Clovis Culture - Evidence of Human Habitation Before Clovis

Evidence of Human Habitation Before Clovis

Archaeological sites that predate Clovis that are well documented include the following:

• Pedra Furada, Piauí, Brazil (55,000 yr BP ABOX)
• Topper, (at least 22,900 yr BP; possibly 50,000 yr BP but this is disputed) South Carolina, US
• Meadowcroft, Pennsylvania, US (16,000 yr BP)
• Buttermilk Creek Complex, Salado, Texas, US (15,500 14C yr BP)
• Cactus Hill, Virginia, US (15,070 14C yr BP)
• Monte Verde, Chile (14,800 14C yr BP)
• Saltville, Virginia, US (14,510 14C yr BP)
• Taima-Taima, Venezuela (14,000 yr BP)
• Connley Caves, Oregon, US (13,000 yr BP)
• Page-Ladson prehistory site, Florida, US (12,425 ± 32 14C yr BP )
• Lapa do Boquete, Brazil (12,070 ±170 14C yr BP)
• Paisley Caves, Oregon, US (14,300 cal yr BP)
• Tanana Valley, Alaska, US (13,000–14,000 cal yr BP)
• Nenana valley, Alaska, US (12,000 yr BP)
• Tibitó, Colombia (11,740 ±110 14C yr BP)
• Tagua-Tagua, Chile (11,380 ±380 14C yr BP)

Predecessors of the Clovis people may have migrated south along the North American coastlines, although there are arguments for many migrations along several different routes. According to researchers Michael Waters and Thomas Stafford of Texas A&M University, new radiocarbon dates place Clovis remains from the continental United States in a shorter time window (11,050 to 10,900 years ago), while radiocarbon dating of the Monte Verde site in Chile place Clovis-like culture there as early as 13,500 years ago and remains found at the Channel Islands of California place coastal Paleoindians there 12,500 years ago. This suggests that the Paleoindian migration could have spread more quickly along the Pacific coastline, proceeding south, and that populations that settled along that route could have then begun migrations eastward into the continent.

The Pedra Furada sites in Brazil include a collection of rock shelters, used for thousands of years by diverse human populations. The first excavations yielded artifacts with C14 dates of 48,000 to 32,000 years BP. Repeated analysis has confirmed this dating, carrying the range of dates up to 60,000 BP. The best analyzed archaeological levels are dated between 32,160 ± 1000 years BP and 17,000 ± 400 BP.

In 2004, worked stone tools were found at Topper in South Carolina that have been dated by radiocarbon techniques possibly to 50,000 years ago, although there is significant dispute regarding these dates. Evidence of humans at the Topper Site definitely date back to 22,900 cal yr BP.

A more substantiated claim is that of Paisley Caves, Oregon, where rigorous carbon-14 and genetic testing appears to indicate that humans related to modern Native Americans were present in the caves over 1000 14C years before the earliest evidence of Clovis. Traces and tools made by another people, the "Western Stemmed" tradition, were documented.

A study published in Science presents strong evidence that humans occupied sites in Monte Verde, at the tip of South America, as early as 13,000 years ago. If this is true then humans must have entered North America long before the Clovis Culture – perhaps 16,000 years ago.

The Tlapacoya site is located along the base of a volcanic (remnant) hill on the shore of the former Lake Chalco. Seventeen excavations along the base of Tlapacoya hill between 1956 and 1973 uncovered piles of disarticulated bones of bear and deer that appeared to have been butchered, plus 2,500 flakes and blades presumably from the butchering activities, plus one non-fluted spear point. All were found in the same stratum containing three circular hearths filled with charcoal and ash. Bones of many other animal species were also present, including horses and migratory waterfowl. Two uncalibrated radiocarbon dates on carbon from the hearths came in at approximately 24,000 and 22,000 years ago. At another location a prismatic micro-blade of obsidian was found in association with a tree trunk radiocarbon dated (uncalibrated) at approximately 24,000 years ago. This obsidian blade has recently been hydration dated by Joaquín García-Bárcena to 22,000 years ago and the hydration results published in a seminal article that deals with the evidence for pre-Clovis habitation of Mexico.