RAPIDES PARISH, La. (KLFY) -- UL Lafayette's Archaeology Department has discovered rare artifacts charting the course of history in Louisiana.

During a six-week excavation in the Kisatchie National Forest, UL Lafayette's Archaeology Department found rare artifacts dating back to the last ice age. The team excavated an estimated 13,000 artifacts.

"We're finding some projectile points 10-12,000 years old, so that dates back to the earliest people living in Louisiana. It goes back to the last ice age. They could be arrowheads, they could be spearheads, they could be dart points," said Dr. Erlend Johnson, the director of the Louisiana Public Archaeology project.

While the projectile points are the oldest artifacts found, the team is searching for a slightly younger, more unique artifact.

"We actually found evidence of wooden posts and that's a first for this area. We found something like five posts. This kind of changes what people think about this area. So, maybe there are more permanent settlements there or maybe they're hunter-gatherers, but they are building more permanent settlements for some reason or another," explained Dr. Johnson.

Dr. Johnson is grateful for the attention the recent discoveries have received and hopes this gives the team an opportunity to train a new generation of archaeologists in Louisiana.

"Southern Louisiana, in particular, we are under a lot of threat of the destruction of landscapes including archaeology. There's not a load of people who do archaeology down here, either. So, there's a lot of need for people to work and a need to document what we can while we still can."

Dr. Johnson encourages anyone interested in the field at UL Lafayette to major in anthropology with a focus on archaeology.