Friday, August 18, 2006
Ice-age tusk surfaces in clay of fossil-rich Saltville Valley
Saltville - What's grayish-brown, about 2 feet long, and recently discovered in the saltwater well fields here?
It's not a pile of salt or mud, although there's plenty of that. It's a tusk from a mammoth or mastodon - no one is sure which and it's the latest in a long series of ice-age fossil finds in this small Southwest Virginia town.
'They were thrilled when they found this tusk,' said Helen Barbrow, president of the Saltville Foundation. 'We don't have a tusk like that.'
The foundation oversees operation of the Museum of the Middle Appalachians, which sponsored this summer's dig in late July and early August.
A volunteer from a local archaeological club uncovered the tusk.
technorati tags: saltville, virginia, tusk, mammoth, mastodon, ice-age, fossil, museum, middle, appalachians, archaeological
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