Whales as archaeological record keepers

[Mayonaze]

Pictures in this article of stone points found in recently taken whales.

http://www.ktuu.com/Global/story.asp?S=6590330

"… North Slope Borough Biologist Craig George said ivory, stone and bone harpoon points have been found embedded in the blubber of recently landed whales. These types of weapons have not been used by subsistence hunters in a long time.
"Archaeologists say some of last use of them was in the 1880s or so," George said.
They are finds scientists say help prove that some bowhead whales likely outlived a generation of hunters.
"Confirmed that some animals may be well into their 100s, may be 200 years old," George said.
The hunters' lost tools have returned, caught on the past and carried into the future by creatures that swim across human lifetimes…"

[Forum Monk]

From the article:

This spring a whaling crew in Barrow found what is believed to be a fragment from an explosive casing from the late 1800s. It's something that would have been used by Yankee whaling crews likely commercially hunting the bowheads. Another six finds in recent years have been scientifically documented.

Famous last words -
"Hey what's that thing sticking out of that dead whale?"

[Minimalist]

Fascinating stuff, Mayo.

[Charlie Hatchett]

Go figure. I had no idea whales lived so long.

Cool.

[Cognito]

Go figure. I had no idea whales lived so long.

Those are the whales they found with artifacts over 120 years old lodged in their bodies. Makes me wonder how long the REAL OLD whales lived.

[Charlie Hatchett]

Go figure. I had no idea whales lived so long.

Those are the whales they found with artifacts over 120 years old lodged in their bodies. Makes me wonder how long the REAL OLD whales lived.

Probably depends on the species?

From what I've read so far, different whale species, on average, live from ca. 30 years to 90 years. No telling how long some of the whales live that are on the right hand sigma of the curve.

[Mayonaze]

Apparently this isn't new news, having found many articles since about 2000 repeating much the same information - except for one that said that 3 pre-clovis points were recovered from Jeanne Louise Clement, a French woman who met Van Gogh as a teenager and died in a nursing home in southern France in 1997.

(not)

[kbs2244]

O K
That begs the question of where did she get the points?
And when?
And, of course, was it documented?

[Minimalist]

The Club most likely still will not recognize "pre-clovis" points or anything else.

[Rokcet Scientist]

The Club most likely still will not recognize "pre-clovis" points or anything else.

"The Club" would be barking up the entirely wrong tree in entirely the wrong forest: "The Club" has no business 'recognizing' or 'not recognizing' "pre-clovis" points – or "pre-clovis" anything – found in Europe (or anywhere outside the contiguous US).

[Leona Conner]

O K
That begs the question of where did she get the points?
And when?
And, of course, was it documented?

Rather, where did Van Gogh get them? I've never heard if he visited the U.S. From what I've heard he spent his live going crazy in Southern France.

[Minimalist]

Well, the weather's great and the wine extraordinary. I can think of worse places to go nuts.

[Rokcet Scientist]

O K
That begs the question of where did she get the points?
And when?
And, of course, was it documented?

Rather, where did Van Gogh get them? I've never heard if he visited the U.S. From what I've heard he spent his live going crazy in Southern France.

I beg your pardon, Leona?
Are you suggesting Vinnie 'inserted' those points in Mademoiselle Clément....?

I've heard of kids not washing the hand they used to shake with some famous football player for weeks. But this is ridiculous....

[Leona Conner]

Apparently this isn't new news, having found many articles since about 2000 repeating much the same information - except for one that said that 3 pre-clovis points were recovered from Jeanne Louise Clement, a French woman who met Van Gogh as a teenager and died in a nursing home in southern France in 1997.

(not)

?????? Does "recovered from" mean that they were taken out of her body? If that is the case then I must be getting dense in my old age, because I took it to mean that she had them in her possession. After all "THE" Van Gogh died in 1890 and if she was a teenager when she met him, she lived a hell of a long time with those points in her.

[Forum Monk]

Folks - Are you debating a real story??? Clovis points found in a woman???

When Mayo ended his post with "(not)" was he telling us something? I took it as a joke or exaggeration at best.