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The Mahaffy Clovis Cache refers to a significant archaeological discovery made in Boulder, Colorado. This cache consists of Clovis artifacts associated with the Clovis culture. Known for its presence in North America around 13,000 years ago.

83 stone tools from a packed hole the size of a shoebox
The cache included knives, scrapers, and other items used for butchering animals and processing hides. Made from quartzite, chert, and obsidian. Its believed many of the artifacts originated from the Uinta Mountains, in ne Utah. Which would have been transported from distant locations. Indicating travel and trade by Clovis people.

Making it one of the most significant clovis era finds. Radiocarbon dating and other tests estimated the cache to be about 13,000 years
It is one of the rare collections to undergo a blood protein analysis on the tools. It determined hunters used them to butcher ice age horses, camels, sheep and bears. Contributing to the understaning of range, and survival strategies, in the rocky mountains.

Did you know? This was one of the first instances where direct evidence of butchering extinct species was found in connection with Clovis tools.

For further study and preservation, the Mahaffy family donated the cache to the University of Colorado Museum of Natural History
Providing valuable insights into lives and strategies or early residents of the continent. They are still being studied.

Keep an eye out. This highlights potential for archaeological finds in urban areas
In a modern residential backyard. The tools were discovered by accident. A key discovery, the Mahaffy Clovis Cache is important.

It gives archaeologists a better understanding of the geographic spread, resource use, and lifestyle of early north Americans.

Bibliography:

The Mahaffy Cache. (2024, March 4). Alumni Association. https://www.colorado.edu/coloradan/2024/03/04/mahaffy-cache

13,000-Year-Old stone tool cache in Colorado shows evidence of camel,. (2016, July 20). CU Boulder Today. https://www.colorado.edu/today/2009/02/25/13000-year-old-stone-tool-cache-colorado-shows-evidence-camel-horse-butchering

Caching in – Archaeology Magazine archive. (n.d.). https://archive.archaeology.org/0905/trenches/caching_in.html