Archaeologist to speak at YSU; lecture is free, open to public

YOUNGSTOWN -- A local archaeologist who set the archaeological world on its ear 30 years ago with his finds at the Meadowcroft Rockshelter southwest of Pittsburgh will visit Youngstown State University on Wednesday.
Dr. James M. Adovasio, former Youngstown resident and instructor at YSU, will speak at the YSU Anthropology Colloquium at 6 p.m. in the Chestnut Room of Kilcawley Center. The program is free and open to the public.
His topic will be, "Strangers In a Strange Land: Some Biased Thoughts on the Peopling of the New World."
His discovery
Adovasio was looking for a good excavation site for his University of Pittsburgh students when he came across the Meadowcroft Rockshelter near Avella, Pa.
Before excavations there, it was a common belief in the archaeology community that the oldest evidence of human habitation in North America had been found at Clovis, N.M., which showed man had been there 11,500 years ago. That supported the theory that man came to this continent across the Bering Strait between Russia and Alaska around 12,000 years ago.
Adovasio said evidence found at Meadowcroft in 1973 and 1974 showed that humans were active there at least 16,000 years ago. That would put the estimated Bering Strait crossing at between 20,000 and 30,000 years ago, he said.
Adovasio is chairman of the Department of Anthropology/Archaeology at Mercyhurst College in Erie, Pa. He is also director of the Mercyhurst Archaeological Institute.