THE first evidence that early Americans lived along the now-submerged coast
of British Columbia has been found. The modern shoreline is forbiddingly rugged.
But at the end of the ice age the sea level was lower. The coastal zone was then
a flood plain. It had 鈥渓ots of food sources for caribou, bear and the like,鈥�
says Heiner Josenhans of the Geological Survey of Canada in Dartmouth, Nova
Scotia.
One sample that he scooped from 53 metres under the water surface
contained a 10-centimetre long stone knife, which had lain there for 10 000
years. It is the first ancient human tool found in the submerged zone (
Geology, vol 28, p 99).
The discovery supports the theory that early humans moved along the coast.
鈥淲e鈥檝e always expected that there are occupations out on the submerged
coastline,鈥� says Dan Sandweiss of the University of Maine at Orono.
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