340 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1951 



2-foot 6-inch level, a depth of a little less than 4 feet, represents 

 approximately 2,300 years. 



The Fort Rock Cave in Oregon is particularly interesting as well 

 as somewhat puzzling. At that location a large number of fiber 

 sandals and some basketry were recovered from beneath a layer of 

 pumice which has been identified with the Newberry eruption that 

 presumably followed that of the Mount Mazama eruption which pro- 

 duced Crater Lake ( Cressman, Williams, and Kreiger, 1940) . The san- 

 dals were tested and were found to have an average age of 9,053 ±350, 

 the oldest actual artifacts thus far dated. If the assumption that 

 the Newberry eruption followed that of Mount Mazama is correct, it 

 appears that there was a considerable interval between the time the 

 sandals were left on the floor of the cave and when they were covered 

 by the pumice. The Mount Mazama eruption has been dated by a 

 carbon- 14 test of charcoal from a tree killed by the eruption and the 

 age 6,453 ±250 was obtained. Williams (1942) had previously 

 estimated it to be between 4,000 and 7,000, Allison (1946) had placed 

 it at 12,000 to 14,000, and Hansen (1946) , on the basis of pollen stratig- 

 raphy, suggested 12,500 or somewhat later. The maximum, under 

 the circumstances, for the Newberry would appear to be somewhat 

 less than the 6,453 ±250 of the Mount Mazama and it may well have 

 been considerably later. The date for the sandals, of course, is not 

 that for the overlying pumice but it is rather difficult to explain how 

 they remained on the surface of a cave floor for several millennia 

 without alteration and then were charred by the heat from the New- 

 berry pumice (Cressman et al., 1940, p. 68; Cressman, 1942, p. 52; 

 1943, p. 239). When first announced, the date for the sandals was 

 thought to indicate a reverse order for the volcanic eruptions. That 

 is not now considered to be the case however. A subsequent state- 

 ment to the effect that the dated sandals came from some distance 

 below the pumice (Cressman, 1951, p. 308) bolsters that opinion. 

 Archeologically, as well as geologically, the Mount Mazama pumice 

 is an important feature in Oregon in that it forms a line of demarca- 

 tion for dating deposits occurring beneath and above it. Once the 

 age of the Newberry pumice, or pumices (since the prescence of four 

 cones in the crater and others along the eastern base of the volcano 

 suggest there may have been several eruptions) , has been established 

 it also will be equally helpful. Hansen estimates the Newberry erup- 

 tion at between 7,500 and 9,500 and Allison places it at from 11,000 

 to 12,000, but in view of the Mount Mazama results it would seem that 

 the carbon- 14 date will prove to be considerably less. If the date for 

 the sandals is correct, it is extremely significant because it shows that 

 the inhabitants of North America at that time had not only developed 

 a fine technique in the manufacture of protection for the feet but that 



