MINNESOTA -- USA -- 8,000 YEAR OLD ARTIFACTS UNEARTHED

An archeological dig in the suburbs south of Minneapolis (Minnesota, USA) is turning up artifacts thousands of years old at the future site of a bridge project. Before work begins, federal historic preservation laws require scientists to find out what's beneath the dirt, so archaeologists began digging on the border of Shakopee and Chanhassen.

"Cold weather's good because we're working in a wetland and it helps to freeze the ground and make it easier to work with," explained Frank Florin, Florin Cultural Resource Services LLC. The crew has been at it for six weeks now and as traffic passes by the site, 8,000 years ago it was a place hunters and gatherers stopped. "There's very few sites in Minnesota that are that old and this well preserved," said Florin. "This site, a lot of it is capped below six to ten feet of more recent sediment so it's quite well preserved."

One of the finds is a spear point that's believed to be about 8,000-years-old; all of the artifacts found will be given to the Minnesota Historical Society. The crew has another two weeks of work. They'll be back in the spring at another nearby site and then construction will begin on the road nearby.

Edited from Kare 11 (3 January 2014)
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