On the Weight of the Evidence from Cross Creek: A Reply to Turner

Abstract

As stated in our original paper (Jones et al. 2002), the Cross Creek site is not of sufficient antiquity to challenge Clovis for temporal priority in western North America, but it pushes the age of the California Milling Stone culture back 2,000 years earlier than previous estimates. The Milling Stone culture and coastal adaptations on the southern California islands are so profoundly different from Clovis that they beg consideration of alternative colonization scenarios. Relying on old arguments and ignoring recently published findings, Turner (this issue) argues that there is insufficient evidence for a maritime culture on the central coast of California at the end of the Pleistocene. In our response, we further discuss implications of the findings from Cross Creek and other studies that support a coastal migration model.