Forbidden Archeology_ The Full Unabridged Edition - Michael A. Cremo [244]
As the ice approached, the early Wisconsin proglacial lake at Sheguiandah disappeared. Meltwater from the ice front created the glacio-fluvial layers of stone and clay over the lacrustine deposits. Sanford (1971, p. 6) stated: “The boulder pavement at the base of this unit probably represents a time of erosion during which the finer materials were removed.”
Implements were found by Lee among and below the boulders in the pavement. Sanford (1971, p. 6) stated: “The presence of a few artifacts under boulders in the pavement is difficult to explain except by the same mechanism that provided for them in the still higher tills. They were picked up by advancing ice from a cultural site that existed prior to this glacial advance, and therefore were available for incorporation in both the outwash materials and the till deposited by the melting ice. The stratigraphic relations indicate an early Wisconsin age for this horizon. Erosion responsible for the boulder bed may have taken place during an early Wisconsin interstadial or even during a very minor recession of the ice front during a time of increasing glaciation.”
Meltwater from the glacier deposited over the boulder pavement more glacio-fluvial materials, which Sanford (1971, p. 6) characterized as “outwash materials from the front of the advancing ice.” Sanford stated (1971, p. 12): “The glacio-fluvial materials underlying tills at the habitation area certainly must be as old as early Wisconsin in age.”
Finally, the glaciers themselves advanced over the site and then retreated, leaving the lower layer of till, which contains stone tools. Then the region was again briefly inhabited by a group of humans who made a different kind of stone tool. The early Wisconsin glaciers advanced once more, and when they finally receded tens of thousands of years later, in late Wisconsin times, they left the upper till—along with the artifacts they picked up in the early Wisconsin.
Sanford (1971, p. 14) stated: “the artifacts in the lower till layer, and probably those in the uppermost, certainly date from early rather than late Wisconsin time. . . . A Sangamon age for the earliest artifacts at Sheguiandah would appear more logical than an early Wisconsin date, at this latitude.”
After the final glacial retreat, the site was covered by Lake Algonquin, which receded about 9,000 years ago, leaving Manitoulin Island as we now know it. Indians inhabited the island and left stone tools, including projectile points, now found in the surface layers above the glacial tills.
It is interesting to note that Sanford, unlike Lee, believed that the projectile point horizon (Level III) was also glacial in origin. According to Sanford (1983, p. 83): “It seems reasonably certain that the approximately six inches of surface material overlying the projectile point horizon was originally deposited as till. . . . [its] general character shows a similarity to the underlying tills and indicates a common genesis. The artifacts show it to be a definite stratigraphic unit.” If Sanford’s view is accepted, then the very advanced projectile points (Figures 5.5, 5.9) should, like the tools in the layers below them, also be early Wisconsin or Sangamon in age.
Figure 5.9. Quartzite projectile point recovered from Level III of the Sheguiandah site, Manitoulin Island, Ontario, Canada (T. E. Lee 1983, p. 62).
So it seems there is very good evidence for the presence of toolmaking humans at Sheguiandah at least as far back as the St. Pierre interstadial, which ended 65,000 years ago. The implements could possibly have been manufactured during the Sangamon interglacial, which means they could be as much as 125,000 years old. The presence of relatively advanced stone tools in the St. Pierre interstadial or Sangamon interglacial of North America would, according to currently dominant views,