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Jilly_in_VA

(9,854 posts)
Sat Sep 24, 2022, 04:42 PM Sep 2022

A second ancient canoe is found in Wisconsin -- this time tracing back to 1000 B.C.

Tamara Thomsen was giving a scuba diving lesson in Wisconsin's Lake Mendota when she noticed a piece of wood peeking out of the sand. Her student didn't think much of it but Thomsen, who is a maritime archaeologist by trade, knew exactly what it was.

"This is not a joke. I found another dugout canoe," she texted her boss.

The boat discovered in May was the second artifact Thomsen accidentally stumbled upon within the past year. In November 2021, Thomsen spotted a 1,200-year-old canoe while swimming in the same lake during her day off.

Archaeologists from the Wisconsin Historical Society — where Thomsen works — determined that the most recent find is even older — about 3,000 years old, the group announced on Thursday.

Thomsen said that when the radiocarbon dating results from came back, she wrote "1000 B.C." on a Post-it note and stared in disbelief.

https://www.npr.org/2022/09/24/1124817721/3000-year-old-canoe-found-wisconsin

I grew up near the shores of Lake Mendota, in Madison, so this is of great interest to me

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A second ancient canoe is found in Wisconsin -- this time tracing back to 1000 B.C. (Original Post) Jilly_in_VA Sep 2022 OP
Cool story. Cracklin Charlie Sep 2022 #1
I visited Eagle Heights when there were only 100s Tetrachloride Sep 2022 #2
The canoe must have been preserved at hypoxic depths and maybe revealed due to storms and Martin68 Sep 2022 #3
It's the preservation that surprised me. wnylib Sep 2022 #6
If the canoe sank in very deep water where no sunlight reaches and there is no oxygen at the Martin68 Sep 2022 #7
As a kid... PJMcK Sep 2022 #4
Me too Jilly_in_VA Sep 2022 #8
3 dug outs. need to scour that lake yearly i think. pansypoo53219 Sep 2022 #5

wnylib

(21,146 posts)
6. It's the preservation that surprised me.
Sun Sep 25, 2022, 02:22 AM
Sep 2022

It's not surprising that people were living there at the time. We already knew as much. There is evidence of copper mining in Michigan and Wisconsin and the larger Great Lakes region 10,000 years ago.

https://www.science.org/content/article/ancient-native-americans-were-among-world-s-first-coppersmiths

These canoes have significance for the Native people of the region. But I am curious about the conditions that preserved the canoes.

Martin68

(22,671 posts)
7. If the canoe sank in very deep water where no sunlight reaches and there is no oxygen at the
Sun Sep 25, 2022, 01:47 PM
Sep 2022

bottom, it will not decay. Old growth forest logs that were harvested 150 years ago and towed down the lake by tugboat to a saw mill, sometimes broke free, got waterlogged, and sank. They are still there at the bottom and are very valuable.

PJMcK

(21,921 posts)
4. As a kid...
Sat Sep 24, 2022, 07:26 PM
Sep 2022

…I swan in Lake Mendota a bunch of times. It was many years ago but I remember it being beautiful!

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