Clovis Technology Research Articles

Principles of Modern Artistic Design in Late Pleistocene Clovis Stone Biface Technology

ABSTRACT For nearly a century, scholars and avocationals alike have been fascinated with Late Pleistocene North American Clovis lithic technology. Of interest here is that, although a magnitude of research has been devoted to understanding the performance characteristics of Clovis lithic technology, less scholarship has been devoted to evaluating the aesthetic characteristics of Clovis stone tools despite the fact that many scholars have commented – often quite passionately – on the aesthetic effect of Clovis bifaces. But what precisely is it about Clovis bifacial stone tools that stimulates such widespread and enthusiastic appreciation? Here, to address this question, established Principles of Art and Design – (1) Symmetry, (2) Composition/Balance, (3) Rhythm/Movement, (4) Proportion/Ratios, (5) Color/Material Choice, and (6) Craftsmanship/Skill – were used to describe the unique visual appeal of Clovis stone tools. This approach informs our modern aesthetic relationship with Clovis technology while also elucidating patterns of artistic expression embedded within Clovis cache bifaces.

Evaluating the Fluted Points from Spring Lake, Texas: A Geometric Morphometric Shape Analysis of Clovis Affinity

ABSTRACT The Spring Lake Site (41HY160) in San Marcos, located along the Balcones Escarpment in central Texas, produced fluted points that appear diagnostic of Clovis technology as well as ice-age megafauna remains. Unfortunately, these materials were recovered in what appears to be mixed deposits within the lake itself. For over 40 years, researchers have hypothesized that the points represent Clovis technology and presence at the site. We use a two-dimensional landmark approach to geometric morphometric shape analysis to test the typological context of the artifacts against a dataset of well-dated Clovis point specimens. We examine whether they fall within a morphological range of variation in planview shape documented in point assemblages from Clovis sites organized geographically into the Southwest, Northwest, and Northeast regions. Results suggest that the Spring Lake points possess particular affinity in shape to Clovis points found in the Southwest region.

The Nye Canyon Paleo Site: an Upper Montane Mixed Fluted Point, Clovis Blade, and Western Stemmed Tradition Assemblage in Western Nevada

ABSTRACT The place of the Clovis techno-complex in Great Basin culture history remains enigmatic, both in relation to the Western Stemmed Tradition – the dominant Paleoindian artifact complex in the Intermountain West – and to the range of late Pleistocene/early Holocene habitats that people employing Clovis toolkits utilized. Here we describe the Nye Canyon Paleo Site (26Ly930), located in the Pine Grove Hills in western Nevada. The Nye Canyon Paleo Site stands alone in the Great Basin because it contains both fluted points and Clovis-style blades alongside Western Stemmed Tradition points and other tools, sits at a relatively high elevation, and potentially contains buried cultural deposits. Recent test excavations failed to locate an intact buried Paleoindian component, but the Nye Canyon Paleo Site nevertheless demonstrates the use of Clovis and Western Stemmed technology at a single upper montane locality in the western Great Basin and highlights regional Paleoindian upper montane land use.

The Nelson stone tool cache, North-Central Ohio, U.S.A.: Assessing its cultural affiliation

The Nelson stone tool cache was discovered in 2008 in Mount Vernon, Ohio. The cache does not include any diagnostic materials, and independent age control is unavailable. Although aspects of its 164 bifaces are suggestive of a Clovis affiliation – including the occasional occurrence of unmistakable flute scars – nearly all are in the early- to mid-stages of production, there are no definitive finished Clovis fluted points that would make it possible to assign the cache to that time period. To ascertain its cultural affiliation, we undertook a detailed qualitative and quantitative comparison of the Nelson cache bifaces with ones known to be both Clovis and post-Clovis in age. We also conducted geochemical sourcing, ochre analyses, and microwear analysis to understand the context of the cache, regardless of its age and cultural affinity. By some key measures it is consistent with Clovis caches in this region and elsewhere, but the case remains unproven. Nonetheless, if the Nelson cache is from the Clovis period, it is significant that most of its bifaces appear to be made on large flakes, in keeping with Clovis technology in the Lower Great Lakes, and an economically conservative, risk-mitigating strategy that conforms to predictions of human foragers colonizing the area in late Pleistocene times.

Clovis Technology is not Unique to Clovis

ABSTRACT We previously showed that stone-tool technological attributes thought to be unique to the Clovis period were present in a radiocarbon and OSL dated middle Holocene-age stratum at Goodson Shelter, Oklahoma (Eren et al. 2018a. “Is Clovis Technology Unique to Clovis?” PaleoAmerica 4:202–228). Consequently, we argued that technological attributes alone should not be used to assign assemblages to Clovis times. Huckell, Haynes, and Holliday (2019. “Comments on the Lithic Technology and Geochronology of the Goodson Rock Shelter.” PaleoAmerica 6:131–134) proposed two alternative hypotheses: that material we identified as Clovis-like was not, or that it was Clovis but had been mixed with younger deposits. They called for more information on the Clovis-like assemblage at Goodson, and additional dating of the site's lowest deposits. We provide that information, which confirms that stone-tool technologies ostensibly unique to Clovis were indeed in use in the middle Holocene.

The geographic origin of Clovis technology: Insights from Clovis biface caches

Multiple hypotheses have been advanced for the geographic origin of the Clovis technocomplex. Several competing hypotheses are considered in relation to the distribution of Clovis caches. Clovis caching behavior is interpreted as a strategy for maximizing exploration and migration rather than an embedded strategy associated with an annual foraging round. Based on this analysis, it is hypothesized that the Clovis technocomplex may have originated along the North Pacific coast or south of the Cordilleran ice sheet in the Puget Lowland before rapidly spreading across the continent.

Reassessing the Radiocarbon Date from the Buhl Burial from South-Central Idaho and Its Relevance to the Western Stemmed Tradition–Clovis Debate in the Intermountain West

A single radiocarbon date derived from the Buhl burial in south-central Idaho has frequently been used as a data point for the interpretation of the Western Stemmed Tradition (WST) chronology and technology because of the stemmed biface found in situ with the human remains. AMS dating of bone collagen in 1991 produced an age of 10,675 ± 95 14C BP, immediately postdating the most widely accepted age range for Clovis. The Buhl burial has been cited as evidence that stemmed point technology may have overlapped with Clovis technology in the Intermountain West. We discuss concerns about the radiocarbon date, arguing that even at face value, the calibrated date has minimal overlap with Clovis at the 95.4% range. Furthermore, the C:N ratio of 3.69 in the analyzed collagen is outside of the typical range for well-preserved samples, indicating a postdepositional change in carbon composition, which may make the date erroneously older or younger than the age of the skeleton. Finally, the potential dietary incorporation of small amounts of anadromous fish may indicate that the burial is younger than traditionally accepted. For these reasons, we argue that the Buhl burial cannot be used as evidence of overlap between WST and Clovis.

The Seagull Bay site—Clovis technology from American Falls on the Eastern Snake River Plain

The Snake River Plain may have served as a corridor for the earliest colonists spreading throughout the New World. It has been observed that the distribution of Clovis period sites and raw material...

Early Fluted-biface Variation in Glaciated Northeastern North America

ABSTRACTMost researchers argue that archaeological evidence for the Clovis technological complex, although documented across most of unglaciated North America, is absent in the glaciated Northeast, suggesting that early Paleoindian populations in the latter region were descendent from early Native American peoples associated with Clovis technology. If so, what are the earliest fluted-biface forms in glaciated northeastern North America? To refine developmental and relative chronological relationships of early Paleoindian fluted bifaces in the region, we (1) examine fluted-biface-reduction sequences at the Rogers (Ontario) and West Athens Hill (WAH) (New York) sites, and (2) compare fluted-point samples from early Paleoindian sites in the Northeast and vicinity. For Rogers and WAH, our results document variable frequencies of overshot and overface flaking during fluted-point manufacture – features linked elsewhere to Clovis biface reduction. In addition, analyses identify several early Paleoindian fluted-point samples in the Northeast that bear similarities to Clovis points but differ from, and therefore likely predate Gainey and Gainey-related early Paleoindian point forms in the glaciated Northeast.

On the Reality of Gainey Points

ABSTRACTEren, Meltzer, and Andrews (2018. “Is Clovis Technology Unique to Clovis?” PaleoAmerica 4: 201–218) repeat claims made elsewhere that deny the existence of a Gainey fluted point type/complex in the Great Lakes-Northeast region of North America and its distinctiveness from Clovis. The literature they cite that purports to refute the existence of Gainey does not do so. In fact, that literature is irrelevant to the question, and they ignore the 50+ years of published work that demonstrates in increasing detail how the Gainey point type differs from generally accepted characterizations of Clovis points and strongly suggests they post-date western Clovis forms. Treating all large, relatively parallel-sided points in the Great Lakes-Northeast as Clovis, despite evidence suggesting use and changes over hundreds of years, results in excessive time averaging and raises real doubts about conclusions based on that faulty assumption.

Fluted and Basally Thinned Concave-Base Points of Obsidian in the Borden Collection from Inyo County, Alta California: Age and Significance

This article describes, classifies, and provides the calculated ages of 14 basally thinned and fluted points of obsidian in the Borden collection from Rose Valley in southern Inyo County, California. With the exception of one item of Fish Springs obsidian, the specimens are all made of glass from geologic subsources in the Coso Volcanic Field. Typologically, the fragmentary and reworked artifacts appear to represent Clovis, or perhaps Clovis-derived, concave-base lanceolate points. Obsidian hydration measurements permit age calculations that range between approximately 13,793 and 11,308 calendar years ago. The calculated ages of the Borden artifacts are consistent with their discovery on landforms associated with Younger Dryas and very early Holocene wetlands. Our research results also suggest that Clovis technology may have persisted longer in California than it did in the southeastern, central, and southwestern United States.

Bison phylogeography constrains dispersal and viability of the Ice Free Corridor in western Canada

The Ice Free Corridor has been invoked as a route for Pleistocene human and animal dispersals between eastern Beringia and more southerly areas of North America. Despite the significance of the corridor, there are limited data for when and how this corridor was used. Hypothetical uses of the corridor include: the first expansion of humans from Beringia into the Americas, northward postglacial expansions of fluted point technologies into Beringia, and continued use of the corridor as a contact route between the north and south. Here, we use radiocarbon dates and ancient mitochondrial DNA from late Pleistocene bison fossils to determine the chronology for when the corridor was open and viable for biotic dispersals. The corridor was closed after ∼23,000 until 13,400 calendar years ago (cal y BP), after which we find the first evidence, to our knowledge, that bison used this route to disperse from the south, and by 13,000 y from the north. Our chronology supports a habitable and traversable corridor by at least 13,000 cal y BP, just before the first appearance of Clovis technology in interior North America, and indicates that the corridor would not have been available for significantly earlier southward human dispersal. Following the opening of the corridor, multiple dispersals of human groups between Beringia and interior North America may have continued throughout the latest Pleistocene and early Holocene. Our results highlight the utility of phylogeographic analyses to test hypotheses about paleoecological history and the viability of dispersal routes over time.

The Morphology and Technology of Clovis Flat-Backed Cores from the Gault Site (41BL323), Texas

Blade production is recognized as a diagnostic component of Clovis lithic technology [Bradley, Bruce A., Michael B. Collins, and C. A. Hemmings 2010 Clovis Technology. International Monographs in Prehistory, Archaeological Series 17; Collins, Michael B. 1999 Clovis Blade Technology. University of Texas Press, Austin, TX; Huckell, Bruce B. 2007 Clovis Lithic Technology: A View from the Upper San Pedro Valley. In Murray Springs: A Clovis Site with Multiple Activity Areas in the San Pedro Valley, Arizona, edited by C. V. Haynes, Jr and Bruce B. Huckell. The University of Arizona Press, Tucson, AZ; Waters, Michael R., Charlotte D. Pevny, and D. L. Carlson 2011 Clovis Lithic Technology: Investigation of a Stratified Workshop at the Gault Site, Texas. Texas A&M University Press, College Station, Texas]. Clovis Blade reduction strategies have been previously documented [Bradley, Bruce A., Michael B. Collins, and C. A. Hemmings 2010 Clovis Technology. International Monographs in Prehistory, Archaeological Series 17], but the specific morphology of Clovis blade cores is underreported. This is a crucial aspect in identifying blade manufacture across the Clovis range and comparing regional diversity. Blade core morphology can also provide data on specific aspects of manufacture. This paper presents a study of Clovis “flat-backed” (wedge-shaped) blade cores from the Gault Site in Central Texas, USA. An analysis of the blade cores indicates that curved blades were a product of the morphology. Despite this, the intentionality and functional need for producing curved blades is uncertain. Further studies are necessary across the Clovis range to identify if one systematic production technology was utilized.

Finding Fluted-Point Sites in the Arid West

The limited presence of fluted points in far western North America may represent small populations of fluted-point makers, but this pattern also may be due to amateur collecting. Other elements diagnostic of Clovis technology are present, which, if considered in future surveys, could lead to a revision of Clovis distributions.

Social learning and technological evolution during the Clovis colonization of the New World

A long-standing debate in Pleistocene archaeology concerns the sources of variation in the technology of colonizing hunter-gatherers. One prominent example of this debate is Clovis technology (13,350–12,500 calendar years before present), which represents the earliest widespread and currently recognizable remains of hunter-gatherers in North America. Clovis projectile points appear to have been made the same way regardless of region, but several studies have documented differences in shape that appear to be regional. Two processes have been proposed for shape variation: (1) stochastic mechanisms such as copy error (drift) and (2) Clovis groups adapting their hunting equipment to the characteristics of prey and local habitat. We used statistical analysis of Clovis-point flake-scar pattern and geometric morphometrics to examine whether drift alone could cause significant differences in the technology of Stone Age colonizing hunter-gatherers. Importantly, our analysis was intraregional to rule out a priori environmental adaptation. Our analysis confirmed that the production technique was the same across the sample, but we found significant shape differences in Clovis point populations made from distinct stone outcrops. Given that current archaeological evidence suggests stone outcrops were “hubs” of regional Clovis activity, our dichotomous, intraregional results quantitatively confirm that Clovis foragers engaged in two tiers of social learning. The lower, ancestral tier relates to point production and can be tied to conformist transmission of tool-making processes across the Clovis population. The upper, derived tier relates to point shape, which can be tied to drift that resulted from increased forager interaction at different stone-outcrop hubs and decreased forager interaction among groups using different outcrops. Given that Clovis artifacts represent the earliest widespread and currently recognizable remains of hunter-gatherers in North America, our results suggest that we need to alter our theoretical understanding of how quickly drift can occur within a colonizing population and create differences among socially learned technological characters.

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

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.

Human (Clovis)-gomphothere (Cuvieronius sp.) association ∼ 13,390 calibrated yBP in Sonora, Mexico.

The earliest known foragers to populate most of North America south of the glaciers [∼ 11,500 to ≥ ∼ 10,800 (14)C yBP; ∼ 13,300 to ∼ 12,800 calibrated (Cal) years] made distinctive "Clovis" artifacts. They are stereotypically characterized as hunters of Pleistocene megamammals (mostly mammoth) who entered the continent via Beringia and an ice-free corridor in Canada. The origins of Clovis technology are unclear, however, with no obvious evidence of a predecessor to the north. Here we present evidence for Clovis hunting and habitation ∼ 11,550 yBP (∼ 13,390 Cal years) at "El Fin del Mundo," an archaeological site in Sonora, northwestern Mexico. The site also includes the first evidence to our knowledge for gomphothere (Cuvieronius sp.) as Clovis prey, otherwise unknown in the North American archaeological record and terminal Pleistocene paleontological record. These data (i) broaden the age and geographic range for Clovis, establishing El Fin del Mundo as one of the oldest and southernmost in situ Clovis sites, supporting the hypothesis that Clovis had its origins well south of the gateways into the continent, and (ii) expand the make-up of the North American megafauna community just before extinction.

Examining context and association at the Clovis type-site: Interpreting the 1963–1964 spring conduit excavations, Roosevelt County, New Mexico

Excavations carried out by F. Earl Green and El Llano Archaeological Society at Blackwater Locality No. 1, Roosevelt County, New Mexico provided the opportunity to investigate spatial patterning and artifact diversity between Clovis and Folsom assemblages identified in the north bank area of the Clovis type-site. Four assemblages, containing Clovis and Folsom diagnostic artifacts, were recovered during the 1963 and 1964 excavations. By viewing artifacts as clasts, and correlating particle size analyses with spatial patterning, the depositional environments associated within the four assemblages were evaluated. Building upon these findings, assemblage diversity was examined revealing both variability and continuity in the level of Clovis and Folsom technological organization. These findings augment existing models of Clovis and Folsom technology on a local basis and highlight variability in the regional transition from the late Pleistocene to the early Holocene period at Blackwater Draw Locality No. 1.

Clovis Technology and Settlement in the American Southeast: Using Biface Analysis to Evaluate Dispersal Models

AbstractKelly and Todd’s (1988) “high-technology forager” model predicts Clovis groups were highly mobile populations that left behind behaviorally consistent records of Clovis fluted points as evidence of their short-term occupations. Anderson’s (1990, 1996) staging-area model predicts that Clovis settlement was more gradual; groups entered the continent and slowed migration to concentrate territorial ranges around resource-rich river valleys, and these staging areas became the demographic foundations for early cultural regionalization. This study analyzes southeastern Clovis point data and biface assemblages from Carson-Conn-Short; Topper, and Williamson to test the technological implications of these two models. Significant subregional variation exists in Clovis point morphology and biface production techniques. This variation suggests the subregions represent distinct populations who distinctly altered aspects of their technology but maintained fundamental elements of the Clovis tradition. These findings are at odds with the high-technology forager model and more closely fit the staging-area model.

Clovis Age Western Stemmed Projectile Points and Human Coprolites at the Paisley Caves

The Paisley Caves in Oregon record the oldest directly dated human remains (DNA) in the Western Hemisphere. More than 100 high-precision radiocarbon dates show that deposits containing artifacts and coprolites ranging in age from 12,450 to 2295 (14)C years ago are well stratified. Western Stemmed projectile points were recovered in deposits dated to 11,070 to 11,340 (14)C years ago, a time contemporaneous with or preceding the Clovis technology. There is no evidence of diagnostic Clovis technology at the site. These two distinct technologies were parallel developments, not the product of a unilinear technological evolution. "Blind testing" analysis of coprolites by an independent laboratory confirms the presence of human DNA in specimens of pre-Clovis age. The colonization of the Americas involved multiple technologically divergent, and possibly genetically divergent, founding groups.