Center for the Study of the First AmericansDepartment of AnthropologyTexas A&M University4352 TAMUCollege Station, TX 77843-4352www.centerfirstamericans.com

Volume 23, Number 3 ■■■■■ July, 2008

he Center for the Study of the FirstAmericans fosters research and publicinterest in the Peopling of the Americas.T

The Center, an integral part of the Departmentof Anthropology at Texas A&M University,promotes interdisciplinary scholarly dialogueamong physical, geological, biological andsocial scientists. The Mammoth Trumpet,news magazine of the Center, seeks to involveyou in the peopling of the Americas by reportingon developments in all pertinent areas ofknowledge.

A Bull’s-eye in ChileQuebrada Santa Julia wasn’t a lucky find.Archaeologists Donald Jackson and César

Méndez of the University of Chile–Santiagostudied paleo landforms and chose an

ancient ravine that drains into the nearbyPacific Ocean as a likely site to find evidence

of terminal-Pleistocene human occupation.After a dig more than 30 ft deep (the photo

shows Dr. Jackson beside the impressivestratigraphic profile) they found an occupa-tion floor that dates to the end of the Clovis

culture in North America. Here Paleo-americans also chipped fluted points—but

of quartz, not chert—and despite theirproximity to the ocean chose a subsistence

based largely on the horse instead ofmarine life. There are more surprises, too,

in our story that starts on page 10.

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Volume 23, Number 3 Center for the Study of the First Americans Department of Anthropology

July, 2008 Texas A&M University, 4352 TAMU, College Station, TX 77843-4352 ISSN 8755-6898

World Wide Web site http://centerfirstamericans.org and http://anthropology.tamu.edu

4 Calibrating the genetic clockDNA from the remains of an earlyAmerican found in a cave on anisland off the Alaska coast is agodsend to geneticist BrianKemp, for it proves that ourestimate of the rate of mutationwas much too slow.

10 Chilean Clovis contemporariesTheir points aren’t Clovis orfishtails. One thing is certainabout Quebrada Santa Julia,investigators Jackson andMéndez assure us: It isn’t any-thing like Monte Verde.

14 Cashing in on obsidian’sspecial propertyUnlike chert, obsidian absorbswater over time. Using hydrationdating, three Western scientistsare revising the dating of GreatBasin points.

18 An unholy heavenly visitorfor Clovis people and Ice Agemegafauna?North America may already havesuffered the nightmare of nuclearwinter. Evidence collected bygeophysicist Allen West’s teampoints to a continent-shakingcometary impact.

8 Remembering Robert Weber

Dan Joyce of Kenosha Museum describesdisarticulated mammoth bones andassociated lithic tools from the Schaefersite, evidence of pre-Clovis humanpresence in Wisconsin.

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HE TIMING AND NATURE of the peo-pling of the Americas remain conten-tious issues. With more and more evi-T

dence of potential pre-Clovis occupations inNorth America, archaeologists recognizethe critical need to establish evidentiaryand methodological criteria that will ensurea higher level of confidence in early sites.This was the primary goal of the Paleo-american Origins Workshop, held last Feb-ruary 14–16 in Austin, Texas. Researchersfrom around the world, convened bearing awide spectrum of views, open minds readyto evaluate the body of evidence, and ascholarly discourse to constructively ad-dress broad issues. Hosted by the Center

for the Study of the First Americans, TexasArcheological Research Laboratory (TARL),Southeastern Paleo American Survey, andthe Smithsonian Institution, the workshopreviewed specific early-occupation sites,models for the peopling of the Americas,and rules of evidence necessary to confi-dently verify human presence.

The workshop was organized by TomPertierra, a co-organizer of the Southeast-ern Paleo American Survey (SEPAS) andfounder of SEPAS.Inc., a citizens support

organization that conducts archaeo-logical conferences and workshops.SEPAS.Inc. also provides logisticalsupport to archaeological projects

by Ashley Smallwood

2 Volume 23 ■ Number 3

Mammoth Trumpet, Statement of Our PolicyMany years may pass between the time an important discovery is made and the acceptance of researchresults by the scientific community. To facilitate communication among all parties interested in stayingabreast of breaking news in First Americans studies, the Mammoth Trumpet, a science news magazine,provides a forum for reporting and discussing new and potentially controversial information importantto understanding the peopling of the Americas. We encourage submission of articles to the ManagingEditor and letters to the Editor. Views published in the Mammoth Trumpet are the views ofcontributors, and do not reflect the views of the editor or Center personnel.

–Michael R. Waters, Director

The Mammoth Trumpet (ISSN 8755-6898) is published quarterly by the Center forthe Study of the First Americans, Department of Anthropology, Texas A&M University,College Station, TX 77843-4352. Phone (979) 845-4046; fax (979) 845-4070; e-mailcsfa@tamu.edu. Periodical postage paid at College Station, TX 77843-4352 and atadditional mailing offices.

POSTMASTER: Send address changes to:Mammoth TrumpetDepartment of Anthropology, Texas A&M University4352 TAMUCollege Station, TX 77843-4352

Copyright © 2008 Center for the Study of the First Americans. Permission is herebygiven to any non-profit or educational organization or institution to reproduce withoutcost any materials from the Mammoth Trumpet so long as they are then distributed atno more than actual cost. The Center further requests that notification of reproductionof materials under these conditions be sent to the Center. Address correspondence to theeditor of Mammoth Trumpet, 2122 Scout Road, Lenoir, NC 28645.

Michael R. Waters Director and General Editore-mail: mwaters@tamu.edu

Ted Goebel Associate Director and Editor, Current Research inthe Pleistocenee-mail: goebel@tamu.edu

James M. Chandler Editor, Mammoth Trumpete-mail: wordsmiths@touchnc.net

Laurie Lind Office Manager

C & C Wordsmiths Layout and Design

World Wide Web site http://centerfirstamericans.com

The Center for the Study of the First Americans is a non-profit organization. Sub-scription to the Mammoth Trumpet is by membership in the Center.

that promote public education and coop-eration between professional, avoca-tional, and amateur archaeologists. Per-tierra had high hopes for the conference.“Our goal for the conference,” he re-marks, “was to bring together key re-searchers directly involved with the Peo-pling of the Americas to collectively shareand consider their evidence in a collegialatmosphere and to establish acceptableevidentiary criteria for evaluation of pro-posed early sites.” It’s high time scholarstake stock of the current base of knowl-edge. “Frankly,” says Pertierra, “it wastime for proponents and critics to openlydiscuss the early-entry issue face-to-face.”

The 3-day workshop was an intenseevaluation of the state of the Paleo-american origins debate. On days 1 and 2,researchers gave 40-minute presenta-tions, each followed by a 40-minute dis-

each site based on the rules of evidence:the artifact assemblages, geologic con-text, and the reliability of their dates.

Ted Goebel, Associate Director ofCSFA, presented recent evidence frommolecular genetics that southern Siberiais the ancient homeland of the FirstAmericans. Their dispersal from Siberiainto Beringia was a single major foundingmigration. Furthermore, dispersal intoAmerica from Beringia, the leg of the tripthat largely appeals to the Paleoamerican

debate, appears to have taken place afterthe last glacial maximum by subhaplo-groups genetically distinct from Siberiangroups. In sum, the genetic signature ofthe First Americans didn’t evolve untilafter humans spread out of Siberia.

Tom Stafford (Stafford ResearchLaboratories) called for a “moratorium oncomplaining” and urged that every site beexcavated as if it had the archaeologicalpotential for occupation earlier thanClovis.

cussion period, giving scholars theunique opportunity to present and dis-cuss face-to-face archaeological evidencefrom specific sites that elude the tradi-tional Clovis-first model.

Day 1: Plotting the course andtaking stockA brief introduction by Michael Collins,TARL, welcomed speakers and guests tothe exciting event. Then it was straight tothe facts. Michael Waters, Director ofthe Center for the Study of the FirstAmericans (CSFA), encouraged research-ers to thoroughly evaluate and discuss

Andy Hemmings of TARL has an interest-ing use for a Clovis shaft wrench.

July ■ 2008 3

The rest of day 1 was devoted to presentationsdescribing the empirical or archaeological evi-dence on review. The first group of sites pre-sented included sites once positioned along theglacier ice margin. Dan Joyce (Kenosha PublicMuseum) described his reevaluation of the mam-moth remains from Schaefer site, Wisconsin. Hesuggests that the disarticulated mammoth andassociated lithic remains were found in a low-energy pond deposit that dates to 12,300–12,500RCYBP. (A study by Waters and Stafford pub-lished in Science in 2007 defines the span of theClovis culture from about 11,100 to 10,765 RCYBP,or about 13,125 to 12,925 CALYBP.) EileenJohnson (Director of Lubbock Lake Landmark, Texas) dis-cussed the Mud Lake and Hebior sites, two other sites along theice margin in Wisconsin dated between 12,500 and 13,500RCYBP. Based on plotted bone distributions and detailed analysisof cutmarks, she proposes that both sites have animals disarticu-lated by humans. Finally, Mike Waters updated the group onthe Manis Mastodonsite in Washington; henotes that CT scansconfirm that the objectlodged in the animal isa penetrating bone pro-jectile point that hadsplit at the tip.

After a constructivediscussion on sitesalong the ice margin,the focus turned to thepreliminary report of Dennis Jenkins (Museum of Anthropol-ogy, University of Oregon) on the archaeology and geo-archaeology of Paisley Cave 5. Three human coprolites datingolder than 12,000 RCYBP offer strong evidence for an earlyhuman occupation in Oregon. Geneticist Eske Willerslev (De-partment of Evolutionary Biology, University of Copenhagen)was eager to present his analysis of thePaisley Cave coprolites. The team plansto conduct more DNA testing and obtainadditional dates on component materi-als from the human coprolites.

Shifting the focus from NorthAmerica, Ruth Gruhn (emerita An-thropology professor, University ofAlberta), a longtime proponent of SouthAmerica’s role in the peopling of theAmericas, had the challenging task ofpresenting decades of research on earlySouth American sites. With AlanBryan (emeritus Anthropology profes-sor, University of Alberta) ready to fieldquestions, Gruhn emphasized the need to take into accountearly sites in the Southern Hemisphere. The occupation atTaima-taima in Venezuela, for example, has been dated to ap-proximately 13,000 RCYBP.

The final presentation of the day was perhaps the most stir-

ring. Allen West (GeoScienceConsulting) and Jim Kennet (De-partment of Geological Sciences,University of California–Santa Bar-bara) presented evidence of spikesin the incidence of extraterrestrialparticles that suggest a comet im-pact with North America at about11,000 RCYBP. The fiery airburst,they argue, halted ocean circula-tion in the North Atlantic, led to

widespread megafauna extinctions, and triggered the collapseof the Clovis culture.

Day 2: Pre-Clovis evidence show-and-tellDay 2 began with an evaluation of the early record from easternNorth America. Jim Dunbar (Bureau of Archaeological Re-

search for the State of Florida) reported evidencefor human occupation at the Page-Ladson site inthe Aucilla and Wacissa river basins of westernFlorida. According to Dunbar, an older, intactcomponent (Unit 3) contains disarticulated mast-

Michael Collins (left) of TARLconfers with Mike Waters of CSFA.

Most authorities agree that the scratches onthis mammoth leg bone from the Mud Lakesite in Wisconsin are man-made cutmarks.Purified collagen from the bone dates to13,530 RCYBP.

odon remains with potential cutmarks and an associated lithicassemblage. Page-Ladson and Suwanee points, among the arti-facts displaced from Unit 3, are thought to be potentially associ-ated with the megafauna. Mike Johnson (Fairfax County ParkAuthority) reviewed archaeological evidence dated to about16,000 RCYBP from Cactus Hill, Virginia, then introduced a

predictive model for locating early human oc-cupations in the Nottoway River Valley. Heplans to use his model to systematically locatesummer occupations for Clovis and poten-tially earlier groups.

Pushing the human occupation record backeven further in time, Steve Holen (DenverMuseum of Nature & Science) presented evi-

Dennis Jenkins, discoverer of pre-Clovishuman coprolites in Paisley Cave inOregon (left), and Steve Holen of theDenver Museum of Nature & Scienceexamine a specimen on display.

dence of human bone processing and quarrying at the La Sena,Nebraska, and Lovewell, Kansas, sites. Bone beds contain con-centrations of highly fragmented bones, spiral-fractured mam-moth femurs, and displaced rib bones, some specimens dating

continued on page 16

4 Volume 23 ■ Number 3

NCIENT REMAINS of a young man found in 1996 in OnYour Knees Cave on Prince of Wales Island in south-ern Alaska were radiocarbon-dated to 10,300 yr B.P.,

linguistics, mathematics, and statistics, and by subsequentstudies of other molecular anthropologists.

About haplogroups and haplotypesThe terms haplogroup and haplotype can be confusing. In terms

of mitochondrial DNA, a haplotype is a unique mitochon-drial lineage, different from all other lineages by at

least one mutation. A haplogroup is a group ofclosely related haplotypes. The terminology, how-ever, is relative, which means that a haplotype can

be referred to as a haplogroup in that it containsall the descendant haplotypes.

By studying mitochondrial varia-tion in contemporary and prehis-toric Native Americans and sortingout haplogroups, haplotypes, sub-haplotypes and sub-subhaplotypes,

scientists collect important clues aboutthe origin of the First Americans, when

they first arrived in the NewWorld, and even the route theymay have taken.

To understand genetic science,think printers

If the concepts of alleles and hyper-variable regions are foreign to you, look at

the whole thing with a detective’s eye. Let’ssay a memo was issued at the

company where you work, butno one signed it and no oneknows its origin.

Early-HoloceneCaveman SinksHis Teethinto GeneticsAmaking this one of the oldest widely accepted archaeologicalsites with human remains in North America.

It turns out this Early American has secrets to share with us,for molecular analysis of two molars from the remains revealsan additional founding lineage for the Americas, implyinggreater genetic diversity than we thought. This led BrianKemp, a Washington State University molecular anthro-pologist, to postulate that dates previously de-rived from genetic evidence were likely tooold. Previous molecular studies place thepeopling of the Americasearlier than 30,000 yrB.P., a date far older thanany physical evidence sup-ports. Those studies,however, used acalibration rate forthe first hyper-variable region (HVRI) ofthe mitochondrial DNA(mtDNA) that Dr. Kemphas discovered is two tofour times too slow. Hisfindings are supported by evi-dence from the fields of archaeology,

On YourKnees Cave

Mex-Amn=4

Tarahumara

Chumashn=4

Klunk Mound

Mexican

Nahua

Zapotec

Cayapan=26

Quechua

Mapuchen=2

Yaghann=2

Tierra del Fuegon=2

Brazilian

Individuals bearing the haplotype of theEarly American found in On Your KneesCave are found all the way from the far

north to the southernmost tip of theAmericas. All samples are living NativeAmericans except for the Klunk Mound

sample (1300 yr B.P.) and the Tierra Del Fuegosample (400 yr B.P.). The population at Tierradel Fuego is extinct. The sample size at each

location is 1 unless otherwise noted.

July ■ 2008 5

Your company has three different printers. (For our anal-ogy, a printer corresponds to a haplogroup.) One is a colorprinter, one is a black-and-white laser printer, and one is an olddot-matrix printer that uses continuous-feed paper. By examin-ing the memo, you can ascertain which printer produced it, orif it matches none of the three known printers you can deducethat an additional, previously unknown printer is in the build-ing. In addition, if copies of the memo have been made, therewill likely be artifacts and degradation noticeable in the latercopies. Examine a second-, or third-, or twelfth-generationphotocopy of a document and you may find the copy eventuallyso altered that characters are reduced to a series of dots, withan occasional word totally annihilated by a rogue glob of toner.

Those omissions and additions on a photocopy correspond tomutations that result in alleles.

If you determine that photocopy integrity degrades by 10percent with each successive copy you can estimate, from thecumulative amount the copy varies from its original, how manysuccessive copies have been made. Suppose you reason, byexamining a number of factors, that the memo must have beenoriginally produced between January 3 and February 10. Sinceyou know approximately how many times it has been copied,you can therefore estimate the average rate of how often thememo was copied. This copy rate corresponds to the mutationrate, the rate of molecular evolution.

If, however, you know the memo’s exact original date ofissue, you can calculate the copy rate to a high degree ofaccuracy instead of estimating it. Kemp realized that knowingthe “date of issue” for the On Your Knees Cave remains (10,300RCYBP) and the variations between those alleles (the “originalmemo”) and the descendants’ alleles (the 47 individuals that fitinto haplogroup D4H3) gave him a unique opportunity torecalibrate the molecular clock as it relates to the HVRI of themtDNA. By plugging in a known value and calculating theaverage rate of mutation, the accepted standard mutation ratecan be tested. That’s exactly what Kemp did.

(We hope our analogy of printers and blurred type helps youunderstand the principles of genetics. Our analogy is an impre-

cise fit in one important respect, though, because itsupposes that all mutations degrade genetic informa-tion. In fact, mutations are random occurrences thatmay benefit the organism, have a negative effect, orproduce no noticeable effect at all. Any mutation ispassed on to future generations unless it impairs theorganism’s ability to produce offspring; then the muta-tion is lost forever when the individual dies. In the HVRIregion of the genome discussed below, a special in-stance, mutations are believed to be uniformly neutral intheir consequences.)

The tick-tock of mutation“The ultimate source of all biological variation is muta-tion,” Kemp explains. “When DNA is copied mistakesget made. That is where new variation arises.” Al-though mutations are random occurrences, they occur

Initialpeopling of Beringia

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This marvelous illustration shows maternal geneflows in and out of Beringia. Gray shades of thearrows correspond to approximate timing of theevents shown on the time bar at the bottom. Theinitial peopling of Beringia was followed by astandstill, after which the ancestors of NativeAmericans spread swiftly all over the New Worldwhile some of the Beringian maternal lineages(C1a) spread westward. More recent geneticexchange (*) is manifested by back-migration ofA2a into Siberia and the spread of D2a intonortheastern America, which postdated the initialpeopling of the New World.

at a predictably regular rate. Kemp’s special interest is muta-tions in the HVRI, a region in the genome that does not code fora protein. The mitochondrial genome is the genetic material ofthe mitochondria; it consists of a circular DNA molecule, about16.5k nucleotides in length, that carries all the genes. Randommutations occurring in HVRI can accumulate diversity withoutknown consequences. “So if we can take a guess at how quicklymutations accumulate,” says Kemp, “we can know how longago two lineages diverged.” The more recently two lineagesshared a common ancestor, the fewer mutational differenceswill be evident because mutations will have had less time toaccumulate.

6 Volume 23 ■ Number 3

Beringian standstillWhole genome sequencing is now allowing scientists to definesubhaplotypes and sub-subhaplotypes. Smith says the haplo-type identification system has had to evolve to keep up. “Todesignate haplotypes,” he explains, “we start with the commonhaplogroup letter (A, B, C, or D) and then we give them anumber, like A2. Then A2 gets split down in to A2a or A2b, etc.It is like an outline, so each time you discover a new variant ofa haplotype you add a number or a letter to specify it.”

Whole mtDNA genomeswere examined in detail in“Beringian Standstill andSpread of Native AmericanFounders,” a paper publishedin September 2007. ErikaTamm of the Department ofEvolutionary Biology at theUniversity of Tartu in Estonia,

Peopling of the Americas”). The team created the BeringianIsolation Model (BIM) as the most parsimonious explanation ofthis population, given the new archaeological and genetic evi-dence. According to the BIM, ancestors of the Native Ameri-cans populated Beringia before the Last Glacial Maximum andremained isolated there owing to ecological or other barriersuntil about 15,000 RCYBP, when they entered the Americas andrapidly spread along the coast.

A rapid migration along the Pacific coastMolecular anthropologist DavidSmith says the rapid migration is evi-dent from the relatively even distri-bution of the new D haplotype alongthe Pacific coast. It exhibits closelyrelated members all along the Pa-cific coast of the Americas, from thefar north to the far south.

When the first Americans beganto move inland, migration ratesslowed because time was needed tocreate new subsistence strategiesand technologies. The ecologicallearning curve for a coastal peoplemoving inland is much more sub-

stantial than for moving along a coastline. As a result thegenetic haplotypes became more nested farther inland.

When did the migration take place?Kemp’s study argues for a much faster rate of molecular evolu-tion in the control region of the HVRI of the mtDNA thanpreviously estimated—two to four times the previous rate.What’s the significance? Dating. Previous estimates dating thepeopling of the Americas were too old. Applying the rate

suggested by the study ofthe individual in On YourKnees Cave to past sce-narios produces a datemuch more in line withphysical archaeologicalevidence.

Archaeology isn’t theonly field producing evi-dence consistent withKemp’s conclusions. Inthe past, many scientistsreasoned that the ex-treme linguistic diversityof the Americas couldonly be achieved by a

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40

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00 20 40 60 80 100

Projectednumber

of stocks

Time depth (Kyr)

The language families of Northand South America, the last great

land masses settled by humans,are the youngest and have the

fewest members.

Haplogroup

Haplotype Haplotype

Subhaplotype Subhaplotype Subhaplotype

Sub-subhaplotype Sub-subhaplotype Sub-subhaplotype Sub-subhaplotype

A

A2

A2a

A2a1 A2a2 A2a3 A2a4

The haplotype identification system had to evolve tokeep up with the whole-genome sequencing.

Haplotypes are designated first by the commonhaplogroup letter, then by a number. Each time a new

variant of a haplotype is discovered, a number or aletter is added in outline form to specify it.

Expected number of stocks in acontinent plotted against time

depth of human habitation.

molecular anthropologist RipanMalhi of the University of Illi-nois at Urbana-Champaign, and their colleagues undertook astudy to “investigate the pioneering phase in the Americas.”They analyzed 623 complete mtDNAs from the Americas andAsia; 20 from the Americas and 7 from Asia, they found, werecompletely new. In compiling this new dataset the team discov-ered three new subclades (subgroups) of haplogroup C: C1b,C1c, and C1d as well as an additional variant of haplogroup D,D4h3 (the same new founding haplotype discovered from theindividual in On Your Knees Cave), and C4c in modern-daypopulations of Native Americans. Acoalescence study of the mtDNA inthe new dataset yields a date of13,900 ± 2,700 calendar years ago.

Recent archaeological excava-tions place Homo sapiens in north-eastern Siberia at the YanaRhinoceros Horn site as early as30,000 RCYBP (MT 19-3 ff., “YanaRiver, Siberia: Implications for the

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Observedrate

Faster

OlderTime before present

1–2 Myr

Mutation rate

Substitution rate

The rate of molecular mutation, Simon Hodiscovered, underwent a radical change atabout the time of the onset of the Quater-nary. This molecular-rate curve shows thetransition between the instantaneousmutation rate and the long-term substitu-tion rate, passing through a critical regionat about 1–2 Myr.

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great time depth (earlier than 35,000 RCYBP) of in situ evolu-tion; however, Daniel Nettle’s paper “Linguistic Diversity ofthe Americas Can Be Reconciled with a Recent Colonization”published in the March 1999 Proceedings of the National Acad-emy of Sciences, Vol. 96, objectively con-cludes that linguistic diversity doesn’tsupport the argument for an early date.This means a fairly recent (11,000–15,000 RCYBP) colonization can nolonger be ruled out on the basis oflinguistic diversity. By comparing lan-guage stocks of the major continents,Dr. Nettle demonstrates that, if any-thing, the converse is true, that greatertime depth leads to less diversity.

Mathematics, too, provides compel-ling evidence for the need to recalibratethe molecular clock. In February 2006,while getting his doctorate at Oxford,biologist and computer scientist SimonY. W. Ho wrote a paper with GregerLarson that posits a curve in the rate of molecular evolution. Dr.Ho mathematically demonstrates that “instead of a simple di-chotomy between fast (recent) rates and slow (older)rates . . . there exists a measurable transition between the two.”He describes this transition as a “vertically translated exponen-tial decay curve.” Although the exact causes of this phenomenonare not clear, Ho believes it could be linked to a combination ofnatural selection and saturation. Kemp doesn’t even try to ex-plain the details of what he called Ho’s “mathematical wizardry,”saying only that it utilizes statistics and divergence times in alinear model. Unknowns can be plugged into the model to get anestimated mutation rate. Kemp was ecstatic to find that themodel almost precisely mimicked his own estimated rate ofmutation for 10,000 years of evolution.

No European orPolynesian settlersSome think KennewickMan looks like actorPatrick Stewart, thecaptain on the televi-sion show Star Trek:The Next Generation.(Actually, when you puthair on KennewickMan the resemblanceinstantly diminishes.)Nevertheless, Kennewick Man originally caused many people tospeculate that Europeans may have settled the Americas. Ar-chaeologists have tried to correct this misconception for yearsand would dearly love to put it finally to rest. For those wonder-ing where Europeans fit into the migration story—they don’t.Smith points out that the two dozen oldest remains in both NorthAmerica and Asia show an astonishing range of morphologicalvariation; Kennewick Man’s features, “more than beingCaucasoid, were atypical of most modern Native Americans.”Kemp notes that several tries have been made to get DNA out of

Kennewick Man, “The morphologists made their best guessgiven the data they had, but my bet is that if DNA can ever beextracted it will show to be derived from Asian ancestors.Kennewick is not European.”

You might ask, Whatabout the X haplotypefound in the Americas?Isn’t X European? Doesn’tthat mean the Americasmust have had Europeanimmigrants at somepoint? The answer is thatalthough X is found in Eu-rope, X didn’t originate inEurope. An ancient popu-lation (founding haplo-group X) is the commonancestor between Europe

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Kemp in the lab.

and the Americas. It split a long time ago, with some of thepopulation going to Asia and some going to Europe. The Xfound in the Americas is not European and does not sourcefrom Europe.

What about the B haplogroup? Haplogroup B is extantthroughout Polynesia (in some areas 100 percent of the peopleare haplogroup B). But B is rare in East Asia and Siberia. KariSchroeder, a student of Smith’s, believes geneticists need tolook to south-central Asia as a possible source for the FirstAmericans. Her hypothesis, which implies a deeper split be-tween the Native American founders and the Asian population,lends even more weight to the Beringian Incubation Model, BIM,since haplogroup B is more prevalent in South Asia. Just as thepresence of haplogroup X doesn’t imply immigration from Eu-

rope, the presence of haplogroup B in theAmericas doesn’t argue for a transpacific mi-gration by Polynesians. Rather, it points to a

common, perhaps South Asian, ancestor. Moreover,haplogroup B has been recorded in Native American remainsdating to more than 8,000 years ago, long before Polynesia wassettled.

An emerging consensusAccording to current genetic evidence, all clues point to a singlesource population. Smith says, “A consensus is emerging to-ward the single migration or single source out of Beringia,clearly one single source. Science is very conservative, of

8 Volume 23 ■ Number 3

sites—he recorded them meticulously, de-veloping his own numbering system, cata-loguing all collected specimens, andprecisely locating them on topographicmaps. He was also incredibly generous withhis collection, freely sharing it with archae-ologists and students; contacting Bob to

inable, covering more than 1100 m by550 m of Mockingbird Gap at a 1-ft con-tour interval. This involved mapping arelief of more than 15 vertical ft thatencompassed ridges, complex duneforms, eroded swales, and recent culturalfeatures, along with Clovis artifacts and

N FEBRUARY 19, 2008, New Mexicolost one of the people most re-sponsible for bringing to profes-

see his collections was one of those “must-do” things for archaeologists visitingSocorro. Three of us—Amick, LeTourneau,and Hamilton—were privileged to use por-tions of the collection in our dissertationresearch.

Bob was keenly aware of the importanceof lithic raw material sources to prehistoricsocieties, and due to his geological traininghe was able to locate several lithic materialsources in Socorro County. His near-ency-clopedic knowledge of raw materials andtheir geological contexts he also readilyshared, helping to flesh out patterns ofmovement and aspects of lithic technologi-cal organization.

Identifying any one of Bob’s many con-tributions as the most significant is difficult,but certainly his discovery of the Mocking-bird Gap Clovis site ranks high on the list.This remarkable locale extends over some800 m along Chupadera Wash, and is arepeatedly occupied camp that consists ofmore than a dozen localized, high-densityartifact concentrations. Some of them arelargely surficial while others are shallowlyburied. Bob collected some 300 Clovispoints and point preforms, as well as hun-dreds of scrapers, gravers, and other flaketools. He also produced one of the mostremarkably detailed plane table maps imag-

excavation area locations, from over 20individual mapping stations. He enlistedhis wife, Margaret, and his daughter,Lynn, in the effort; if no one was availablehe occasionally worked alone, proppingup the stadia rod with a tripod, shootingdistance and elevation, and then movingthe rod to the next shot location. Theeffort spanned at least 35 years.

In 1966–68, Bob collaborated withGeorge Agogino to excavate a portion ofthe site with the Eastern New MexicoUniversity summer field school. A fewpublished results are available from thatwork (Weber and Agogino 1997; Weber1997). Bob also explored the soil-strati-graphic record of the on-site depositsand that of the adjacent Chupadera Washfloodplain. He documented the incred-ible depth of accumulation of sedimentsalong the wash, even obtaining a Clovis-age radiocarbon date from sedimentsseveral m below the modern floodplainsurface. Beginning in 2004, Bob fully sup-ported, and stayed involved with, newgeological and archaeological research atthe site and along the wash by Hollidayand Huckell, including excavations by theUniversity of New Mexico summer ar-chaeological field school in 2007 (Huckellet al. 2006, 2007, in review).

Robert H.Weber–

Remembering

Osional archaeological attention the richrecord of Paleoindian occupation in thewest-central part of the state. Robert(Bob) Weber was a professional geolo-gist, earning a Ph.D. from the Universityof Arizona in 1950 and spending the next35 years at the New Mexico Bureau ofMines and Mineral Resources at NewMexico Tech in Socorro. His varied geo-logical interests included the Quaternaryperiod, and a boyhood love of collectingarrowheads and rocks in his native Ohioled him to look for prehistoric archaeo-logical sites in central New Mexico. Muchcould be written about Bob and his con-tributions to many aspects of geology,history, and post-Paleoindian archaeol-ogy, but we focus on his Paleoindianwork and his generosity to those of uswho were privileged to work with him.Those interested in Weber’s varied ca-reer can consult Alexander (1997) for hisbiography.

A couple of years ago, in respondingto a question about how he got startedlooking for Paleoindian sites, he said thatthe close resemblance of much ofSocorro and Catron counties to the Plainsmade him think that those wide-rangingfolks ought to have found this countryattractive. From 1950 onward, he de-voted much of his free time to the search,establishing beyond any doubt thatPaleoindians had indeed appreciatedwhat the country had to offer at the closeof the Pleistocene and early Holocene.

Bob’s understanding of landscapesand the geomorphic processes that hadaffected them over time gave him thekeys to find sites in parts of the Plains ofSan Agustin, the northern end of theJornada del Muerto, and the Rio GrandeValley. It is safe to say that he discoveredhundreds of Clovis, Folsom, and laterPaleoindian sites, not to mention Archaicand younger ones. His collection in-cluded not only points but also tools andin some instances debitage; he appreci-ated the value of all classes of lithic arti-facts and developed keen insights intolithic technology. Bob did not merely find

course, and it just takes time. As morework is done and as more models fit thoseinferences I think it comes to be a consen-sus.”

Schroeder’s recently published paperin Biology Letters further supports the

BIM. She discusses a mutation that is glo-bally extremely rare but pervasive in theAmericas (MT 22-4, “Genetic DiscoveryRefines Our View of the Peopling of theAmericas”). Dr. Malhi explains thatSchroeder’s findings at locus D9S1120

suggest “a pattern unique to the Americasthat was also likely found in the ancestralpopulation of Native Americans.” An iso-lated ancestral Beringian populationwould explain the absence of this muta-tion in northeast Asia.

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ing the original site context. In 2006 Hillbegan a systematic survey of Paleoindiansites in the northern San Agustin Plains,linking Bob’s superb field maps of paleo-lake levels with his carefully documentedcollections from the area in order to under-stand Paleoindian adaptations to the rap-

idly changing land-scape in the basin.This project is sadlyon hold.

In the summer of1991, Bob gener-ously shared hiscentral New Mexicodata with Amick forhis regional studiesof Folsom land useand mobility. Thosedata provided thecritical linkage formodeling the Fol-som archaeologicalrecord throughoutthe Rio Grande Val-ley of New Mexico.He also shared hisknowledge of locallithic resources andwas keen to learnwhat had been

found outside his field research area. Theremarkable depth of Bob’s understandingof lithic technology was reflected in one ofthe small waste flakes he collected. Manymight have overlooked the significance of

Suggested ReadingsAlexander, L. E. 1997 A Biography of

Robert Harrison Weber. In Layers ofTime, Papers in Honor of Robert H. We-ber, edited by M. S. Duran and D. T.Kirkpatrick, pp. 1–12. The Archaeologi-cal Society of New Mexico 23, Albu-querque.

Huckell, B. B., V. T. Holliday, R. H. Weber,and J. H. Mayer 2006 Archaeologicaland Geological Test Investigations at theMockingbird Gap Clovis Site, CentralNew Mexico. Current Research in thePleistocene 23:115–16.

Huckell, B. B., V. T. Holliday, and R. H.Weber 2007 Test Investigations at

While many are aware of Bob’s workon Clovis, he also developed a robustrecord of Folsom in the Central RioGrande Valley and San Agustin Plains.Bob was project geologist during workon the Ake Folsom site (Weber 1980) atthe northern end of the San Agustin

Plains, the only Paleoindian excavationconducted in that part of New Mexico.Bob’s insights resulted in realizing thatthe Folsom materials were redeposited inthe middle Holocene, and also in identify-

this minuscule flake, which representedbasal pressure retouch that removed thelateral ridge of the flute on a Folsomperform.

LeTourneau also utilized Bob’sFolsom materials for his dissertation re-search, beginning in 1995. From 2002 tothe time of his death, LeTourneauworked closely with Bob and his collec-tion. This research, primarily concernedwith Folsom lithic technology andtoolstone use (LeTourneau and Weber2004a and b), also included Cody and theearliest Archaic.

Bob was an expert in many differentareas. But unlike many experts, he washumble, generous, and genuinely en-joyed sharing his extensive experienceand knowledge. He once said that hedidn’t view his collection as his ownproperty, but something that ultimatelybelonged to the people of New Mexico.With his passing, this unparalleled collec-tion will be donated to the state of NewMexico. Bob’s many contributions toPaleoindian research in New Mexico andacross the country are only beginning tobe realized with his passing; we willsorely miss him but count ourselves for-tunate to have come to know and workwith such an outstanding man.

–Bruce B. Huckell, Vance T. Holliday,Daniel S. Amick, Philippe D. LeTourneau,

Matthew E. Hill, C. Vance Haynes,Marcus J. Hamilton

the Mockingbird Gap Clovis Site: Resultsof the 2006 Field Season. Current Researchin the Pleistocene 24: 102–04.

Huckell, B. B., V. T. Holliday, M. Hamilton,C. Sinkovec, C. Merriman, M. S. Shackley,R. H. Weber 2008 (in review) The Mock-ingbird Gap Clovis Site: 2007 Investiga-tions. Current Research in the Pleistocene25.

LeTourneau, P., and R. H. Weber 2004aFolsom Occupation in Socorro County,New Mexico. Paper presented at the 69thAnnual Meeting of the Society for Ameri-can Archaeology, Montreal.

——— 2004b Distribution of EdwardsChert Folsom Artifacts in Socorro County,

New Mexico. Current Research in thePleistocene 21:60–62.

Weber, R. H. 1980 Geology of the Akesite. In The Ake Site: Collection and Ex-cavation of LA 13423, Catron County,New Mexico, edited by P.H. Beckett, pp.221–38. New Mexico State University,Department of Sociology and Anthro-pology, Cultural Resources Manage-ment Division Report 357, Las Cruces.

——— 1997 Geology of MockingbirdGap Site in Central New Mexico. In Lay-ers of Time, Papers in Honor of Robert H.Weber, edited by M. S. Duran and D. T.Kirkpatrick, pp. 115–22. The Archaeo-logical Society of New Mexico 23, Albu-querque.

Bob Weber (right) and Vance Haynes at theMockingbird Gap Clovis site, June 2004.

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Totally separate fields of expertise allpoint to the possibility of a relatively re-cent colonization of the Americas. Kempis confident anthropology is getting itsbrain around human prehistory and mi-grations. Science, however, is cautious.

It will take some time for solidly set ideasregarding the rate of molecular evolu-tion to be reconsidered. Kemp con-cludes, “Ask me in 20 years if I haven’tcompletely revised this, but I think wepretty much have it down—the major

movements of people and when they oc-curred. Genetics and archaeology arecoming together. Now we are puttingfine scale detail on it, like the peopling ofthe Americas.”

continued on page 16

10 Volume 23 ■ Number 3

ESPITE MORE THAN A CENTURY OF RESEARCH, ourunderstanding of the initial peopling of South Americaremains tantalizingly incomplete. It’s not just that the

Quebrada Santa Julia, yielded deeply buried cultural remainsdating to approximately 13,000 CALYBP—just about the sametime that the Clovis culture in North America was coming to anend.

Science, not serendipitySeveral years before Quebrada Santa Julia was discovered,Jackson and Méndez published a paper pointing out that allPleistocene archaeological sites in Chile had, up to that point,been discovered fortuitously. “Therefore, we thought thatchance was leading our knowledge of the early peopling of thisarea,” Méndez points out. “We believe this scenario isn’t par-ticular to Chile. Talking to foreign colleagues and reading theirpapers has corroborated [the idea] that the situation in thesouthern cone is pretty similar to the one we observed. In the

paper, we called for aresearch strategy inwhich archaeologicalproblems led oursearches; only in thatmanner would we beable to develop strate-gies that searched forsites deliberately,rather than just foundthem accidentally.”

Based on regionalknowledge obtainedover several decadesof work, it becameclear to Jackson andMéndez that there

Méndez drawing the profile of theQuebrada Santa Julia excavation.

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Paleoamericansin Chile

The Evidence fromQuebrada Santa Julia

Paleoamericansin Chile

The Evidence fromQuebrada Santa Julia

Méndez drawing the profile of theQuebrada Santa Julia excavation.

Dcontinent offers surprises like Monte Verde, which suggest thatour New World colonization models may be overdue for aparadigm shift; there are also substantial chronological andgeographical gaps in the archaeological record. But thanks toDonald Jackson, César Méndez, and their colleagues, we nowhave a much better idea of who some of the first South Ameri-cans were.

Dr. Jackson and Dr. Méndez, both of the Department ofAnthropology at the University of Chile’s Santiago campus,specialize in the early peopling of Chile’s semiarid northernPacific coast. Until recently, not a single indisputable Paleo-american site was known in that region—mostly, they say,because of a lack of appropriate re-search strategies. In 2003 they set out tochange that, assembling a crack team ofinvestigators who initiated a search pro-gram using relic Pleistocene landformsas their guide. Aiding them were con-servationist Roxana Seguel, geologistGabriel Vargas, and Antonio Maldo-nado, a specialist in arid-zone ecologies.It wasn’t long before they identified sev-eral promising sites in a 29-km2 area inthe Los Vilos region. One of these sites,

Field crew excavating thePaleoamerican occupation level at

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were two basic types ofearly archaeologicalsites in Chile: surface“palimpsests,” signifi-cantly deflated sites withpoor integrity that areeasily visible and easilydiscovered; and deeplyburied sites with intactcontextual integrity. Thelatter are obviously themore valuable, becausethey’re easier to date and

ever found at all—and it might not have been, if theteam hadn’t been specifically looking for sites justlike it.

Perseverance rewardedWhile serendipity had little to do with QuebradaSanta Julia’s discovery, you have to give Mother Na-ture credit for a little help. The site was so deeplyburied that it was protected from the ravages of time

for millennia, but it’s cur-rently located on the edge of aravine that drains to the Pa-cific Ocean just 3.5 km (2.1mi) to the west. Erosion hadprepared a complete 10-mprofile with classic layer-cakestratigraphy, which a closeexamination proved con-tained not only Pleistocenefaunal remains but diagnosticartifacts as well.

Quebrada Santa Julia is asuperb example of an occupa-tion that was quickly and ef-

fectively sealed away by fluvial deposits, and then even more

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Relic dune field1 Quebrada Santa Julia2 Quereo3 El Membrillo4 Nagué I and II5 Palo Colorado6 Caimanes7 Taguatagua

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Excavating the stake imprint feature in the Paleoamerican occupation level

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In situ quartz instrument.

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interpret; but they’re also vastly more difficult to discover,since they’re basically invisible from the surface and impos-sible to find without a great deal of effort. These sitesrequire the application of a good predictive model to bediscovered at all.

Hence the Los Vilos survey program, which focused on iden-tifying and investigating old Pleistocene landscapes. Their sur-vey model was rewarded with 24 sites that produced Pleistocenefaunal remains. Three sites—El Membrillo, Quereo, andQuebrada Santa Julia—yielded cultural materials along with thebones. El Membrillo offers a radiocarbon date of 16,000 CALYBPin association with lithic artifacts; but it’s one of those deflatedpalimpsest sites, so its integrity is suspect. Of the two remainingsites, only Quebrada Santa Julia produced diagnostic Paleo-american artifacts, in this case from a cultural depositfully 10 m (33 ft) below the surface. Consideringthe great depth, it seems a miracle the site was

completely buried by repeated flooding. Apparently the siteoriginated on the shores of a small lake. Although there’s evi-dence of a high-energy event at one point—this is indicated by apoorly sorted cobbly layer about 8 m down—the fluvial environ-ment was mostly a gentle one: The majority of the deposits arefine-grained flood couplets interleaved with organic peat layers.As a result, preservation and contextual integrity are excellent.

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“Regarding the site-formationprocesses,” says Jackson, “wewould have to say that theseare not only unique in termsof the large sediment depositcovering the Pleistocene oc-cupation, but also because ofthe high integrity of the re-mains we found. This integ-rity is especially manifested inthe resolution of associations, which clearly show a distinctactivity area with artifacts, extinct faunal bones, a hearth andother features.”

An 8-cm-thick layer of peat forms the Paleoamerican occupa-tion level. Among the artifacts recovered from it were expedientstone tools made from coarse-grained silicified tuff: a retouchedflake, several other flakes, a scraper, a graver, and a unidirec-tional core. Most of the lithic assemblage, however, consisted ofchipped quartz crystal, including a bifacial projectile-point blankthat apparently snapped in two during the fluting process. Apartial fluting flake that refitted to the blank was found nearby,along with more than 190 quartz flakes. Interestingly, the near-est source of quartz is the Caimanes area, 30 km (18 mi) inland;this strongly suggests a rather wide-ranging resource procure-ment area for the people who occupied the site. But why quartz?

“We’re far from knowing the real motivations for their lithicresource selection, besides such commonly discussed at-tributes as knapping quality, abundance, and avail-ability,” say Jackson and Méndez. “Nevertheless, it’sinteresting to note that several early projectile pointspecimens along the western slope of the Andes aremanufactured on quartz and quartz crystal. For in-stance, sites in northern Perú, ascribed to the Paijáncomplex, are known for the use of this raw material inprojectile-point production. Also, in central Chile,Lautaro Núñez identified fishtail projectile pointsmanufactured with quartz at the Taguatagua site,where several mastodons were butchered. Thoughwe can’t yet ascertain symbolic reasons in stone toolproduction, we shouldn’t disregard the possibility ofsuch factors in the cultural trends of early Ameri-cans.”

The preform itself closely resembles a Clovisblank. Especially interesting is the biface style ofmanufacture: As with most Clovis points, a “nipple”was prepared at the base before the channel flake wasstruck off. This is extremely uncommon in regionalPaeloamerican points, which tend toward the fishtailtype in any case.

Processed horse remainswere also collected from theoccupation zone. No cut-marks were observed on theEquus bone, but the way thebones were fractured and thefact that they were in closeassociation with a hearthsuggest they resulted fromfood processing. The lack ofvisible rodent and carnivoredisturbances further indi-cates that these articles werestill in primary context whenfound (and, incidentally, that

the site was quickly buried). The hearth itself contained char-coal, unburnt wood, a small amount of burnt bone, and a sharp-ened wooden artifact—possibly a stake. Perhaps even moreintriguing, if only because of their great rarity, were severalassociated soil features; given their morphology, contours, anddepth, they may be post molds. This leads one to wonder, Wasthe wooden artifact once embedded in one of the observed soilfeatures, before one of the occupants removed it and tossed itinto the remains of the fire? And what type of structure might ithave been a part of?

Jackson and Méndez remain noncommittal on this point.“Both the features and the wooden artifact were found in closeproximity to each other, and to the hearth,” they report. “Never-theless, it’s very difficult to be certain of a particular function,until further excavations report more meaningful evidence orsimilar artifacts. The more plausible scenarios are that these

Quebrada Santa Julia artifacts: Fluted quartz preform.

Retouched silicified tuff flake in situ.

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were part of the stakes holding up a light habitation, or somekind of structure associated with the function of the hearth.”

Not quite oceanfront propertyAlthough Quebrada Santa Julia is located relatively near themodern coast, that doesn’t signify much. Remember, this iswhere the site is lo-cated relative to theocean today, during awarm interglacial pe-riod. Back in the ter-minal Pleistocene, agreat deal of theworld’s water was se-questered in thegreat continental icesheets, so the sealevel was substan-tially depressed.During the site’s ini-tial occupation, theoceans were about70 m below their present level and Quebrada Santa Julia was asmuch as 8 km (4.8 mi) away from the ocean, which probablyexplains the lack of evidence for maritime food resources or thetechnology used to exploit them.

The earliest known coastal adaptation in the region, theHuentelauquén complex, was anearly-Holocene manifestation—onethat Jackson and Méndez don’t be-lieve was related at all, either tempo-rally or culturally, to the occupationat Quebrada Santa Julia. Further-more, sites of the Huentelauquéncomplex are clearly oriented towardexploiting maritime resources; theydisplay a specialized technology andshow evidence of intense consump-tion of mollusks, fish, seabirds, andsea lions by the occupants. This isnot the case for Quebrada SantaJulia, where horse was on the menu.“Most probably,” Jackson andMéndez suspect, “the occupants hadan inland resource exploitation andsettlement pattern, despite the proximity to the coast.”

They do believe, however, that the Santa Julians were the firstsettlers of the region; this is consistent with both their researchexperience and the very early dates for the peat in which theartifacts were embedded. “All the evidence we’ve found atQuebrada Santa Julia,” they say, “is consistent with the expecta-tions for an initial occupation; among other things, there’s adiscrete occupation, no site redundancy, expedient use of locallithic materials, and a transportable artifact kit.” It can be ar-gued, of course, that the Santa Julians were already well estab-lished in the Los Vilos region by then; lacking a preexisting tradenetwork to tap into, they must have been familiar enough withthe area to be aware of the quartz deposits at Caimanes. That

Conservationist Roxana Seguel (right)and student excavating.

said, the discovery of Caimanes just before the occupation ofQuebrada Santa Julia isn’t beyond the realm of possibility; it hadto have occurred at some point.

Right now it’s hard to say exactly who the Santa Juliansactually were, and whom they derived from. One thing Jacksonand Méndez are sure of is that Quebrada Santa Julia isn’t related

in any way to Monte Verde, the famouspre-Clovis site in south-central Chile,because the chronologies and artifactassemblages don’t match. Otherwise,they say, “It’s too soon yet for establish-ing direct cultural affinities; Santa Juliaand the other new sites should be stud-ied more. We plan to continue our re-search in the coming years, excavatingthe sites with new research questions inmind.”

Obviously Quebrada Santa Julia is

Jackson during QuebradaSanta Julia site discovery.

contemporary with Clovis; the recorded age of the occupationlevel proves that. Given the fluted biface and its Clovis affinities,it’s tempting to posit a Clovis link—either through direct immi-gration from the north, or by means of cultural diffusion. Couldwe be looking at a Clovis outlier this far south?

Like all good scientists, Jack-son, Méndez, and their team arecautious about reading toomuch into the possibility; asthey point out, it’s always best tosit tight and wait for whateverthe new evidence tells us. It’stoo easy to jump to the wrongconclusions with only rudimen-tary data. In this case, if wisheswere horses, Clovis wouldride—all the way to SouthAmerica.

–Floyd Largent

How to contact the principals of this article:

Donald Jackson and César MéndezDepartamento de AntropologíaFacultad de Ciencias SocialesUniversidad de ChileAv. Ignacio Carrera Pinto 1045Santiago, Chile 6850331e-mail: djackson@uchile.cl cmendezm@uchile.cl

Roxana SeguelCentro Nacional de Conservación y Restauración, DIBAMe-mail: rseguel@cncr.cl

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14 Volume 23 ■ Number 3

BSIDIAN IS VOLCANIC GLASS, usually black. Whenfractured, it yields shards with edges more than 100times sharper than a steel scalpel. Like flint, obsidian

Western Stemmed points are usually large lanceolatepoints with prominent hafting stems and round, square, orsometimes slightly concave bases (they are often referred toas “indented”). Lithics authority C. Melvin Aikens notes thatvarieties of these points are “found everywhere west of theRockies” and date from 10,500 to 7500 RCYBP (about 12,300–8500 CALYBP). Washington’s Kennewick Man (MT 17-3, -4,“When Science and Politics Collide”) and Nevada’s SpiritCave Man (MT 12-2, “Remarkable Discovery”) date to

this period. Indeed,Kennewick Man haswhat is likely a WesternStemmed point lodged inhis pelvis.

A similar style of pointwith a stem divided intotwo segments, or lobes, iscalled a Pinto point. Someresearchers have arguedthat Pinto points are partof a separate, later cul-tural tradition, while oth-ers think they should beincluded within the West-ern Stemmed Tradition.

Determining the ageof stone toolsIn order to establish theage of a particular style ofspear point, arrowhead,or knife made of flint, theblade must be found in areliable context, such as asecure level, or stratum,within an archaeologicalsite. The level must also

contain, in close association with the point, organic materialsuch as charcoal or bone, which can be dated using radiocarbontechnology. The resulting radiocarbon date can be applied to allartifacts, including chipped-flint points, found in that level.

Artifacts made from obsidian, unlike flint, don’t suffer fromthis limitation. Because of aspecial property of obsidian,tools chipped from it can bedated directly using a tech-nique known as obsidian hydra-tion dating.

Despite its glassy, brittle sur-face, obsidian has this in com-mon with a sponge: It absorbswater over time. By knockingoff a flake from a block, or core,

Western Stemmed (A, B) and Pinto (C, D) artifacts with thin-section cuts made for hydration analysis.

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Through a Glass Darkly:

Dating Obsidian Points

Ocan be chipped into lethal projectile points of varying shapesand sizes. Fortunately for archaeologists, the age of a pointchipped from obsidian can be determined by gauging theamount of water absorbed into anciently fractured surfaces.Archaeologist Daron Duke of Far Western AnthropologicalResearch Group, Inc., Tim Carpenter of ArchaeoMetrics inCalifornia, and DavidPage of the Desert Re-search Institute in Ne-vada have applied ob-sidian hydration datingto a sample of more than400 spear points fromwestern Utah—TopazMountain is the largestsingle source of obsidianin their study—andthey’ve made surprisingdiscoveries about therelative ages of varioustypes of points. One type,known as the Pinto point,turns out to be consider-ably older than generallythought.

Morphology definesthe pointThe changing patternsof function and stylemake spear points use-ful indicators of culturalchange over time andacross space. Clovispoints, for example, are recognized as one of the earliestwidespread types of spear points in North America. Theyhave been found in sites from Alaska to northern Mexicoranging in age from 13,250 to 12,800 CALYBP (MT 22-3,“Clovis Dethroned”).

In the Great Basin, anumber of other point typeshave been defined basedprimarily on the character-istics of their bases, whichreflect differences in howthe point was hafted to thespear shaft—or knifehandle, since blades can beused as knives as effectivelyas spear tips. Many of theearliest varieties of GreatBasin points are lumped to-gether in what has come tobe known as the WesternStemmed Tradition.

Tim Carpenter at the micro-scope making digital hydrationmeasurements on computerscreen enlargement.TI

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In this cross section of the edge of a WesternStemmed point, windblown sand has eroded

the hydration band on the exposed edge ofthe step fracture. But in the protected area,

the remnant of the attached flake has pre-served the pristine surface.

Stepfracture

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a flintknapper (in this case, an obsidian-knapper) exposes a fresh surface of obsid-ian to air. Once new material is exposed,water molecules begin slowly to diffuse intothe obsidian, creating an ever-increasinglayer, or rind. The thickness of the rind is ameasure of elapsed time.

Unfortunately, the rate at which the wa-ter absorbs into the obsidian isn’t fixed orconstant. Instead, it depends on a variety offactors. According to Alexander Rogers ofthe Maturango Museum in Ridgecrest,California, the rate of absorption, or hydra-tion, depends on the chemistry of the ob-sidian (the “intrinsic water content of theglass”) and the temperature and relativehumidity of the environment. By takingthese variables into account, scientists cancalculate the age of an obsidian artifact from the thickness of thehydration layer, or at least confidently sort them in relativetemporal order.

Applying obsidian hydration dating to PaleoindianpointsDuke, Carpenter, and Page decided to take advantage of thespecial nature of obsidian towork out the ages of variousstyles of spear points found inthe Great Basin. Their re-sults, reported in the 2007volume of Current Researchin the Pleistocene, provide “amuch-needed clarification ofPaleoindian point typology”in this region.

They obtained obsidian hy-dration dates for over 400Western Stemmed and Pintopoints, making it the largestcollection of early Great Ba-sin points so far assembledfor this purpose. Obsidian fromUtah’s Topaz Mountain constitutedthe largest single source of materialrepresented in the sample. Pointsmade from this source included 164Western Stemmed, 36 Pinto, 22Elko, 37 Rosegate, and 7 Desert.(Elko, Rosegate, and Desert pointspostdate the Paleoindians and were used to situate

the early readings according to the local chronology.)Since most of these artifacts were surface finds, wind-

blown sand will have abraded the hydration layer inmost cases. Duke and his colleaguestherefore took their samples from a kind offlake scar along the artifact edge known asa step fracture, which protected the sur-face from direct exposure to wind. Thisprecautionary measure helped prevent theeffects of wind abrasion from skewing thedate of an artifact exposed to the elementsfor long periods of time.

They found that Western Stemmedpoints had an average hydration layerthickness of 9 microns, about 0.0004 inch.That translates to an age of between 10,000and 8500 RCYBP. Although Pinto pointshad a slightly greater average thickness, a

much smaller sample and larger standard deviation make themeasurement less reliable than that for Western Stemmedpoints. In fact, based on the current sample, Pinto points mayeven be slightly older than the Western Stemmed Tradition.It’s clear, however, that Western Stemmed and Pinto pointswere more or less contemporaneous in the Great Basin.

That the two point types were approximately coeval issignificant because it means that, in this case, the two distinc-tive types of spear points don’t reflect changing stylesthrough time. Possibly they represent different social groups,each possessing a unique spear point. But if that were thecase, then you’d expect to find each type restricted to an areathat was the home range of the proprietary group. Since thetwo types are similarly distributed, however, it suggests thesame group used the two kinds of points for specializedpurposes. Perhaps, for example, one type was used as a knife,the other to tip a spear.

Duke, Carpenter,and Page concludetheir paper with theobservation that“work continues to-ward increasing oursample and findingfunctional reasons forthe concurrent usageof these two distinctm o r p h o l o g i c a ltypes.” Future re-search may helpclarify the issues ofage and function.Nevertheless Duke,Carpenter, and Pagehave demonstratedthat Pinto points areevery bit as old asWestern Stemmedpoints.

–Bradley Lepper

16 Volume 23 ■ Number 3

How to contact the principals of this article:Daron DukeFar Western Anthropological Research Group, Inc.P.O. Box 758Virginia City, NV 89440e-mail: daron@farwestern.com

Tim CarpenterArchaeoMetrics414 Buena TierraWoodland, CA 95695-4719e-mail: tim@archaeometrics.com

David PageDesert Research Institute2215 Raggio ParkwayReno, NV 89512e-mail: dave.page@dri.edu

Suggested ReadingsAikens, C. M. 2006 Paleo-Indian: West. Handbook of North Ameri-

can Indians, volume 3, edited by Douglas Ubelaker, pp. 194–207.Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington, D.C.

Duke, D. 2008 Obsidian Hydration Chronologies for the Great SaltLake Desert. In The Archaeology of Shifting Environments in theGreat Salt Lake Desert: A Geoarchaeological Sensitivity Model andRelative Chronology for the Cultural Resources of the US Air ForceUtah Test and Training Range, edited by D. C. Young, pp. 73–98.Far Western Anthropological Research Group, Inc., Davis. Submit-ted to Select Engineering Services, Inc., Roy, and Hill Air ForceBase, Utah. [The vast majority of the points reviewed in CurrentResearch in the Pleistocene, vol. 24, were originally studied for thisarticle.]

Duke, D., T. Carpenter, and D. Page 2007 New Obsidian Hydra-tion Findings Suggest the Use of Split-Stem Points by Great BasinPaleoindians. Current Research in the Pleistocene, 24:80–82.

Rogers, A. K. 2007 Effective Hydration Temperature of Obsidian:A Diffusion Theory Analysis of Time-Dependent Hydration Rates.Journal of Archaeological Science, 34(4): 656–65.

It takes courage to make such a bold predictive statement,but Kemp, a scientist, knows even if all these assertions andconclusions are someday revised or even reversed, they won’thave been produced in vain. Science builds upon science, newconclusions generate new questions, and there is no misdirec-tion, only exploration. Newton, Copernicus and Edison wouldall certainly agree.

–Dale Graham

How to contact the principals of this article:Brian M. KempAssistant ProfessorDepartment of AnthropologyWashington State University

Pullman, WA 99164-4910bmkemp@wsu.edu

David Glenn SmithMolecular Anthropology LaboratoryDepartment of AnthropologyUniversity of CaliforniaOne Shields AvenueDavis, CA 95616dgsmith@ucdavis.edu

Ripan MalhiAssistant ProfessorDepartment of AnthropologyUniversity of Illinois Urbana-Champaign185 Davenport Hall607 Matthews Ave.Urbana, IL 61801malhi@uiuc.edu

Caveman Sinks His Teeth into Genetics

continued from page 9

Paleoamerican Origins Workshop

continued from page 3

to approximately 18,000 RCYBP. Al Goodyear (Director ofSEPAS, University of South Carolina) reported evidence for anearly occupation at the Topper site. Topper’s flaked-tool assem-blage, dominated by a bend-break technology, is associated withdates ranging from 15,000 to as early as 50,000 RCYBP.

Launching brief updates on the excavation status at sites withpotential pre-Clovis-age components was Dennis Stanford(Smithsonian Institution), whose presentation stimulated inter-est in the Eastern shoreline. He reports that three sites on theDelmarva Peninsula (Five Miles Point, Paw Paw Cove, andJefferson Island) have diagnostic Clovis artifacts. At Five MilesPoint in particular there is evidence of a blade and biface technol-ogy in a stratigraphic unit below the Clovis component. Movingback down to the Southern Plains, Michael Collins described

lithic evidence of a potential human occupation below the richClovis component at the Gault site in central Texas, whereartifacts associated with biface manufacture were found below astratigraphic unconformity dated to 13,310 ± 830 RCYBP. Onneighboring property the Texas A&M excavation team alsorecovered evidence to support early occupation in Texas; MikeWaters reported a biface tip and fragment found in brown claystratigraphically below the Clovis component at the ButtermilkCreek site. At the Burnham site in Oklahoma, Don Wycoff (SamNobel Oklahoma Museum) cited evidence that’s small but sig-nificant: a component with 51 small flakes that are possibleremnants of tool retouch flaking, 4 of them associated with abison skull. The site has been generally dated to before Clovis at22,000–35,000 RCYBP.

Mike Collins reminded scholars not to overlook MonteVerde I as early evidence of human occupation in Chile. Hereiterated that humans, following a coastal entry, may have beenthe agents that produced the basalt core and flakes and two

July ■ 2008 17

Our author/photographer, AshleySmallwood, and Tom Pertierra, whoorganized the workshop.

hammerstones recovered from the pre-Clovis-age componentfrom Monte Verde I. Andrei Tabarev, visiting from the Insti-tute of Archaeology at the Russian Academy of Sciences, gavescholars a view of the Far East. Reviewing both bifacial andunifacial technologies, he pointed out commonalities in theClovis record from North America and the Paleolithic recordfrom Siberia that sup-port an early-entrymodel via Beringia. Inthe final presentationof the day, DougOwsley (National Mu-seum of Natural His-tory, Smithsonian In-stitution) reported onskeletal evidence. Cra-nial morphometriccomparisons, he ar-gues, suggest thatPaleoamericans show greater morphological affinities toPolynesians, Europeans, and the Ainu than to modern AmericanIndian populations.

Not only did scholars hear evidence for early human occupa-tion, they also got the chance to examine firsthand assemblagesfrom potential pre-Clovis-age sites. Among the extensive assem-blages on display were cutmarks on Mud Lake mammoth longbones; a conical core found at Five Miles Point, DelmarvaPeninsula; a graver spur on a bend-break flake and a large flakecore from the Topper site, South Carolina; Gainey points fromthe Big Eddy site, Missouri; a biface found below Clovis depositsat Buttermilk Creek, Texas; blade-like flakes from Cactus Hill,Virginia; small flakes from buried deposits at the BurnhamBison site, Oklahoma; a collection of possible artifacts fromCalico Hills, California; and slidesshowing extraterrestrial particles col-lected as evidence for a catastrophicPleistocene/Holocene transition.

Day 3: Model buildingPresenters discussed migration mod-els, then assessed how well reportedsites fit models explaining the peo-pling of the Americas.

Gary Haynes (University of Ne-vada at Reno) and Stuart Fiedel(Louis Berger Group), both steadfastcritics of theories that purport pre-Clovis human presence, ques-tioned why the first human dispersal into the Americas is still sopoorly understood. For Fiedel, potential pre-Clovis sites stilllack credible stratigraphic and artifactual evidence to argue thecase for early occupation in the New World. Mike Collins,quick to disagree, countered that evidence of early human entrycan be found and that dispersal models should recognize thathumans concentrate subsistence efforts on ecotones and water-way edges. To account for a pre-Clovis occupation, Collinsturned his attention to human entry by watercraft along “edges”or by routes along the northern coastal margins of NorthAmerica. Expanding on possible entry routes, Loren Davis

About the author Ashley Smallwood, a doctoral candidatein Anthropology at Texas A&M University, is a supervisor onthe Clovis Hillside excavation at the Topper site in SouthCarolina. The quarry-related site allows her to pursue herinterests in Clovis technology and mobility. The principalgoal of her dissertation is to study site-level data to evaluateClovis dispersion in the American Southeast.

(Department of Anthropology, Oregon State University) citedevidence supporting a Pacific coastal entry, reviewed alterna-tive models for an early human coastal entry, and encourageda geoarchaeological perspective for testing coastal sites forpre-Clovis-age components. In the final presentation, DennisStanford and Bruce Bradley (University of Exeter) revisited

their theory of an Iberian connection, offering evi-dence from the Atlantic coastline. Stanford suggestedthat the progenitor of Clovis was a Solutrean technol-ogy from northern Spain.

The final, and possibly the critical, portion of theconference was an open discussion. Under the mod-eration of Collins, Goebel, Goodyear, Stanford,and Waters, scholars had the opportunity to voice

Neal Lopinot (left), co-investigator of the Big Eddysite in Missouri, banters with Smithsonianarchaeologist Dennis Stanford.

their interpretations of potential pre-Clovis sites and to explorethe broader context of early human occupation in the NewWorld.

Peering into the futureIt seems the tide has turned. Difficult though it is to reachconsensus among scholars, the members of this esteemed con-vocation unanimously agreed that today every archaeologistmust dig deeper. As Clovis becomes securely defined and poten-tial pre-Clovis sites are identified, it is now our obligation asscientists to continue testing to find answers to the questions,Who were the First Americans? When did they arrive in the NewWorld? To answer these significant questions we must go be-yond what we know and start looking for what we don’t know.

Scholars are encouragingly optimis-tic about the future of First Ameri-cans studies. Such sites as PaisleyCave in Oregon and the Hebior andSchaefer sites of Wisconsin havecaught their attention.

The Paleoamerican Origins confer-ence, by informing scientists of pre-

Clovis evidence already in hand, promises exciting discoveriesin the future. To find conclusive proof of human presence in theNew World prior to the Clovis people, we have to open ourminds, maintain a critical eye, and keep searching.

18 Volume 23 ■ Number 3

HAT WOULD HAPPEN if a comet struck the Earth? It’san unsettling thought, made even more so by abundantgeological evidence that it has, in fact, happened be-W

THE

CLOVIS COMETPart III:The Implications

fore—and not just once or twice, but many times throughoutour planet’s history. Indeed, according to a study recentlypublished in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sci-ences, the last such impact may have occurred just 12,900 yearsago—practically yesterday, in geologic terms. If that timeframe sounds auspicious, it should: It coincides with the de-mise of the last great Pleistocene megafauna and the end of the

Clovis culture—the first widespread, archaeologically distincthuman occupation in North America.

Parts I and II of this series outlined the basics of the ClovisComet theory and discussed more than a dozen converginglines of evidence that led to its development by geophysicistAllen West, physicist Richard Firestone, archaeologist AlGoodyear, and a multidisciplinary team of 24other scientists. In this installment, we’lltake a closer look at the implications of thepurported comet strike.

A long, cold winterIn the early 1980s, astrophysicist Carl Saganand several of his colleagues published astudy in which they argued that even a lim-ited nuclear war would leave a pall of sootand dust in the atmosphere that would lingerfor months, possibly years. Their climaticmodels predicted a long, dark “nuclear win-ter,” in which average global temperaturesmight drop as much as 20–30 degrees—enough to kill staple food crops, resulting in

widespread famine even after the worst effects had passed.Although the concept of a nuclear winter received plenty ofcriticism in its early years, later real-world experience showedthat it was valid. When Saddam Hussein lit off 526 Kuwaiti oilwells during Gulf War I, tons of particulate matter released intothe atmosphere rendered the region pitch-black at noon anddropped local temperatures as much as 10 degrees.

The nuclear-winter theory was later expanded and refinedby scientists working in a variety of fields. Volcanologists, forexample, have collected copious data demonstrating that cata-

clysmic volcanic eruptions, like the 1883Krakatoa explosion, do indeed affect theclimate; and now there’s evidence that asignificant extraterrestrial (ET) impact, byinjecting massive amounts of vaporizedrock and soil into the atmosphere, wouldproduce exactly the same effect. A firestormwould follow, caused by the initial thermalpulse and the scattering of burning debrisfrom the crater. The fires would pump evenmore particulates into the air in the form ofsmoke and soot, which winds of the upperatmosphere would spread far and wide. Ifthe impact were large enough (like the oneimplicated in the extinction of the dino-saurs), the atmospheric contaminationcould result in years of icy darkness. Evenafter the sun came out again, the ecologicalimpact could last for decades or centuries—or perhaps longer.

Over in a flashAccording to the Clovis Comet theory, the

highly fragmented object that hit the Earth almost 13,000 yearsago was relatively small—at most, 3–4 kilometers across be-fore it broke up far out in space. Unfortunately, it happened toimpact the kilometers-thick Laurentide ice sheet of easternCanada, kicking off a thousand-year cooling event called theYounger Dryas Interval. Aside from its horrific short-term

effects, “the conditions ofthe impact itself triggeredlong-term changes,” pointsout Dr. West. “The YoungerDryas is an example of thelatter. Fresh water from theice sheet melted into theNorth Atlantic, and thepulse of water basically shutdown ocean circulation.This caused the cooling togo on for a thousand years.”

The short-term effectsdevastated anything livingin the region. Regardless ofwhether the comet im-pacted Earth or explodedbefore hitting the ground,shock waves radiated

Comet Encke: A survivingfragment of the Clovis Comet?

NA

SA

July ■ 2008 19

For humans who survived the canopy of fire, the immediateeffects were over in less than a day. But because of enormousvolumes of supersaturated soot, steam, and dust kicked up intothe atmosphere by an ET impact of this scale, it remained cloudyand dark for weeks or months afterward—and it likely got verycold. Many survivors of the impact doubtless succumbed soonto the brutal environmental conditions. “They would have been

facing day-to-day life in whatwas essentially a nuclear ho-locaust environment,” saysWest. “The water was tainted,most animals and plants werekilled, and the comet intro-duced relatively high levels ofarsenic, radioactive thorium,and other poisons into the en-vironment.”

Given this grim scenario,it’s reasonable to assumethat the Clovis culture wasseverely affected by theevent. Humanity may evenhave been rendered locallyextinct in some parts ofNorth America. Although itappears that Clovis was im-mediately succeeded bydaughter cultures like Fol-

som and Plainview in some Western regions, there’s evidencethat even these cultures were severely depopulated comparedwith Clovis. In some parts of the continent, several hundredyears may have passed before the human population re-bounded to archaeologically significant levels. This appears tobe the case for the American Southeast, where archaeologistAlbert Goodyear has found evidence that the human popula-tion was spread much thinner after the beginning of theYounger Dryas than it had been before.

A clear demographic breakSeveral years ago, Dr. Goodyear—who is probably best knownfor his work at the Topper Paleoamerican site in South Caro-lina—was working to clarify the place of Redstone fluted pro-jectile points within the South Carolina Paleoindian PointDatabase. “I was reclassifying certain fluted points as Redstonethat had previously been misclassified as Clovis,” he recalls.Redstone is the point type thought to come immediately afterClovis in the mid-South region. Although Redstones closelyresemble Clovis points, several technological features distin-guish them from their immediate ancestors. Redstone basesare much more distinctly concave, the points are lessexcurvate (resulting in a more triangular shape), and the tipstend to be sharper. Furthermore, the fluting technique ofRedstones is fundamentally different from that used to makeClovis points. Small “guide flutes” found parallel to the mainflute in most Redstones suggest these points were fluted usingsome kind of instrument-assisted method, rather than bymeans of the direct-percussion method favored by Clovisknappers. Thus, while Redstones are morphologically similar

Clovis Points~13,125–12,925 CALYBP

The Redstones~12,900–12,500 CALYBP

Clovis and post-Clovis Redstone point distributions, showingreduced number of post-Clovis points in South Carolina.

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through the atmosphere in all directions, generating highwinds that shredded vegetation, literally blew away people andanimals within hundreds of miles of the impact, and possiblyscooped out the series of elliptical depressions in the AmericanSoutheast known as the Carolina Bays (their axes all pointtoward eastern Canada). Soon thereafter, the atmosphererushing out of the impact area came roaring back in a second-

ary shock wave with similar effects. The fireball produced bythe impact or air burst emitted a thermal pulse that flash-friedthe environment for hundreds of miles around. “The combina-tion of heat and shock wave was enough to set fires all over theplace,” West says. “At every place we have looked there is apeak of charcoal at the beginning of the Younger Dryas era.”Charcoal peaks have been found in terminal Clovis sedimentsthroughout North America, and even as far away as Belgium.

A grim fateMany Clovis individuals and bands doubtless survived thecomet impact, but apparently their culture as a whole did not,largely because the ecology collapsed around them. Accordingto West, most of the megafauna probably went extinct within amatter of weeks. “There were grass and tree fires on a hugescale,” he explains. “Imagine what would happen if you hadmillions of animals without grass and leaves to eat. The mostsignificant kill mechanism was probably starvation.” Add tothat over-predation on the last surviving large herbivores (byhumans and other hunters), disease, and the sudden climatechange, and the surviving megafaunal populations eventuallycrashed, leaving species like elk, bison, caribou, and deer asthe largest targets for hunters. Some evidence shows that evensurviving large-animal populations suffered sharp declines.Even if, as some researchers argue, the Clovis people weren’tfanatically devoted big-game hunters, they nevertheless faceda tragic shortage of food.

20 Volume 23 ■ Number 3

A, Clovis point from South Carolina. Post-Clovis points:B, Redstone from North Carolina; C, Gainey from Missouri1;D, Vail from Maine; E, Sedgwick from Missouri2. According toNeal Lopinot, “Gainey and Redstone are probably one in thesame, at least technologically, although they have been nameddifferently in the midcontinent and Southeast, respectively.”

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to Clovis points in many ways, it’s clear they were made usinga different lithic-reduction strategy. This suggests, in turn, thatthey were created by another culture—probably a daughterculture of Clovis, but distinctly different.

After completing his reassessment, Goodyear says, “I foundthat I had from four to five times more Clovis points thanRedstones. This seemed odd, as no other Paleo point is known tooccur with any frequency in the Carolinas after Clovis and beforeDalton.” Points of the Dalton culture, which manifests itselfthroughout the American Southeast and has been firmly dated

ever, technologically a Redstone is essentially a Gainey-Vail-Debert-type point. Those sites yield almost pure instrument-assisted fluted assemblages. In the case of Debert, it dates to10,590 RCYBP, and in the case of Vail, to 10,518 RCYBP. To put itanother way, a Gainey is a Yankee Redstone, or a Redstone is aSouthern Gainey. They’re virtually indistinguishable.”

If the Gainey-Vail-Debert continuum of points and Redstonepoints are in fact synchronous types—perhaps even the samewidespread type—then they date from a period commencingabout 300 years after Clovis, suggesting that human populations

took a very long time in-deed to rebound after theClovis Comet event. What-ever the case, “the dramaticdrop in numbers of Red-stones (and Gaineys) afterClovis is an intriguing pat-tern that can be observedfrom Wisconsin to Florida,”Goodyear observes. “Assuch, it’s at least suggestiveof a population decline overthe eastern U.S. I can’t sayit’s direct archaeologicalevidence of a catastrophicimpact on human popula-tions, but it is a pattern thatneeds to be explained.”

Even if (as the evidencestrongly suggests) there really was a post-Clovis populationcrash, that doesn’t necessarily mean it was caused by acometary impact. An alternative explanation might be thatpost-Clovis peoples in the East migrated to the Plains, possiblybecause of climatic considerations, and participated in what weknow as the Folsom culture. “It would be important, however,to see if there are occupational hiatuses between Clovis andFolsom sites, which might indicate some demographic disloca-tion,” Goodyear says. “And, most importantly, we need to see ifthere’s a drop in the number of Folsom sites that date in thetwo or three centuries following the end of Clovis. If this is thecase, it suggests that some kind of decline occurred from theRockies to the Atlantic Ocean.”

In the next issue we’ll conclude the Clovis Comet serieswith a look at mixed responses to the theory in “The ClovisComet, Part IV: Reactions to the Theory.”

–Floyd Largent

How to contact the principals of this article:Allen WestGeoScience ConsultingDewey, AZ 86327e-mail: Allen7633@aol.com

Albert GoodyearSouth Carolina Institute of Archaeology and AnthropologyUniversity of South CarolinaColumbia, SC 29208e-mail: goodyear@sc.edu

to 10,500–10,000 RCYBP, are up to 20 times more common thanRedstones in the Carolinas. “I examined the North Carolina andVirginia data,” he says, “and found essentially the same thing:more Clovis points, and much fewer deeply concave-basedRedstone fluted points.”

Goodyear reached the conclusion that the human populationof the entire region abruptly crashed at the end of the Clovis era,possibly as the result of a catastrophic event that killed or forcedout almost everyone—though he is careful to point out that thisis by no means a certainty. For one thing, the age of the culturethat made the Redstone points hasn’t yet been solidly deter-mined by radiometric dating. Based on significant technologicaldifferences, Goodyear considers the Redstone manufacturingstyle to be “post-Clovis” and infers that Redstone points datefrom after 10,900 RCYBP. “Although first named in the Southeast,they haven’t been excavated or dated there,” he notes. “How-