Topper (archaeological Site) - Pre Clovis Dispute

Pre Clovis Dispute

In 2004, Albert Goodyear of the University of South Carolina announced that carbonized plant remains, found as a dark stain in the light soil at the lowest excavated level at the Topper Site, had been radiocarbon dated to approximately 50,000 years ago, or approximately 37,000 years before the Clovis people. Goodyear, who began excavating the Topper site in the 1980s, believes that lithic artifacts at that level are rudimentary stone tools. Other archaeologists dispute this conclusion, suggesting that the artifacts are natural and not human-made. Other archaeologists also have challenged the radiocarbon dating of the carbonized remains at Topper, arguing that 1) the stain represented the result of a natural fire, and 2) 50,000 years is the theoretical upper limit of effective radiocarbon dating. Goodyear discovered the artifacts by digging 4 meters deeper than the Clovis artifacts readily found at the site. Before discovering the oldest lithics, he had discovered other artifacts which he claimed were tools dating around 16,000 years old, or about 3,000 years before Clovis.

This assertion of 3,000 years is a much more likely and plausible number than the upper limit of radiocarbon dating. Evidence predating clovis culture by a few thousand years is popularly termed as the "pioneer" stage of clovis culture. This would be the birth of the culture and the start of the tool set. Researchers agree that the lack of evidence would stem from the lack of materials at hand. New techniques would take time to spread. The pioneer hypothesis allows for tools to predate by centuries rather than millennia.