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luxpbiam mammoth, ancient :-f-' i h m m k P$ pifii i if li cas&el and other now extjaet W M ^ faKe£Jiorejtffifci< toddy roardow m from the nearby Spring M ^ and shift thfl'iffli^lra^plft^f £ * 30,000 ^Year ;0raV es|;y Tule Springs .is a,prehis­toric “graveyard.” ; It Con­tains the skeletal remains of creatures which roamed the earth m o r ey than y 30,000 Their bones poke f r o n a eroded' gullies, and lie ]scat­tered on the desert floor. There/ too, are the unmis­takable tools of man-—stone scrapers,^choppers, and other cutting 1 implements ; § || t m flaked' ledges |a s t ^haipff'as tyill tions^of, man’s presence m the New World 30,000 years ago. ; 1 ig lg j<. h /- 1) f4:;; Such a discovery would p lacem an here; at a time when ^the ^bruti^h 'Neander­thal I still .roamed 1 the con­tinent of Europe!' | ^ §T 11B <* |I t -also would upset cur­rent t l i e p r i e s^that man crossed* a land bridge from Asia to Alaska about 10,000 yearsiAgo, l aifdthen^m oved down th e coritiheht to South Ifceridad in^ow rrom tne. gauu^ -casmcjaBMagg \regp%# kndy apd h a u n te d type, with modern maxi’s brain capacity c a te , ih ^ fe ^ u f^ ^ d ^ r b b - ably around five ft. tall. Despite his stature, Shut­ler believes he was a formi­dable hu&ter^yftbw; tackled the huge mammoth with the same hit-andrrun ,- tactics used by the African pgymy. A field team from the American Museum of Natur­al History stumbled on Tule Springs in 1933 on the banks of a west, of Las Vegas.|S§|f|yV' Three Three small exploratory diggings have been cohduct-ed by the Southwestf Mu­seum of Los Angeles. But a systematic assault was nev­er attempted because of the costs. . . | : The impending excavation was underwritten by a $42,- 000 grant from the National Science Foundation. Actual costs will run much more. H. C.: Smith, associate ar­cheologist of y&e Nevada State Museum, lim ^ p erv ise the earth moving bperktion. He has enlisted the help of business and industry on the project. Seven pieces of heavy earth m o v i n g equipment were donated to shave the desert fade as much as 12 ft. to within. 18 in. of the oc­cupation level. The’"scien­tists then take I over. Fuel will be donated by ah oil Company. 200,000 Cubic Yard Job Smith; w h q is presidemtof a Los Angeles construction Richard company, said the equip- ShUtter, director^of proj- jment will move 200,000 cubic yards of earth from the 3,000 i g f f l 500 fL site - I- • ' S l i Scientists* baring ^ a h ^ f ^ r ly history. vdll bisect the 1 28 ,0 0 0 Y e a r s O l d | | One sample of charcoal has been dated a t 28,000 years old by a counter which mea site with a. series of trench­es, then slow ly scrape off the 18 in. of sediment separat­ing them from:the fossils. Dr. Willard Libby, form chairman of the Atomic tive: carbon-14. Energy Commission.and now UCLA professor, is a mem* a fire .hearth was given the same age” said Shutler, cur­ator of , anthropology at the Nevada Ufate Museum; , , * ^V‘ S ~ ? V f „ - r ' tpk “ * Ssl ' ' ? Tools;made b y m a n un­questionably are associated with the prehistoric bones Prize. ber of the proj ect advisory committee, ; | 3 f He will fix the of sam­ples taken from the site us* ing the radiocarbon method he developed to win a Nobel found on the site, Shutler said. . ‘ ^ I ^ 1 1 , : y “B ui we will be extreme­ly fortunate if we find hu­man fossils,” he said. “It’s remote but not impossible.” Shutler believes he would prove to be a mongoloid Please Turn to Pg* 4, Col. 2 Shutler is hoping to keep Dry|j&iby busy with cultur­al samples, 72 of which have been located without one a h o ^ fu l of earth b e in g turned. And somewhere on the edge o f an ancient firepit may rest the skull of a primi­tive xrian. ' “I£y we find him,” says Shutler, “he unquestionably will be the oldest known man in the Americas,”