00:00Alabama Cave Reveals America's Most Complete Record of Prehistoric Life
00:04Hidden in northeastern Alabama, Russell Cave preserves an unbroken 8,700-year record of human life.
00:13Archaeological layers reveal how people hunted, cooked, and adapted to shifting climates,
00:18making the cave a rare natural archive of early North American history.
00:23Russell Cave appears modest from the outside,
00:26but the shallow opening leads into a system stretching more than seven miles underground.
00:31An underground spring provided fresh water and stable temperatures,
00:35making the cave an ideal year-round shelter for early humans.
00:39Carbon dating shows people lived in the cave between 6,550 and 6,145 BCE during the Archaic period.
00:48Stone spear points and atlatls found in the lowest layers
00:51reveal skilled hunters who relied on local chert and hunted deer.
00:55turkey, squirrel, and now extinct species like giant armadillos.
01:00Around 500 BCE, pottery appeared, marking the woodland period.
01:05The introduction of bows and arrows changed hunting,
01:08while evidence of early plant cultivation shows a gradual shift
01:12from pure hunting and gathering toward planned food production.
01:17By 1,000 CE, Mississippian culture reshaped the region with permanent villages,
01:22intensive farming, and trade networks.
01:24The cave was used less frequently and was largely abandoned by about 1650 CE,
01:30following European contact and cultural disruption.
01:33Excavations beginning in the 1950s revealed layered deposits
01:37documenting nearly 9,000 years of continuous human life.
01:41Designated a national monument in 1961,
01:44Russell Cave remains one of the most complete archaeological records in North America.
01:49Unplugged explanation for history in the 1950s.
01:50Coordinatings of 1945, brisk would not be found in the 1960s.
01:51The Today's
02:03An красивый
Comments