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Show SALT FLAT tfEWS, 14 FEBRUARY-MARC- H, 1971 tern The squat Hogup Mountains on the northwest border of the Great Salt Lake, in an area considered barren and worthless, may hold an archeological treasure. A team of student anthropologists headed by Dr. Jesse D. Jennings, anthropology professor at the University of Utah, has been working at the remote cave in the Hogups under the lure of the past.Working 50 miles from the nearest water and in dust so severe breathing masks must be worn, the anthropologists hope to learn the story of life in the Great Basin area of the Great Salt Lake from 6400 B.C. to the early 1700s. Before were through, were going to tell the whole story at this cave, said the - ld Jennings. Findings may disprove the accepted anthropological theory of the Antithermal period, ranging from 5000 B.C. to 2500 B.C. and thought to have been an age of severe drought in the western United States. Dr. Ernest Anteva postulated the theory in the late 1920 s. Dr. C. Melvin Aikens, anthropology professor at the University of Oregon who is directing digging at the site, and Dr. Jennings believe Hogup Cave may prove the drought period did not occur. Jennings first drew the conclusion in 1957 after excavating Danger Cave near Wend-over. Hogup Cave has the total of known history in the Great Basin area, according to Aikens. Jennings said some 16 layers, covering about 12 feet from top to bedrock in the cave, indicated on preliminary examination that the Antithermal period may not be fact. Dr. Antevas theory divided climatic conditions in the United States into three phases l, before 5000 B.C., when conditions were coldest; Anti Ana-therma- A widely accepted theory holds that human life disappear from vast sections of the Wes during a prolonged drought that lasted from 5000 to 2500 BC, However, according to Jesse D Jennings, professor of anthro pology at the University of Utah, artifacts and remains of dan and animal life uncovered by anthropologists and students in Hogup Cave, 75 airline miles northwest of here, show that the drought did not exist thermal; arid Medithermal, which ranged to temperate conditions of present day. Jennings said the theory has become gospel among anthro. pologists. The Utah professor said the cave on the southwest slope of ihe rolling Hogups, about 75 miles northwest of Salt Lake City, has not changed drastically Remnants of flora and fauna dug from the cave indicate that climate during the supposed dry period was benign. Bones of small mammals that prefer moist from the time Indians occupied it. According to Jenkins, the cave has hosted the Desert Archaic, FVemont and Shoshoni Indian cultures. Inhabitants most likely were wanderers from as far north as the Raft River Mountains on the Utah-Idah- o border to central Utah on the south. Findings indicated the Indian cultures used the cave to harvest seeds of the pickleweed a small, green juicy bush which ripens in late September and October, producing a small yellow seed. Seedf. were used as a staple for the Indians diet. The plant is indigenous only to areas with amounts of salt and water in the soil similar to that found on the borders of the Great Salt Lake. Indians harvested the plants and winnowed the seeds tossing cut plants into the air and allowing the seed to separate from the chaff much as ancient cultures harvested wheat. Other findings at' Hogup Cave indicated bull rush seeds, pack rats, mice and jack rabbits were eaten. In upper strata, remains of buffalo, antelope, mule deer and desert almond were found. Artifacts found included stone tools, basketry woven from fibers of bushes in the area and numerous arrow and spear heads. Jennings group of seven students representing 'five universities did not confine their studies to the cave itself, but moved into the broiling, shifting desert surrounding the site. The group trenched Hogup Seep, prime source of water to the picklewater and located about one mile from the cave. Aikens believes the seep has been there in varying degrees of size throughout the centuries. Trenching would uncover varying types of vegetation and Carbon-1- 4 dating would determine if plants grew during the supposed drought period. - . surroundings squirrels, chucks and rabbits were found in levels formed earlier than 2500 BC. . This indicates, Dr. Jennings said, that the range of climatic fluctuation in the vicinity of the cave was not severe enough to limit human habitation The crux of the matter, is with Antevs The point at climate. of theory issue is whether the dry, hot region was so intense as to imply centuries of drought. So, for the traveler the Hogup Mountains remain a dry, hot area, windswept and worthless even for a scenery snapshot. But for archeologists like Dr. Jennings and his team, the area is a treasure chest. said Jennings, Gary Fry, a Ph.D. candidate at the University who analyzed the human waste recovered from the cave, - reported that the average meal prior to 4,000 B.C. consisted of 23 percent seed (primarily pickleweed which grows near the cave), 5 percent prickly pear, 12 percent plant fiber and 6 percent bone. The bone found in the prehistoric sewage, Mr. Fry said, indicated animal flesh intake by the Indians. Mr. Fry also reported that tiny fragments 'of grit, flint chips and charcoal were an unintended part of the aboriginal diet because the Indians ground their seeds by stone, sharpened their knives and arrows with their teeth and parched their food in baskets. The Indians, according to Mr.. Frys findings, also suffered from pinworms. A more dangerous, thorny-heade- d worm which plagued the inhabitants at Danger Cave just across the salt flats to the west apparently was not as great a problem for the Indians at Hogupt Mr. Fry reported. Eggs of the thorny-headeworm Acantho-cephal- a were found in large numbers from individual sewage at Danger but in a low percentage of the specimens' studied at Hogup. The Indians probably ingested the parasites by eating the infected insect or rodent hosts. The worm burrowed into d the intestinal wall with its proboscis, causing diarrhea, weight loss, anemia and often death from perforation of the stomach wall. d well-arme- Dr. Jenning;, who had in the 1950s excavated Danger Cave near Wendover, Utah, a human habitation site occupied as early as 9000 BC, ranks the current discovery as one of the most significant of his career. What makes Hogup cave unique, he said, is that it contains a fairly complete record of Great Basin man almost up to the arrival of the white settlers. Students from several universities, supervised by Dr. Jennings and C. Melvin Aikens, also of Utah, have dug a trench 70 feet across the main cave into an inner chamber that had been sealed off by debris. ep The radiocarbon-date- d sam- ples have helped identify the three major Indian cultures that used the site; the primitive Desert Archaic people, prior to AD 400; the Fremont culture, from 420 to 1450; and, as late as 1850, bands of the Shoshoni tribe. These nomads ranged, in search of food, from the Raft River Mountains oA the present Utah-Idah- o border to Utah Lake, near Provo. Pickleweed seeds, a staple of their diet, are found on every level of the Hogup cave. Walking long distances across the desert in quest of food was an extremely hard existence, Dr. I preJennings commented. dict, he said, that we will never find the bones of a woman over the age of 40. Thus far, fragments of one skull are the only human remains discovered in the cave. This, Dr.' Jennings believes, is because the early Desert Archaic people probably d dead in hard-to-fin- buriedTheir crevices. |