A Fresh Look at the Age and Cultural Affiliation of the Sheaman Site

Abstract

The Sheaman site in Wyoming was discovered in 1973 and excavated a few years later. It has since entered the archaeological literature as one of the few Clovis campsites in the American West. More importantly, the wealth of information from the site related to biface manufacture has served to establish the importance of overshot flaking in Clovis technology. Since only a single projectile point of ambiguous cultural affiliation was found, the chronology of the site's occupation relied explicitly on radiocarbon ages and on an ivory rod similar to known Clovis examples. This paper reviews newly available radiocarbon data and other lines of information, and questions the previously established Clovis attribution. Rather, it is argued that available evidence points to an Agate Basin connection. Ultimately, the proposed cultural affiliation brings into question the use of overshot flaking as a cultural marker of Clovis.