Jaredite elephant
Posted: Wed Jun 17, 2009 6:00 am
By Nathan Crabbe, Gainesville Sun
An etching on a bone found near Vero Beach could be the earliest example of art in the Americas if determined to be authentic, which University of Florida professors believe to be the case.
An amateur fossil collector said the bone fragment had been sitting under his sink before he noticed what appeared to be an etching of a mammoth on it.
Barbara Purdy, professor emerita of anthropology at UF, ran the bone through a battery of tests to determine the etching's authenticity.
"Unless someone's a really good faker, it's an authentic specimen," she said.
The fragment is 15 inches long, so it's unclear whether it comes from the elephant-like mammoth or another Ice Age animal such as a mastodon or giant sloth.
Purdy said mammoths died out nearly 13,000 years ago in the region, so the bone would be at least that old if it came from the animal depicted on it.
The etching is comparable to European cave paintings and is unlike anything found before in the Western Hemisphere, she said.
James Kennedy said he's been collecting fossils for years and found the bone north of Vero Beach.
He said he saw the etching while rinsing the bone before bringing it to the flea market.
"The funny part about it was it's been under my sink for about 2 1/2 years," he said.
With the help of a fellow collector, Purdy was recruited to help determine the authenticity of the etching.
She in turn looked to UF professors with access to tools to do the work. The C.A. Pound Human Identification Laboratory typically identifies skeletal remains for the state's medical examiners.
Director Michael Warren said the lab applied those same techniques to the fossil, finding evidence of erosion that suggested a long history.
"It seemed to me to be something that would certainly take some time and be difficult to replicate," he said.
Kevin Jones, chairman of material science and engineering, examined the bone using a scanning electron microscope.
He said the etching's grooves appeared to be aged in the same way as the rest of the bone.
He said the etching is located in a hard-to-notice spot. Other marks looked like the artist had practiced before making the drawing. He made a new scratch on the bone, which he said had a dramatically different look.
"The whole thing feels like it's authentic," he said.
More tests are still to come, including a carbon testing to determine the age of the bone.
Kennedy said he'll make a cast of the bone to give to Purdy and other museums that want it.
As for the bone itself, he's put it in a secure location. He suffers from epilepsy and other health problems, so he hopes to sell the bone to provide money for himself as well as fund other fossil-digging endeavors.
Purdy said she was skeptical about the etching at first but is now convinced. The finding could mean there are other, similar etchings that have not been found or just not noticed before, she said.
"I'll bet you there's a lot of people running right now to the storage drawers at their museums and looking," she said.
