BOULDER - Landscapers digging in a Boulder front yard in 2008 hit a sack full of tools that would launch years of analysis by anthropologists at the University of Colorado-Boulder.
The specific location of the home will not be revealed, but CU says the tools were dug out near Chautauqua Park. Experts believe the tools are 13,000 years old.
"I knew what I was looking at was completely unique in Boulder County. I knew the material was from a really long way away," said CU anthropology professor Douglas Bamforth.
The homeowner, Patrick Mahaffy agreed to loan the collection to the university to study and display. Landscapers were trying to build a koi pond when they hit the tools. Mahaffy called Bamforth to learn more.
"We expect people to move long distances but showing that it's true is very hard. I think that's a reasonable argument to make from the Mahaffy cache. I think we can actually see people walking from Utah to boulder over a single trip, maybe a month," Bamforth said.
The different types of stone come from quarries out west suggesting the people before us collected stone on their journey into current day Colorado, over the continental divide and down into Boulder, barefoot.
"The skill that it takes to make this is skill that takes 10 or 15 years to be good at and know you are going to get it right every time," said Bamforth, explaining the long shards precisely chipped off to create a sharp edge.
Many of these tools were used to hunt and break down animals. Protein samples taken from the discovered tools show the nomadic hunter-gatherers caught types of bears, horses, sheep, and camels.
The tools will go on display for the first time on Saturday, Oct. 10 in an exhibit called "Unearthed: Ancient Life in the Boulder Valley."
There are more than 80 stone tools, all from the Ice Age. The display can be seen at the CU Museum of Natural History on 15th Street and Broadway. It's free to the public beginning on Saturday. The museum is open from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Expect interactive demonstrations of flint knapping and spear throwing.
(© 2015 KUSA)
