Archaeologists are unearthing what some researchers say might be the one of the oldest inhabited places in present-day Utah at a site west of Escalante.
Brigham Young University teams have been digging since 2003 at the North Creek Shelter site, and are now about 12 feet down at the Paleoarchaic period. That dates back to at least 9,000 B.C.
Retired emeritus BYU archaeologist Joel Janetski tells the Salt Lake Tribune that bones and charcoal from the site have been radiocarbon dated to several different prehistoric eras.
Janetski says inhabitants using grinding stones made pottery and established agriculture, and hunted big game including deer, elk and bighorn sheep.
He says vegetation and the types of animal bones also shows the climate changed about 10,000 years ago.
Source: The Associated Press [September 07, 2010]