not previously known to have inhabited Western New York during the late Pleistocene. Now owned by the Buffalo Museum of Science, it has been studied by archeological excavation and analysis since 1983. [1] [2]
Around 10,000 years ago, the site was covered by Lake Tonawanda, which was formed by runoff from the melting and receding glaciers. [3]
In 1959 the Hiscock family, for which the site is named, were using a backhoe to deepen a pond. Their backhoe ripped a large tusk out of the ground. The Hiscocks contacted the Buffalo Museum of Science about the site. For a time, it did not have the resources to mount an archeological excavation.
The first excavations of the site began in 1983 and yielded surprising specimens. Dr. Richard Laub, curator at the Buffalo Museum, formally introduced the site to the world in 1986. In 1989, the Hiscock family donated 10 acres of the site to the Buffalo Museum of Science for research. The site has been excavated seasonally since 1983. More than 200 international volunteers have worked at the site, in addition to American researchers and students.
Mastodons are members of the prehistoric, extinct genus Mammut; they resemble modern elephants.
Native to North America, mastodons lived on the continent from almost 4 million years ago, in the Tertiary period, until their eventual disappearance about 10,000 years ago. Mastodons also lived in Europe, from about five million years ago, but died out much earlier, 2 to 3 million years ago. [4]
Mastodon fragments such as large tusks, tusk tips, ivory, ankle bone, teeth, skull, and neural spine have been discovered in the excavations. More than 13 tusks have been found at the site. Analysis of the mastodon tusk tips has shown that the mastodons used their tusks to dig up sodium-rich clay during the last great paleo-drought.
Evidence of paleo-Indians has also been discovered at the site, with flint knappings, stone tools and fluted projectile point. These were bound to sticks and lances for hunting.
A mastodon is any proboscidean belonging to the extinct genus Mammut. Mastodons inhabited North and Central America during the late Miocene or late Pliocene up to their extinction at the end of the Pleistocene 10,000 to 11,000 years ago. They lived in herds and were predominantly forest-dwelling animals. They generally had a browsing diet, distinct from that of the contemporary Columbian mammoth, which tended towards grazing.
Paleo-Indians, Paleoindians or Paleo-Americans were the first peoples who entered, and subsequently inhabited, the Americas during the final glacial episodes of the late Pleistocene period. The prefix paleo- comes from the Greek adjective palaios (παλαιός) 'old; ancient'. The term Paleo-Indians applies specifically to the lithic period in the Western Hemisphere and is distinct from the term Paleolithic.
Cuddie Springs is a notable archaeological and paleontological site in the semi-arid zone of central northern New South Wales, Australia, near Carinda in Walgett Shire. Cuddie Springs is an open site, with the fossil deposits preserved in a claypan on the floor of an ancient ephemeral lake. The claypan fills with water after local rainstorms and often takes months to dry, a fact which facilitated the survival of fossils over a long period of time.
Lubbock Lake Landmark, also known as Lubbock Lake Site, is an important archeological site and natural history preserve in the city of Lubbock, Texas. The preserve is 336 acres and is a protected state and federal landmark. There is evidence of ancient people and extinct animals at Lubbock Lake Landmark. It has evidence of nearly 12,000 years of use by ancient cultures on the Llano Estacado. It is part of the Museum of Texas Tech University.
The Page–Ladson archaeological and paleontological site (8JE591) is a deep sinkhole in the bed of the karstic Aucilla River that has stratified deposits of late Pleistocene and early Holocene animal bones and human artifacts. The site was the first pre-Clovis site discovered in southeastern North America; radiocarbon evidence suggest that the site date from 14,200 to 14,550 BP. These dates are roughly 1,000 to 1,500 years before the advent of the Clovis culture. Early dates for Page–Ladson challenge theories that humans quickly decimated large game populations in the area once they arrived.
The Aucilla River rises in Brooks County, Georgia, USA, close to Thomasville, and passes through the Big Bend region of Florida, emptying into the Gulf of Mexico at Apalachee Bay. Some early maps called it the Ocilla River. It is 89 miles (143 km) long and has a drainage basin of 747 square miles (1,930 km2). Tributaries include the Little Aucilla and Wacissa Rivers. In Florida, the Aucilla River forms the eastern border of Jefferson County, separating it from Madison County on the northern part, and from Taylor County to the south.
Melbourne Bone Bed is a paleontological site located at Crane Creek in Melbourne, in the U.S. state of Florida. This site contains fossils from the Late Pleistocene period 20,000 to 10,000 years before present. The fossils include extinct animals such as varieties of camels, dire wolves, Florida cave bears, giant armadillos, giant beavers, giant bison, giant ground sloths, mammoths, mastodons, saber-toothed cats and tapirs.
Burnet Cave is an important archaeological and paleontological site located in Eddy County, New Mexico, United States within the Guadalupe Mountains.
Richard S. Laub is a scientist from the United States. He is curator of geology at the Buffalo Museum of Science, and directs excavations at the Hiscock Site in Byron, New York. His work includes development of the hypothesis that tuberculosis led to the extinction of the mastodon.
Peter Dixon Hiscock is an Australian archaeologist. Born in Melbourne, he obtained a PhD from the University of Queensland. Between 2013 and 2021, he was the inaugural Tom Austen Brown Professor of Australian Archaeology at the University of Sydney, having previously held a position in the School of Archaeology and Anthropology at the Australian National University.
The Manis Mastodon site is a 2-acre (1 ha) archaeological site on the Olympic Peninsula near Sequim, Washington, United States, discovered in 1977. During the 1977-78 excavation, the remains of an American mastodon were recovered with a 13,800-year-old projectile point made of the bone from a different mastodon embedded in its rib. The site was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1978.
The Marymoor Prehistoric Indian Site is the site of an archaeological dig in Marymoor Park, Redmond, Washington. After King County bought the property in 1962, the site was one of four sites in the park considered for excavation. The dig began in 1964, and continued for four years.
The Coats–Hines–Litchy site is a paleontological site located in Williamson County, Tennessee, in the Southeastern United States. The site was formerly believed to be archaeological, and identified as one of only a very few locations in Eastern North America containing evidence of Paleoindian hunting of late Pleistocene proboscideans. Excavations at the site have yielded portions of four mastodon skeletons, including portions of one previously described as being in direct association with Paleoindian stone tools. The results of excavations have been published in Tennessee Conservationist, and the scholarly journals Current Research in the Pleistocene, Tennessee Archaeology, and Quaternary Science Reviews. The site was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on July 12, 2011.
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Lamb Spring is a pre-Clovis prehistoric Paleo-Indian archaeological site located in Douglas County, Colorado with the largest collection of Columbian mammoth bones in the state. Lamb Spring also provides evidence of Paleo-Indian hunting in a later period by the Cody culture complex group. Lamb Spring was listed in 1997 on the National Register of Historic Places.
Paleontology in New York refers to paleontological research occurring within or conducted by people from the U.S. state of New York. New York has a very rich fossil record, especially from the Devonian. However, a gap in this record spans most of the Mesozoic and early Cenozoic.
Hannah Marie Wormington was an American archaeologist known for her writings and fieldwork on southwestern and Paleo-Indians archaeology over a long career that lasted almost sixty years.
The Cerutti Mastodon site is a paleontological and possible archeological site located in San Diego County, California. In 2017, researchers announced that broken mastodon bones at the site had been dated to around 130,700 years ago.
ʿAyn Qasiyya is an Early Epipalaeolithic archaeological site in the Azraq Oasis, Jordan; the remains of a lakeside camp used by hunter-gatherers around 20,000 years ago. Located near the aquifer-fed spring, at the time the site was occupied it was surrounded by a substantial wetland, attracting a wide range of animals which were hunted by the inhabitants. The stone tools found at the site are associated with both the Kebaran and Nebekian cultures, suggesting that it was visited by people from different cultural groups. Human burials have also been found at the site, which is rare for this period.
Cooper's Ferry is an archaeological site along the lower Salmon River near the confluence with Rock Creek in the western part of the state of Idaho, United States of America and part of the Lower Salmon River Archeological District. It is 17 kilometers south of the town of Cottonwood and 63 kilometers upstream from the Snake river. Various lithic and animal remains from the Pleistocene to early Holocene ages have been found there. The site is on traditional Nez Perce land, and known to the tribe as the historical village of Nipéhe.
5. Richard S. Laub (1988) "A Hiscock Primer", The Buffalo Museum of Science Center, Retrieved on 2020-7-7
