FAIRBANKS, ALASKA—At the Mead Site in central Alaska, researchers from the University of Alaska, Fairbanks, have unearthed small bone artifacts that could be the oldest artwork in northern North America. The first object in question from the site was found within the outline of what may have been a hide-covered structure 12,300 years ago. “We think it might be a pendant, an ornament, maybe worn near the face,” team leader Ben Potter told News Miner. A pair of pendants, both with broken holes at the tapered end, was also recovered. The site is thought to have been a cliff-side hunting camp, but no weapon fragments have been found so far. The team has found other pieces of worked bone, however, and the jawbone of a brown bear that is missing a canine tooth. Perhaps the tooth was made into jewelry. “You can imagine the association with strength and hunting skill,” Potter said. To read in-depth about the first people to reach the New World, see “America, in the Beginning.”
