Caching In - Archaeology Magazine Archive

A homeowner discovers Clovis tools

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Archaeologist Douglas Bamforth (left) and homeowner Patrick Mahaffy (right) hold some of the stone tools that hunter-gatherers left in Mahaffy's yard at least 13,000 years ago. (Courtesy Glenn J. Asakawa/University of Colorado)

When landscapers uncovered a collection of 83 stone tools in the front yard of Patrick Mahaffy's home in Boulder, Colorado, the thrill of discovery quickly turned to confusion about what to do next. "One guy said we should call CU [University of Colorado at Boulder]," says Mahaffy, "a couple of guys said we shouldn't tell anyone because the archaeologists would shut down the project." But Mahaffy was curious about the artifacts, so he called the university's anthropology department and the next day archaeologist Douglas Bamforth came out to investigate. "You know there are things that disappear every day because people don't call an archaeologist," says Bamforth. Artifacts found on private property belong to the landowner, but that did not prevent Mahaffy from working with Bamforth to produce some important insights into a poorly known chapter of Colorado's prehistory.

"I thought they were Indian artifacts from maybe 100 or 200 years ago," Mahaffy says. The collection, now known as the Mahaffy Cache, includes one chopping tool, eight knives, and one "core, " which may have served as raw material for making other tools. There were also four retouched flakes that showed some signs of being modified into tools, and 68 unmodified flakes. The objects were not distinctive enough to indicate which culture had made them, but judging by the shape and the techniques used to make the tools, Bamforth suspected they were much older than a couple centuries. Mahaffy paid to have the cache sent to California State University at Bakersfield for protein residue analysis. Three of the tools and one of the flakes had residues that likely came from butchering a sheep, bear, horse, and species of camel that became extinct roughly 13,000 years ago when hunter-gatherers known as the Clovis people lived in Colorado. Fewer than a dozen Clovis sites have been found in the state. "I didn't even know that people lived in Boulder 13,000 years ago," says Mahaffy. But the discovery may have been even more of a revelation to Bamforth.

"These are uncommon animals in Clovis archaeological sites," says Bamforth. "It sort of broadens our view of the range of species these folks hunted." Bamforth also studied the stone from which the tools were made. He noticed that it came from three sites, suggesting a journey from the northwestern corner of the state, along the Yampa River, and over the continental divide to the place where the cache was found. The tools may have been buried in case they were needed on a return trip.

Bamforth is still analyzing and documenting the tools. When he is finished, Mahaffy will offer most of the artifacts to a museum with the stipulation that the artifacts be exhibited for the public. But he will rebury part of the cache where it was found, and has added some modern artifacts to his yard. "I did bury a knife, fork, and spoon so that people 13,000 years from now can find out how I lived," he says. What about the protein residue? "I think it was a rib-eye steak."