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Archaeologists have discovered two previously unknown forms of advanced technology at a Texas site. The triangular blades appear to be older than the projectile points produced by the Paleoamerican Clovis culture, an observation that complicates our understanding of how the Americas were colonized – and by whom.
The Clovis spearheads began to appear about 13,000 to 12,700 years ago and were produced by Paleo-American hunter-gatherers known as the Clovis people. Made from stones, these leaf-shaped spikes (lanceolate) have a shallow concave base and a fluted or flaked base that allows them to be placed at the end of a spear.
New research published today in Science Advances describes the discovery of two new state-of-the-art technologies in the Buttermilk Creek Complex at the Debra L. Friedkin archaeological site in Bell County, Texas, between 13,500 and 15,000. 000 years. As these landmarks are prior to Clovis culture, they may have inspired the development of later projectile point styles, including those made by the Clovis people, said Michael Waters, lead author of the new study and archaeologist at the Texas A & M University. Either that, he said, or spearheads, hitherto unknown, were brought to North America during a separate migration to the mainland.
But not everyone is convinced by these latest research. The experts we spoke with said that it was an important discovery, but the conclusions reached by the researchers went a bit far.
Clovis Spearpoint technology was once considered the first example of human activity in North America. However, a series of key discoveries in recent decades have largely reversed this hypothesis. Archeological and genetic evidence now suggests that humans entered North America between 15,000 and 16,000 years ago, not 13,500, as was once thought.
To further complicate matters, archaeologists have uncovered evidence of a different style of advanced technology, dubbed the tradition with western stems. These projectile points were manufactured by locals from the west of North America. their tips were leaf-shaped like Clovis, but instead of being fluted, they were tapered at the base to form the stem. The basis of these points suggests that they were hoisted on the spear in a different way from Clovis points. The earliest evidence of the Western stemban tradition goes back to about 13,000 years ago, leading archaeologists to wonder whether there was any connection between the stem points and the Clovis style. But now, the discovery of pre-Clovis points on the Friedkin site suggests that this manufacturing tradition predates the invention of Clovis and could have even served as a precursor.
Archaeologists have been working on the Friedkin site since 1998, removing artefacts and other evidence from an ancient Paleoamerican culture. In the new study, Waters and his colleagues describe 238 tools recently discovered on the site, including 12 complete and fragmented projectile points. Using a well-known dating technique known as Optically Stimulated Luminescence (OSL), researchers directly dated the sediments in which the projectile tips and other artifacts were buried, reaching a range of 13,500 to 15,500 years old. Interestingly, these artifacts were found in deposits directly beneath a younger geologic layer containing Clovis artifacts. The authors of the new study claim that the discovery is significant because virtually all Pre-Clovis sites contain stone tools, but never spearheads.
The recently discovered peak styles come in two forms: most of the lanceolate or leaf-shaped stems date from 15,500 to 13,500 years ago and triangular stem points dating back to later, between 14,000 and 13,500 years old.
"Our discovery shows that stem points are older than lanceolate dot styles," Waters told Gizmodo. "Given the age of the Debra L. Friedkin site, the earliest trunk bearers probably arrived on entering the Americas along the Pacific coast. Later lanceolate punctate shapes – such as Clovis – may have been developed from point-like stem shapes or from a second migration of individuals with a lanceolate tip, such as the triangular lanceolate form found on the Friedkin site. it's developed in Clovis. "
Waters said these are the two most likely scenarios. It is well established that Clovis culture was born in North America south of the continental ice caps, he said, and that people were not carrying Alaska Clovis points in the non-glacial areas of America. North.
"The settlement of the Americas at the end of the last ice age was a complex process," said Waters. "This complexity is visible in the genetic file. We are now beginning to see this complexity reflected in the archaeological archives. "
Ben Potter, an archaeologist at the University of Alaska, Fairbanks, who is not affiliated with the new study, said the new document provided important new details on the Friedkin site. The fact that the site dates from 500 to 1500 years before Clovis makes it "an important contribution to the [archaeological] record, "he told Gizmodo, but he had some problems with the paper.
"This study relies almost exclusively on OSL dating and comparison of a single class of artifacts, projectile points, not on genetics, or on detailed technological, economic or paleoecological analyzes," he said. Potter. "Arguments on ethnogenesis [origin] and population relations on the basis of [stone artifacts] only are difficult at best. Here we have thousands of years and thousands of kilometers between a few sites prior to Clovis, with differentiated levels of empirical support and acceptance in the archaeological community at large.
Potter is also not pleased with the quite important error bars related to dating; the dates provided by the researchers have a plus-minus that ranges from 12 665 to 17 760 years, which is significant. He added that radiocarbon dating on cultural elements and artifacts would provide a "more accurate and reliable chronology".
"I agree with the authors' statement," the link between the artefact assemblies … and later, Clovis and Western Stemmed Traditions remains unclear, "said Potter." I do not think so that this document has pushed us much further, "he added:" The pre-Clovis sample of points is tiny and difficult to use to infer population relations across the continent. authors present interesting and important data on the Friedkin site, but I am not convinced by the speculative hypotheses of an early and unique migration of Amerindian ancestors. "In other words, Potter does not think that researchers are justified by speculate that artifacts represent a distinctly new category of spearpoint.
Stuart Fiedel, a senior archaeologist from the Louis Berger group and a pre-Clovis culture expert who also did not participate in the new study, explained that Water and his colleagues had misinterpreted the projectile points.
"Friedkin's recently reported bifaces are mostly indescribable spikes and abs, as well as broken preforms that are probably artifacts of Clovis," Friedkin told Gizmodo. "The two complete specimens are an elongated triangle and a lanceolate fish tail. The triangle resembles several types that appear sporadically throughout the late Paleoindian and archaic cultural sequence in Texas, while the fishtail closely resembles the Angostura-type Victoria variant, which dates back to about 8,500 to 10,400 years ago. Numerous Angostura points were found on the Friedkin site, in a vertical extent of 80 centimeters. Are these obvious similarities between the artefacts declared prior to Clovis and the later points found in the overlying sediments a coincidence? "
Importantly, Fiedel stated that the authors did not mention that the soil of the Friedkin site was classified as Vertisol; Clay soil on the site is likely to develop long vertical cracks through which artifacts can move up and down. These soil processes, he said, can result in the vertical distribution of small artifacts, such as those described in the new document.
Obviously, there is still much to be done in this area. Archeology is complex and it takes a lot to prove a point. Even when these points are stone.
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