When (Really) Old Feces Makes You Famous

You know how some people think their old stuff is really worth something? Well, for world renowned archaeologist Dr. Dennis Jenkins, his discovery of 14,300-year-old human feces in Oregon gained global attention because it shed new light on how and when the first people came to North America.

He’ll be at the Museum on Saturday at 1 p.m., presenting “Oregon’s Earliest Inhabitants: Archaeology and Genetic Studies at the Paisley Caves,” the Earle A. Chiles Award Lecture.

In 2002, Dr. Jenkins found evidence that humans were living in the Paisley Caves in south central Oregon 14,000 years ago. That challenged the theory of how and when the first people came to North America.

His revolutionary findings attracted worldwide media attention. It involved interdisciplinary research, and an international team of scientific experts. It was a milestone in archaeology and in his long career, throughout which he succeeded in finding common ground with diverse groups of Native American tribes and other interest groups in Oregon through sometimes complex and sensitive negotiations.

He also has shared his knowledge, traveling throughout Oregon, enthusiastically educating the public about the meaning of archaeological findings in the High Desert. The High Desert Museum chose him for the annual Earle A. Chiles Award last year, recognizing his more than two decades of research into human ecology and cultural history dating back 14,000 years in the High Desert.

“It is a tremendous honor and it recognizes my persistence, and my love for Central Oregon,” Dr. Jenkins said. “I am just deeply moved by having the recognition for 20 years of hard work out there, and it certainly will help me in many ways to further my research and certainly to stimulate me to greater efforts.”

Dr. Jenkins has spent most of every summer for the past 20 years teaching at the University of Oregon field school at Fort Rock, Paisley and Catlow Valley. “And, I’ve been reaching out to townspeople and ranchers through the Chautauqua lectures (for the Oregon Council for the Humanities) at schools and libraries around Central Oregon,” he said. He also teaches archaeology at the University of Oregon campus branch in Bend.

In Paisley, he and his students discovered camel bones and signs they had been butchered by humans. Atop the bones they found what rigorous DNA analysis revealed to be more than 14,000-year-old human feces, called coprolites. Dr. Jenkins has called this “the perfect human signature… the perfect artifact.”

The discovery challenged the prevailing belief that humans first came to this continent 13,000 years ago across a land bridge from Asia. Dr. Jenkins’ findings establish that people were here 1,000 years earlier. That suggests that humans could have first arrived here by boat to the Pacific coast, or could have come down the coast on land in a way that researchers have not determined, or that an ice-free corridor to North America could have opened earlier than most people believe. Jenkins believes that his continuing research at the Paisley Caves will reveal more important clues to the secrets of North America's ancient heritage.

His work includes writing eight books, numerous book chapters, articles and professional reports, and work on three documentaries including the History Channel’s “All About Dung” in 2008.