WAYNE COUNTY, Iowa — A team of University of Iowa archaeologists have made a discovery more than 10,000 years in the making.
Researchers unearthed a mastodon skull in Wayne County, university officials announced. The team was tipped off to the site back in 2022 when a local resident found a strange, long bone on their property. That turned out to be a mastodon's femur, and during an investigation the following fall, they found a broken tusk believed to be still attached to a skull.
In August 2024, the team returned after securing funding for the dig. During this visit, they were able to excavate the skull and several other bones, as well. Researchers believe the remains to be approximately 13,600 years old, and said this raises the possibility that humans could have interacted with the animal.
“We’re really hoping to find evidence of human interaction with this creature — perhaps the projectile points and knives that were used to kill the animal and do initial butchering,” John Doershuk, state archaeologist at the University of Iowa Office of the State Archaeologist said. “There’s also potential evidence on the bones themselves — there could be identifiable cut marks.”
Researchers did find apparent human-made relics during the hunt, but they were dated several thousand years after the skull.
