Evidence of an early projectile point technology in North America at the Gault Site, Texas, USA

Williams, Thomas J.; Collins, Michael B.; Rodrigues, Kathleen; Rink, W.J.; Velchoff, Nancy; Keen‐Zebert, Amanda; Gilmer, Anastasia; Frederick, Charles D.; Ayala, Sergio J.; Prewitt, Elton R.

doi:10.1126/sciadv.aar5954

Cited by 58 publications

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“…This assemblage, combined with the newly described projectile points, makes up the Buttermilk Creek Complex ( 11 , 24 ). This assemblage compares well with the pre-Clovis assemblage from the Gault site ( 15 ).…”

Section: Resultssupporting

confidence: 60%

“…The OSL method has been used for decades to date Late Quaternary deposits and has been shown to yield accurate ages; many tests have shown that OSL ages are in agreement with radiocarbon ages ( 13 ). Luminescence dating has also been used to successfully date archaeological sites in North America such as the Clovis horizon at Pavo Real, Texas, and the Archaic, Paleoindian, and pre-Clovis horizons at the Gault site, Texas ( 12 , 14 , 15 ).…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Pre-Clovis projectile points at the Debra L. Friedkin site, Texas—Implications for the Late Pleistocene peopling of the Americas

et al. 2018

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Section: Resultssupporting

confidence: 60%

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Pre-Clovis projectile points at the Debra L. Friedkin site, Texas—Implications for the Late Pleistocene peopling of the Americas

et al. 2018

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“…The “coastal migration theory” remained on the intellectual margins of Paleoindian archaeology until the late 1990s with the widespread acceptance of the ~14,500 cal BP pre-Clovis occupation at the Monte Verde site in southern Chile, which demonstrated that humans were in South America more than 1,000 years before Clovis (Dillehay et al 2008; Meltzer et al 1997). Monte Verde and a handful of other widely accepted pre-Clovis sites (e.g., Gilbert et al 2008; Halligan et al 2016; Waters et al 2018; Waters, Forman et al 2011; Waters, Stafford et al 2011; Williams et al 2018) have reinvigorated the search for the first Americans, as have a series of new genetic studies (e.g., Lindo et al 2017; Llamas et al 2016; Moreno-Mayar, Potter et al 2018; Moreno-Mayar, Vinner et al 2018; Raghavan et al 2015; Scheib et al 2018). Most archaeologists now believe the first Americans traversed the IFC or a pacific coast route (PCR), or both, during the terminal Pleistocene, although alternative hypotheses on routes and chronologies persist (e.g., Holen et al 2017; Stanford and Bradley 2012).…”

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confidence: 99%

Fladmark + 40: What Have We Learned about a Potential Pacific Coast Peopling of the Americas?

et al. 2019

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Forty years ago, Knut Fladmark (1979) argued that the Pacific Coast offered a viable alternative to the ice-free corridor model for the initial peopling of the Americas—one of the first to support a “coastal migration theory” that remained marginal for decades. Today, the pre-Clovis occupation at the Monte Verde site is widely accepted, several other pre-Clovis sites are well documented, investigations of terminal Pleistocene subaerial and submerged Pacific Coast landscapes have increased, and multiple lines of evidence are helping decode the nature of early human dispersals into the Americas. Misconceptions remain, however, about the state of knowledge, productivity, and deglaciation chronology of Pleistocene coastlines and possible technological connections around the Pacific Rim. We review current evidence for several significant clusters of early Pacific Coast archaeological sites in North and South America that include sites as old or older than Clovis. We argue that stemmed points, foliate points, and crescents (lunates) found around the Pacific Rim may corroborate genomic studies that support an early Pacific Coast dispersal route into the Americas. Still, much remains to be learned about the Pleistocene colonization of the Americas, and multiple working hypotheses are warranted.

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“…Large and small blades and tools made on blades are similar to, yet distinct from, Clovis tools. Bifaces are also similar in form to Clovis bifaces-specimens X and Y in Figure 6, for example-but are smaller and technologically distinctive [126]. OSL dates place the minimum age of the Gault Assemblage (two standard deviations) at ca.…”

Section: Earlier Techno-complexesmentioning

confidence: 91%

“…Gault (Figure 4) is located approximately 250 m upstream from Debra L. Friedkin. It too contains well-stratified deposits, including a 25-cm-thick Clovis component, which is underlain by a 65-80-cm-thick deposit of silty clay and fluvial gravel deposits that contains the "Gault Assemblage" [126] ( Figure 6). The assemblage exhibits the technology for producing small stemmed or lanceolate projectile points as well as both a biface and a blade-and-core tradition.…”

Section: Earlier Techno-complexesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Setting the Stage: The Late Pleistocene Colonization of North America

O’Brien

2018

Quaternary

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The timing of human entrance into North America has been a topic of debate that dates back to the late 19th century. Central to the modern discussion is not whether late Pleistocene-age populations were present on the continent, but the timing of their arrival. Key to the debate is the age of tools-bone rods, large prismatic stone blades, and bifacially chipped and fluted stone weapon tips-often found associated with the remains of late Pleistocene fauna.Quaternary 2019, 2, 1 2 of 22 complex, together with the various modes involved in its transmission. Along the way, I examine how various evolutionary processes and mechanisms helped shape what we see in the Clovis archaeological record. Excellent summaries of Clovis lifeways and numerous related topics not included here can be found in [28][29][30][31][32][33][34][35]. The Clovis Techno-ComplexThe Clovis techno-complex is marked by a number of distinctive tool types, including bone and ivory rods [36], large prismatic stone blades [26], and bifacially chipped and fluted stone weapon tips, referred to as "Clovis points" [26,[37][38][39][40]. Because of significant regional variation in the toolkit, Eren and Buchanan [41], (p. 1) make the excellent point that what archaeologists refer to as "Clovis technology" is better thought of as a shorthand reference to "a fuzzy set of human-tool interactions found across North and Central America during the terminal Pleistocene".Prehistoric projectile-weapon systems were made from a variety of raw materials, including wood, resins, bone, and fibers, but these materials do not preserve well, and as a result, archaeologists focus on the component that does survive, the flaked-stone projectile point [42]. Clovis points were made from several cryptocrystalline stone types, such as chert, quartzite, and obsidian. They were bifacially flaked (flaked on both sides) and are lanceolate in form. They have parallel to slightly convex sides and concave bases and exhibit a series of flake-removal scars-"flutes"-on one or both faces that extend from the base to about a third of the way to the tip (Figure 1). After fluted points were first recognized archaeologically, it was proposed that fluting enhanced bloodletting of a wounded animal [43], although the flute would have been largely covered by the hafting (e.g., sinew) [44]. Similarly, it was proposed that fluting enhanced hafting a point into a split shaft [45]. Experimentation suggests, however, that the thinner base that results from fluting acts as a "shock absorber" that increases point robustness and the ability to withstand physical stress through stress redistribution and damage relocation [46,47].Quaternary 2018, 2, x 2 of 22

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Evidence of an early projectile point technology in North America at the Gault Site, Texas, USA

Abstract: Human presence in North America before ~16 thousand years ago is confirmed by age measurements from Area 15 of the Gault Site.

Cited by 58 publications

References 60 publications

Pre-Clovis projectile points at the Debra L. Friedkin site, Texas—Implications for the Late Pleistocene peopling of the Americas

Pre-Clovis projectile points at the Debra L. Friedkin site, Texas—Implications for the Late Pleistocene peopling of the Americas

Fladmark + 40: What Have We Learned about a Potential Pacific Coast Peopling of the Americas?

Setting the Stage: The Late Pleistocene Colonization of North America

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