The Surface Paleoindian Record of Northern Warner Valley, Oregon, and Its Bearing on the Temporal and Cultural Separation of Clovis and Western Stemmed Points in the Northern Great Basin

Abstract

The chronological and technological relationships between Clovis and Western Stemmed Tradition (WST) projectile points in the Great Basin are unclear. There are no dated and stratified sites containing both point types. We present data from Oregon's Warner Valley, where a rich Paleoindian surface record associated with dated landforms and differences in raw materials represented within each technology allow us to evaluate current hypotheses regarding Clovis and WST points. Our results provide little support for the hypothesis that Clovis and WST points were initially components of the same lithic toolkit in the northern Great Basin. Instead, we suggest that the technologies were separated by a narrow period of time or that two cultural traditions existed during the terminal Pleistocene in the northern Great Basin.