Pre-Clovis in Texas? A critical assessment of the “Buttermilk Creek Complex”

Lithic artifacts from the lowest strata of the Debra L. Friedkin site, located on Buttermilk Creek in central Texas, have been interpreted as an undisturbed pre-Clovis assemblage (Waters et al., 2011a). Stone tools and debitage were recovered from sediments stratified just below diagnostic Clovis artifacts and dated by OSL to between 13.2 and >15.5 cal kya. Invoking commonly observed cultural and natural site formation processes, we offer an alternative explanation of the “Buttermilk Creek Complex” as a Clovis assemblage in secondary association with the dated sediments.     

Serpentine Hot Springs,Alaska: results of excavations and implications for the age and significance of northern fluted points

The dispersal of Homo sapiens across the New World is one of the greatest chapters in the history of our species; however, major questions about this late Pleistocene diaspora remain unanswered. Two contentious issues are the timing of colonization of the Bering Land Bridge and origin of Clovis, which at 13,000 calendar years ago is the earliest unequivocal complex of archaeological sites in temperate North America, known by its specialized fluted spear points. One hypothesis is that fluting technology emerged in Beringia and from there was carried southbound, with fluted points becoming the diagnostic “calling card” of early Paleoindians spreading across the Western Hemisphere. Fluted points have long been known from Alaska, yet until now they have never been found in a datable geologic context, making their relationship to Clovis a mystery. Here we show that a new archaeological site at Serpentine Hot Springs, Bering Land Bridge National Preserve, Alaska, contains fluted points in a stratified geologic deposit dating to no earlier than 12,400 calendar years ago. Our results suggest that Alaska's fluted-point complex is too young to be ancestral to Clovis, and that it instead represents either a south-to-north dispersal of early Americans or transmission of fluting technology from temperate North America. These results suggest that the peopling of the Americas and development of Paleoindian technology were much more complex than traditional models predict.     

Reassessing the diet of Upper Palaeolithic humans from Gough's Cave and Sun Hole,Cheddar Gorge,Somerset, UK

Richards et al. (2000) reconstructed the diet of the human remains found in Gough's and Sun Hole Cave through isotope analysis. They concluded that these people consumed an entirely terrestrial-based diet. Their reconstruction was based upon comparison of the results from human bones with those from a very small number of associated animals. The diets of the Gough's and Sun Hole Cave human were different from the other six Upper Palaeolithic humans from the British Isles for which dietary information has been obtained through isotope analysis. The work of Richards et al. (2000) suggests that they were the only ones for whom marine or freshwater resources did not play a significant role in their diets. We test this through further analyses of faunal remains from Gough's Cave, Sun Hole and other contemporary sites (Kent's Cavern, Aveline's Hole, Kendrick's Cave). Despite the limited faunal sample, the original palaeodietary reconstruction is broadly consistent with our findings. The isotope values of the main protein sources consumed by the humans from both sites are consistent with those of red deer and bovines, and, for a single individual, with that of horse and red deer. Reindeer was postulated in the original reconstruction as a potential food source, but this seems very unlikely based on our isotope reconstruction and the archaeological remains.     

Reaping ‘rewards’ in sickle use-wear analysis

Recently in their research Goodale et al. (2010) as well as that of Vardi et al. (2010) independently tackled issues of effectively measuring attrition/gloss rates on sickle blade tools from Southwest Asia. Interestingly, while applying new methodology to analyzing sickle tools from different cultural and temporal contexts, these two papers arrived at a similar conclusion: sickle tools were likely very expensive to make, and thus, considerations were made during their production to ensure long use-lives to benefit the people who made and used them in prehistory. Stemp et al. (in this issue) provide a methodological critique of both studies. In addressing their critique we make several points. First it is important to note that Stemp et al. provide no new experimental analysis to justify their assertions, and their critique is ultimately, at best, guesswork. Second, the minimal reanalysis of the data Stemp et al. do conduct arguably lead to the same preliminary conclusion at which we originally arrived: the prehistoric sickle blades we examined were used longer than those we replicated. As stated in our original paper, lithic use-wear studies often do not address issue of reliable and reproducible methods. We believe that our original study helps fill this missing component, and that measuring edge thickness is much less subjective than conventional features on stone tools traditionally identified microscopically. From our perspective, Stemp et al. present largely unsupported critical commentary, lacking substantial reanalysis or experiments to complement or justify their commentary. In the end Stemp et al. provide little more than interesting ideas and conjecture.     

Assessing Collector Bias: A Geometric Morphometric Analysis of a Collection of Isolated Clovis Points from the Midcontinent

Clovis points are found across the contiguous United States as isolated surface finds and as elements of assemblages in surface and subsurface deposits. Despite being scattered over the continent, Clovis points exhibit a remarkable degree of standardization, yet there is still a demonstrable level of variation in their shapes across regions. Including isolated points in regional comparative analyses would significantly increase sample sizes and spatial coverage of these analyses; however, the effects of collector bias—the tendency to collect the most typical and aesthetically pleasing points—are unknown. Here, we examine the shape of a sample of isolated Clovis points from the midcontinent using geometric morphometric techniques. We show that resharpening had little effect on the shape of points and that our sample of isolated points are similar in shape to points from assemblages in the midcontinent. Our findings suggest that isolated points have research potential when collector bias is limited.     

Late Pleistocene protein residues from the Mahaffy cache,Colorado

This paper reports the analysis of protein residues from tools recovered in a cache within the city limits of Boulder, Colorado, USA. This cache included a total of 83 artifacts, all of which we subjected to cross-over immunoelectrophoresis (CIEP). Four of the 83 produced results, with residues from each of these reacting with antigens from a different taxon: one tool shows evidence of use on sheep, one on bear, one on horse, and one on camel. Varieties of sheep and bear have been present in Colorado throughout human history, but horses and camelids have been in the state either during the Pleistocene or the last 200 years. Several lines of evidence indicate that the cache cannot be recent, and our CIEP results therefore imply that the cache date to the late Pleistocene. Typological aspects of the artifacts in the cache are consistent with artifacts known to be Clovis, and the combination of CIEP and typological data thus indicate that the cache is Clovis as well. These data contribute to an increasing dataset documenting the broad range of animals other than elephants hunted by Clovis groups in North America.     

OSL and TL dating of the Middle Stone Age sequence at Diepkloof Rock Shelter (South Africa): a clarification

Diepkloof Rock Shelter offers an exceptional opportunity to study the onset and evolution of both Still Bay (SB) and Howiesons Poort (HP) techno-complexes. However, previous age estimates based on luminescence dating of burnt quartzites (Tribolo et al., 2009) and of sediments (Jacobs et al., 2008) were not in agreement. Here, we present new luminescence ages for 17 rock samples (equivalent dose estimated with a SAR-ITL protocol instead of classical MAAD-TL) as well as for 5 sediment samples (equivalent dose estimated with SAR-single grain OSL protocol) and an update of the 22 previous age estimates for burnt lithics (modified calibration and beta dose estimates). While a good agreement between the rock and sediment ages is obtained, these estimates are still significantly older than those reported by Jacobs et al. (2008). After our own analyses of the sediment from Diepkloof, it is suspected that these authors did not correctly chose the parameters for the equivalent dose determination, leading to an underestimate of the equivalent doses, and thus of the ages.     

Continent-wide or region-specific? A geometric morphometrics-based assessment of variation in Clovis point shape

Researchers have debated the existence of regional variation in Clovis points for over 60 years. Here, we report an attempt to resolve this argument using a large sample of Clovis points from dated assemblages and a suite of shape analysis methods known as geometric morphometrics. The study tested the two main hypotheses that have been put forward in the debate: the continent-wide adaptation hypothesis, which holds that Clovis points do not vary regionally, and the regional environmental adaptation hypothesis, which holds that there is regional variation as a consequence of Clovis groups adjusting their food-getting toolkits to local conditions. We used discriminant function analysis and a multivariate extension of the t test to assess whether differences in shape exist at two scales. The first set of analyses compared points from the most obvious environmental regions in North America, the East and the West. The second set of analyses investigated differences among points from subregions within the East and West. The analyses revealed significant differences between points from the East and the West and among points from some subregions. Follow-up analyses demonstrated that these differences are not the result of the most common confounding factors, raw material quality and resharpening. As such, the analyses support the regional environmental adaptation hypothesis rather than the continent-wide adaptation hypothesis. We conclude from this that Clovis people modified their points to suit the characteristics of local prey and/or the habitats in which they hunted.     

Clovis Lithic Technology: The Devil Is in the Details

Clovis is the best known early development in North America buts its lithic technology is poorly documented and often from animal kill sites. This evidence has been used to picture Clovis peoples as mobile, colonizing, big-game hunters and explanations of lithic technological practices have been framed largely in materialist terms. Increasing documentation suggests views about how the complex Clovis biface and blade production strategies relate to subsistence, land use, and specific kinds of mobility patterns are questionable and often difficult to test with archaeological data. We need to seriously consider the role of Clovis people's worldview in structuring their thought and technical actions.     

Context and spatial organization of the Clovis assemblage from the Topper site,South Carolina

Abstract

This paper reports results of a 40 sq m block excavation of the Clovis assemblage from the Topper site, South Carolina. Topper is one of only three buried, extensively excavated Clovis quarry-related sites in North America. The Clovis assemblage was recovered in a buried component distinct from overlying Archaic and Woodland components. The site geomorphology and formation processes and the horizontal distribution of the assemblage are used to identify a workshop floor with discrete knapping loci created by unique production and use goals. The excavated assemblage from Topper provides useful and important information in order to reinterpret the Clovis occupation of the Southeast. Moreover, spatial patterning from Topper shows Clovis people organized and structured onsite activities at quarry-related sites.     

The technology of Stone Age colonization: an empirical,regional-scale examination of Clovis unifacial stone tool reduction,allometry, and edge angle from the North American Lower Great Lakes region

There is now broad consensus that the appearance of Clovis in Northeastern North America (Great Lakes, New England) represents a colonization pulse into recently deglaciated landscapes. Due to the increased resource uncertainty that comes with colonizing unfamiliar landscapes, it was hypothesized that the majority tool component of Clovis assemblages, unifacial stone tools, should have been knapped on tool blanks possessing the design properties of longevity and functional flexibility to facilitate exploration mobility and guard against the absence of toolstone sources in the new landscape. These properties are optimized by large, flat flakes, possessing large surface area relative to flake thickness. Since discarded and, at times, exhausted unifacial stone tools do not preserve the original dimensions of the blank upon which they were created – necessary items for a true test of blank morphology selection – this study presents a set of predictions for inferring whether Clovis unifacial stone tool blanks were selected for the properties of longevity and functional flexibility based on evidence that Clovis people actually capitalized on those properties. Due to the nature of Clovis unifacial stone tools, tool size was of necessity used as a proxy for tool reduction, on the grounds that smaller tools are more likely to have been resharpened than larger tools, at least in the case of unifacial flake tools. The results showed that less resharpened tools possessed flatter, less spherical shapes than the more resharpened tools, which possessed more globular, spherical shapes, suggesting Clovis foragers exploited the retouch potential afforded by the larger, flatter blanks. Edge angles showed no relationship with tool reduction, suggesting that Clovis foragers exploited the functional flexibility afforded by flatter blanks by adjusting the edge angle to be either higher or lower as needed. These results are consistent with the notion that human colonizers, who did not know the abundance or location of stone outcrops prior to settling an unfamiliar territory, not only “geared up” before leaving a stone source, but geared up as efficiently as possible by carefully selecting the blanks they chose to carry. Broader implications for such careful unifacial stone tool blank selection are discussed.     

A Model for Paleoamerican Coastal Zone Preference for the Atlantic Slope of Eastern North America Since the Last Glacial Maximum

Paleoamerican colonization models have emphasized the importance of coastal zones for provisioning hunter gatherers with a diverse range of subsistence resources. This article expands on recent research by Lowery et al. 2012, and presents a model to explain the distribution of Clovis points across the Atlantic slope of Eastern North America. Marine transgression since the last glaciation has submerged large tracts of the Atlantic continental shelf. Global bathymetric data was used to estimate the Clovis age shoreline from Delaware to Florida. Clovis biface data for modern coastal areas, obtained from the Paleoindian database of the Americas, was compared to the slope of the paleo-shoreline to predict coastal zone preference. Results indicate a relationship between point distribution and coastal zone type. Areas where major rivers with high-quality tool-stone intersect broad coastal zones served important roles to Clovis subsistence adaptations. The potential exists for early Paleoamerican sites along the continental shelf submerged beneath 55–75 m of the Atlantic Ocean. Modern coastal regions with high densities of Clovis points may serve as analogues for identifying earlier sites that have been submerged as a result of marine transgression.     

The Hogeye Clovis cache,Texas: quantifying lithic reduction signatures

The Hogeye Clovis cache is comprised of 52 late-stage bifaces, finished points, and knife/cores cached in central Texas. Because these artifacts were all likely made and cached approximately 13,000 years ago by one or a handful of knappers belonging to a single band with a shared Clovis cultural template, Hogeye provides a rare opportunity to investigate Clovis lithic reduction signatures. This paper builds on previous analyses and presents new methods for quantifying Clovis biface production signatures, including serial flaking and the timing of last overshot flaking. The results show that the Hogeye cache bifaces technologically and morphologically differ from other regional Clovis biface reduction signatures. Additional data is needed to determine whether these differences reflect individual knapping preferences or regional cultural signatures. The methods used and developed here are not Clovis-specific and could be modified and combined with other analytical techniques to identify reduction signatures in biface assemblages from other times and places.     

Central petén blue pigment: A maya blue source outside of Yucatán,México

Much of the research on Maya Blue has focused on locating palygorskite sources in northern Yucatán, México. To that end, Arnold et al. (2007) reported seven discriminate source mineral locations for palygorskite used in the manufacture of Maya Blue. Recently, a blue pigment was excavated from the archaeological site of Ixlú, El Petén, Guatemala and LA-ICP-MS and INAA analyses were conducted to determine if the pigment had the traditional Maya Blue structure and if it was from one of the seven mineral sources in México. Geochemical analyses demonstrate that the Ixlú pigment has the traditional Maya Blue structure, but it was manufactured from clays in central Petén, Guatemala. These new data suggest that the knowledge of Maya Blue manufacture was transferred and not the actual pigment and they reveal another source for Maya Blue manufacture outside of the Yucatán peninsula.     

A geometric morphometrics-based assessment of blade shape differences among Paleoindian projectile point types from western North America

Blade shape features in the type definitions of Clovis, Folsom, and Plainview projectile points. However, the accuracy of these assessments has never been evaluated. Here we report a study in which geometric morphometrics and multivariate statistics were used to compare the shapes of the blades of Clovis, Folsom and Plainview points from the Southern Plains of North America. In the course of the analyses, we controlled for the impact of three potential confounding factors: allometry, differences in raw material quality, and resharpening. The analyses show that blade shape distinguishes Clovis points from both Folsom points and Plainview points, but does not distinguish Folsom points from Plainview points. The analyses also show that the similarities and differences in blade shape among the types are independent of allometry, raw material quality, and resharpening. These findings suggest that the type definitions for Clovis, Folsom and Plainview need to be altered. They also have implications for typing specimens that lack other defining characters (e.g. channel flakes, flutes). Lastly, the absence of resharpening effects raises questions about the validity of the reduction thesis.     

First molecular identification of a hafting adhesive in the Late Howiesons Poort at Diepkloof Rock Shelter (Western Cape,South Africa)

The hafting of tools using adhesive is one of the innovative features that characterizes the southern African Middle Stone Age. This technology has mainstream implications but remains insufficiently documented, largely due to unequal organic preservation and non-adapted analytical procedures. A notable exception is provided by the recent results from the site of Sibudu (Lombard, 2006; Wadley et al., 2009).     

Quarries and transportation routes of Angkor monument sandstone blocks

Sandstone blocks are the main construction materials used in the Angkor monuments in Cambodia. However, a thorough study of the quarries has not yet been carried out. We conducted a field investigation of sandstone quarries from the Angkor period at the southeastern foot of Mt. Kulen, which is approximately 35 km northeast of the Angkor monuments. As a result, we discovered more than 50 sandstone quarries. On the basis of the measurements of magnetic susceptibilities and thicknesses (step heights), we found that they were quarried at different times. These four quarrying areas were identified as the quarries D to G inferred by Uchida et al. (2007). In addition we investigated a canal that was identified on satellite images, connecting quarry sites at the foot of Mt. Kulen to the Angkor monuments. The field investigation suggests a high probability that the canal was used for the transportation of sandstone blocks from Mt. Kulen.     

‘True British sailors’: a comment on the origin of the men of the Mary Rose

Bell et al. (2009) have recently published an isotopic investigation of the origins of 18 men whose remains were found in the wreck of the Mary Rose, Henry VIII's warship, which sank in 1545. They conclude that a high proportion of the ship's crew were foreigners and that this may have contributed to confusion on board ship and the sinking of the vessel. We have re-evaluated the data of Bell et al. and conclude that only one of the 18 sailors demonstrably spent his childhood outside the British Isles.     

Clovis biface technology at the Topper site,South Carolina: evidence for variation and technological flexibility

The Topper site in the South Atlantic Coastal Plain of South Carolina provides a rare glimpse of the entire range of Clovis tool manufacture. Topper is a quarry-related site along the Savannah River with an outcrop of Coastal Plain chert and a buried Clovis component. This paper focuses on the 174 bifaces and diagnostic debitage from recent excavations to understand biface production at Topper. I present the process of manufacture then measure the variation in production characteristics at the site in terms of our current knowledge of Clovis biface technology. I conclude that Topper flintknappers used reduction strategies typical of Clovis-period tool production but created a biface assemblage with greater flexibility in design than documented at most other Clovis sites. This variation in biface production suggests greater variability in Clovis behavior across America—Clovis groups adapted to local resource conditions and adjusted the organization of their technology accordingly.     

Clovis,Folsom, and Midland components at the Debra L. Friedkin site,Texas: context,chronology, and assemblages

The archaeological transition from Clovis to Folsom and Midland in the North American Great Plains coincides with the end of the Pleistocene and onset of the Younger Dryas. Comparisons exploring the adaptive changes that took place during this period frequently employ regional-scale approaches. The focus on regional-scale analyses largely results from the dearth of sites repeatedly visited by multiple early Paleoindian groups. However, regional-scale comparisons have the potential to overlook smaller-scale differences. The Debra L. Friedkin site, Texas offers an opportunity to study Midland, Folsom, and Clovis technology and site-use at a single site. This paper presents the context and chronology of the Midland, Folsom, and Clovis assemblages and a site-scale analysis of lithics from the Friedkin site. It is argued that point production and late-stage reduction were primary activities, and the use of bifacial cores for flake tools was important throughout these occupation periods. Site use at Friedkin differs from early Paleoindian occupation at the nearby Gault site and expands our understanding of settlement and technological organization in the region.