Mastodon Bone with Artifacts in California

Extract

The complete lower jaw of a Mastodon was found a number of years ago in “Pleistocene” gravels several miles from Bitterwater, San Benito County, California. When this locality was visited a few weeks ago by a field party from the Museum of Paleontology, University of California, a confusing “association” of Proboscidean bones and recent utensils was observed. Near the top of a cross-bedded deposit of gravel lay the distal end of an elephant limb bone (see Figure 5). Immediately below was found an Indian stone mortar, and again below the latter occurred a cast iron Dutch oven. This association was obviously the result of re-working of these evidently non-contemporaneous objects.