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Excavating a Mammoth Hunters’ Campsite

Excavating a Mammoth Hunters’ Campsite

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Since 2014, a team of archaeologists investigating a 13,000-year-old hunting campsite at La Prele Creek, Wyoming, have uncovered an area larger than a football field. These images taken by Matt Stirn at the excavations during the summer of 2022 explore one of the most significant sites where people belonging to what archaeologists now call the Clovis Culture spent an extended period of time.

  • An aerial view of the La Prele excavations shows a white tent covering the area actively under investigation.
  • Archaeologists digging inside the excavation tent at the La Prele site work in close quarters.
  • A fragment of red ochre pigment is excavated by an archaeologist. One of the most common finds at the site, red ochre may have been used to decorate the floors of dwellings, or for some other unknown purpose.
  • Two pieces of a single cutting tool known as a biface were found at La Prele. The color difference between the fragments is the result of one half of the tool being discarded into or near a hearth, which heated the stone and altered its hue.

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