It turns out that the first people to get in on Boulder real estate were the Clovis — the continent’s first people, who lived 13,000 years ago.
We know this from a cache of Clovis tools buried beneath the lawn of biotech entrepreneur Patrick Mahaffy.
The 83 stone implements — including bifacial knives and a tool resembling a double-bitted axe — were unearthed in May by a landscaping crew.
“There is a magic to these artifacts,” said Mahaffy, who backed a $7,000 analysis of the knife and axe blades.
The analysis by the Laboratory of Archaeological Science at California State University-Bakersfield found the blood of camels, horse and sheep, said Douglas Bamforth of the University of Colorado at Boulder, who has studied the items. “These are not hunting tools, so it looks like they butchered these animals, probably for food,” he said.
Archaeologists believe the Clovis came to the continent from Asia via a land bridge 13,000 to 13,500 years ago.
“The tools are made of Kremmling chert, which comes from the other side of the Continental Divide,” Bamforth said. “So even though we haven’t found the Clovis in Wyoming, we should keep looking.”
Mark Jaffe: 303-954-1912 or mjaffe@denverpost.com
