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75-435: Permanent exhibits include dioramas of Maine's animals, birds and plants in different ecosystems; gems and minerals; displays about the state's natural resources and industries, including forestry, granite, fishing, and agriculture; Clovis culture and archaeological artifacts; and settlement and state history. There is also a working three-story water-powered woodworking mill, and craftsmen's work areas. The current director of

150-595: A Basketmaker burial. Reference is made to a slightly earlier article on Burnet Cave in The University Museum Bulletin from November 1931. The Dent site in Colorado was the first known association of Clovis points with mammoth bones, as noted by Hannah Marie Wormington in her book Ancient Man in North America (4th ed. 1957). Gary Haynes, in his book The Early Settlement of North America , suggested

225-692: A peat -filled bog formed that inhibited the bacterial decay of organic material and preserved many perishable artifacts and other items for millennia. Radiocarbon dating of bones and charcoal in 1982 gave the site an average age of 14,800 BP (calibrated), more than 1,000 years earlier than the oldest-known site of human habitation in the Americas at that time. In the initial excavation, two large hearths and many small ones were found. The remains of local animals were discovered, in addition to wooden posts from approximately twelve huts. Scraps of clothing made of hide were also found. This led archaeologists to estimate

300-604: A "Clovis first" model, where Clovis represented the earliest inhabitants in the Americas, today this is largely rejected, with several generally accepted sites across the Americas like Monte Verde II being dated to at least a thousand years earlier than the oldest Clovis sites. The end of the Clovis culture may have been driven by the decline of the megafauna that the Clovis hunted as well as decreasing mobility, resulting in local differentiation of lithic and cultural traditions across North America. Beginning around 12,750–12,600 years BP,

375-445: A "shock absorber" to redistribute stress during impact, though others have suggested that it may have been purely stylistic or used to strengthen the hafting to the spear handle. The points were generally produced from nodules or siliceous cryptocrystalline rocks. Clovis points were thinned using end-thinning ("the removal of blade-like flakes parallel to the long-axis"). They were initially prepared using percussion flaking, with

450-594: A Pre-Clovis site. Still, the early date for the site was not widely accepted until 1997. It had hitherto been generally agreed that ancient people had entered the Americas using the Bering Strait Land Bridge, which was about 13,000 kilometers (8,000 miles) north of the Monte Verde site. Though the Monte Verde site does not disprove the Bering Strait theory, it does support the theory that, instead of going down

525-511: A bison herd of at least 22 individuals. At the time of deposition, the site was a steep-sided arroyo (dry watercourse) that formed a dead end, suggesting that hunters trapped the bison herd within the arroyo before killing them. Beginning in the 1950s, Paul S. Martin proposed the "overkill hypothesis", suggesting that the Late Pleistocene megafauna extinctions in North America were driven by human hunting, including by Clovis peoples, with

600-438: A footprint, assumed to have been made by a child, stone tools, and cordage. Dr. Dillehay obtained the date for this site by radiocarbon dating charcoal and bone found within the site. At Monte Verde II, seven partial carcasses of Notiomastodon , alongside remains single individual of the extinct llama Palaeolama show evidence of butchery, with some of these carcasses having preserved meat tissue still adhered to them. In

675-483: Is Pilauco Bajo , dated to 12,500–11,000 BP. Researchers postulated that the two sites were complementary – Monte Verde would be a habitation site, and Pilauco Bajo would be a hunting and scavenging site. Further south lies the Pali Aike Crater lava tube, dated to 14,000–10,000 BP. The Chinchorro culture , which was mostly a coastal culture of northern Chile and southern Peru, originated ca. 9,000 years BP, and

750-544: Is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Clovis culture The Clovis culture is an archaeological culture from the Paleoindian period of North America, spanning around 13,050 to 12,750 years Before Present (BP). The type site is Blackwater Draw locality No. 1 near Clovis, New Mexico , where stone tools were found alongside the remains of Columbian mammoths in 1929. Clovis sites have been found across North America. The most distinctive part of

825-583: Is disputed, with some authors arguing for a generalist hunter-gatherer lifestyle that also involved the occasional targeting of megafauna. The effectiveness of Clovis tools for hunting proboscideans has been contested by some authors, though others have asserted that Clovis points were likely capable of killing proboscideans, noting that replica Clovis points have been able to penetrate elephant hide in experimental tests, and that groups of hunter-gatherers in Africa have been observed killing elephants using spears . In

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900-488: Is generally agreed that these groups were reliant on hunting big game ( megafauna ), having a particularly strong association with mammoths, and to a lesser extent with mastodon , bison , camel , and horse, but they also consumed smaller animals and plants. The Clovis hunters may have contributed to the Late Pleistocene megafauna extinctions in North America, though this idea has been subject to controversy. Only one human burial has been directly associated with tools from

975-440: Is generally thought be the result of normal cultural change over time. In South America, the widespread similar Fishtail or Fell point style was contemporaneous to the usage of Clovis points in North America and possibly developed from Clovis points. On August 29, 1927, the first evidence of Pleistocene humans seen by multiple archaeologists in the Americas was discovered near Folsom, New Mexico . At this site, they found

1050-455: Is less well understood. It was more ephemeral, having come from ancient river sediments. Dillehay found charcoal scatters which may have been the remains of fireplaces next to stone and wood artifacts. These were dated to at least 33,000BP. He acknowledges MV-I has issues, such as uncertain artifacts, doubtful radiocarbon dates, and unreliable contexts. He hesistates to accept this level without additional evidence, including sites of similar age in

1125-511: Is situated on the banks of Chinchihuapi Creek, a tributary of the Maullín River located 36 miles (58 km) from the Pacific Ocean . One of the rare open-air prehistoric sites found so far in the Americas, Monte Verde was well preserved because it was located in an anaerobic bog environment near the creek. A short time after the site was originally occupied, the waters of the creek rose and

1200-415: Is suggested to have been occupied by about twenty to thirty people. A twenty-foot-long tent-like structure of wood and animal hides was erected on the banks of the creek and was framed with logs and planks staked in the ground, making walls of poles covered with animal hides. Using ropes made of local reeds, the hides were tied to the poles creating separate living quarters within the main structure. Outside

1275-413: Is the coastal migration hypothesis, which argues that people migrated from Asia down along the western coasts of North and South America. Monte Verde is located 8,000 miles south of the Bering Strait. Such a considerable distance was probably unreasonable to trek by foot, especially on ice. Furthermore, remains of 22 varieties of seaweed are referenced in regards to this theory. Modern native inhabitants of

1350-659: The Blackwater Draw in eastern New Mexico. Despite several earlier Paleoindian discoveries, the best documented evidence of the Clovis complex was collected and excavated between 1932 and 1937 near Clovis, New Mexico , by a crew under the direction of Edgar Billings Howard until 1935 and later by John L. Cotter from the Academy of Natural Sciences at the University of Pennsylvania. Howard's crew left their excavation in Burnet Cave ,

1425-484: The Clovis point . Clovis points are bifacial (having flakes removed from both faces) and typically fluted (having an elongate flake removed from the base of the point ) on both sides, with the fluting typically running up a third or a half of the length of the point, distinct from many later Paleoindian traditions where the flute runs up the entire point length. Clovis points are typically parallel-sided to slightly convex, with

1500-521: The Cordilleran Glacier (which covered much of present-day Canada) had not yet melted enough to reveal an ice-free corridor for people to reasonably journey by foot. The Monte Verde radiocarbon dates precede 13,000 BP, despite the fact that before the glacial melt, the vast, desolate, icy landscape of much of the Americas could not possibly have permitted enough vegetation to sustain traveling people or herded animals. The most prevalent theory today

1575-480: The Last Glacial Maximum , archaeologists are increasingly willing to accept the possibility that the initial settlement of the Americas occurred via coastlines. The site was discovered in late 1975 when a veterinary student visited the area of Monte Verde, where severe erosion was occurring due to logging. Prior to the logging, the site itself had been preserved well due to the favorable conditions created by

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1650-636: The Southern Plains , Clovis people created campsites of considerable size, which are often on the periphery of the region near sources of workable stone, from which they are suggested to have seasonally migrated into the plains to hunt megafauna. In the southeast, Clovis peoples created large camps that may have served as "staging areas", which may have been seasonally occupied, where a number of bands may have gathered for social occasions. At Jake Bluff in northern Oklahoma, Clovis points are associated with numerous butchered Bison antiquus bones, which represented

1725-466: The gomphothere Cuvieronius ) bison, equines of the genus Equus , and the extinct camel Camelops . A handful of sites possibly suggest the hunting of caribou/reindeer , peccaries ( Platygonus , Mylohyus ), ground sloths ( Paramylodon ), glyptodonts ( Glyptotherium ), tapirs , and the llama Hemiauchenia . Proboscideans (especially mammoths) are the most common recorded species found in Clovis sites, followed by bison. However,

1800-526: The human settlement of the Americas pre-dates the Clovis culture by at least 1,000 years. This contradicts the previously accepted "Clovis first" model which holds that settlement of the Americas began after 13,500 cal BP. The Monte Verde findings were initially dismissed by most of the scientific community, but the evidence then became more accepted in archaeological circles. The site also contains an older, much more controversial layer (Monte Verde I) suggested to date to 18,500 cal BP (16,500 BC ), that lacks

1875-519: The Americas , particularly those from Central and South America, and less related to those from contemporary North America, including northern Mexico, though there is considerable variability in the genetic closeness of Central and South American indigenous peoples to Anzick-1, with older ancient South American remains generally being closer, suggesting that the Native American population had already diverged into multiple genetically distinct groups by

1950-455: The Americas. Monte Verde I is located under an outwash plain , which formed during the last glaciation. It is not directly below MV-II. It was first concluded to be a site of human occupation because of three clay-lined burned areas and 26 stones, 13 of which may have been modified by humans. In 2013, Dillehay and his team returned to perform another excavation at Monte Verde due to the inadequate previous excavations. In 2015, Monte Verde I

2025-536: The Chinchihuapi creek banks. The student was shown a strange "cow bone" collected by nearby farmers who had found it exposed in the eroded Chinchihuapi Creek. The bone later proved to be from Notiomastodon , a gomphothere related to modern elephants. Tom Dillehay , an American anthropologist and professor at the Universidad Austral de Chile at the time, started excavating Monte Verde in 1977. The site

2100-505: The Clovis culture generally not found in subsequent cultures is "caching", where a collection of artifacts (typically stone tools, such as Clovis points or bifaces) were deliberately left at a location, presumably with the intention to return to collect them later, though some authors have interpreted cache deposits as ritual behavior. Over twenty such "caches" have been identified across North America. A few Clovis culture artifacts are suspected to reflect creative expression, such as rock art,

2175-639: The Clovis culture is ancestral to other fluted point-producing cultures in Central and South America, like the widespread Fishtail or Fell point style. Monte Verde Monte Verde is a Paleolithic archaeological site in the Llanquihue Province in southern Chile, located near Puerto Montt , Los Lagos Region. The site is primarily known for Monte Verde II, dating to approximately 14,550–14,500 calibrated years Before Present (BP). The Monte Verde II site has been considered key evidence showing that

2250-402: The Clovis culture is not exclusively associated with large animals, with several sites showing the exploitation of small game like tortoises and jackrabbits . It is generally agreed that the people who produced the Clovis culture were reliant on big game for a significant portion of their diet (while also consuming smaller animals and plants), though to what degree they were reliant on megafauna

2325-425: The Clovis culture is to a degree ambiguous, the term being "used in a number of ways, referring to an era, to a culture, and most specifically, to a distinctive projectile point type", with disagreement between scholars about distinguishing between Clovis and various other Paleoindian archaeological cultures. A hallmark of the toolkit associated with the Clovis culture is the distinctively shaped lithic point known as

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2400-845: The Clovis culture toolkit are Clovis points , which are projectile points with a fluted, lanceolate shape. Clovis points are typically large, sometimes exceeding 10 centimetres (3.9 in) in length. These points were multifunctional, also serving as cutting tools. Other stone tools used by the Clovis culture include knives, scrapers , and bifacial tools, with bone tools including beveled rods and shaft wrenches, with possible ivory points also being identified. Hides, wood, and natural fibers may also have been utilized, though no direct evidence of this has been preserved. Clovis artifacts are often found grouped together in caches where they had been stored for later retrieval, and over 20 Clovis caches have been identified. The Clovis peoples are thought to have been highly mobile groups of hunter-gatherers . It

2475-609: The Clovis culture was succeeded by more regional cultures, including the Folsom tradition in central North America, the Cumberland point in mid/southern North America, the Suwannee and Simpson points in the southeast, and Gainey points in the Northeast – Great Lakes region. The Clovis and Folsom traditions may have overlapped, perhaps for around 80–400 years. The end of the Clovis culture

2550-620: The Clovis culture: Anzick-1 , a young boy found buried in Montana, who has a close genetic relation to some modern Native American populations, primarily in Central and South America . The Clovis culture represents the earliest widely recognised archaeological culture in North America (though in western North America, it appears to have been contemporaneous with the Western Stemmed Tradition ). While historically, many scholars held to

2625-401: The Clovis. Therefore, it is feasible that they traveled along the coast by boat or along the shoreline, and could survive on marine resources throughout the voyage south. The presence of non-local items at Monte Verde, such as plants, beach-rolled pebbles, quartz, and tar, indicates possible trade networks and other sites of human habitation of similar age. Awareness about Monte Verde among

2700-634: The May 9, 2008 issue of Science , a team reported that they identified nine species of seaweed and marine algae recovered from hearths and other areas in the ancient settlement. The seaweed samples were directly dated between 14,220 and 13,980 years ago. These sites, located approximately 500 meters upstream from the Monte Verde sites along the same river, have been dated to about 14,500 BP. Similar materials, including burned areas and fragmentary scorched animal bones, along with small rock flakes, have been recovered. Dillehay and his team conducted excavations between

2775-641: The Museum is Bernard Fishman. In January 2013, the Museum agreed to display the controversial labor mural removed from the Maine Department of Labor's lobby by Governor Paul LePage in 2011. Fishman had approached the Department of Labor about displaying the mural after its own search for a location on its property was not successful. A spokeswoman for the Department of Labor stated that the new location would have better security and more viewership. The governor and

2850-512: The Pacific coast) but more common in the very earliest Indigenous Americans. Some authors have suggested that the Clovis culture lasted for a relatively short period of a few centuries, with a 2020 study suggesting a temporal range, based on ten securely radiocarbon-dated Clovis sites, of 13,050 to 12,750 calibrated years BP, ending subsequent to the onset of the Younger Dryas , consistent with

2925-420: The artist, Judy Taylor, approved of the new location. The agreement between the Department of Labor and the Museum provides for a three-year, renewable loan. The department retains ownership of the mural, as transferring ownership would require federal approval because federal money was used to finance it. The Museum hopes to make the mural a part of its collection. This Maine museum-related article

3000-647: The base of the point being concave. Although no direct evidence of what was attached to Clovis points has been found, Clovis points are commonly thought to have served as tips for spears /darts likely used as handheld thrusting or throwing weapons (or possibly as ground-mounted pikes ) , possibly in combination with a spear thrower , for hunting and possibly self-defense. Wear on Clovis points indicates that they were multifunctional objects that also served as cutting and slicing tools, with some authors suggesting that some Clovis-point types were primarily used as knives. Clovis points were at least sometimes resharpened, though

3075-566: The blades typically carried in the mobile toolkit. Bifaces served a variety of roles for Clovis hunter-gatherers, such as cutting tools, preforms for formal tools such as points, and as portable sources of large flakes useful as preforms or tools. Other tools associated with the Clovis culture are adzes (likely used for woodworking), bone "shaft wrenches" (suggested to have been used to straighten wooden shafts), as well as rods, some of which have beveled (diagonally shaped) ends. These rods are made of bone, antlers, and ivory. The function of

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3150-481: The culture likely originated from the expansion of a single population. In Western North America, the Clovis culture was contemporaneous with and perhaps preceded by the Western Stemmed Tradition , which produced unfluted projectile points, with the Western Stemmed Tradition continuing in the region for several thousand years after the end of Clovis. The end of the Clovis culture may have been driven by

3225-501: The decline of the megafauna that the Clovis hunted, as well as decreasing mobility, resulting in local differentiation of lithic and cultural traditions across North America. This is generally considered to be the result of normal cultural change through time. There is no evidence that the disappearance of the Clovis culture was the result of the onset of the Younger Dryas, or that there was a population decline of Paleoindians following

3300-732: The earliest recognisable archaeological culture in North America, were suggested to represent the earliest inhabitants of the Americas south of the Laurentide Ice Sheet . However, since the beginning of the 21st century, this hypothesis has been abandoned by most researchers, as several widely accepted sites, notably Monte Verde II in Chile (c. 14,500 years BP) as well as Paisley Caves in Oregon (c. 14,200 years BP) and Cooper's Ferry in Idaho (c. 15,800 years BP) are suggested to be considerably older than

3375-709: The east and west of the continent. The area of its origin remains unclear, though the development of fluted Clovis points appears to have occurred in North America south of the Laurentide Ice Sheet and not in Beringia . The Clovis culture may have originated from the Dyuktai lithic style widespread in Beringia. While some authors have suggested that the Clovis culture resulted from diffusion of traditions through an already pre-existing Paleoindian population, others have asserted that

3450-507: The end of the Clovis culture. The Clovis culture was succeeded by various regional point styles, such as the Folsom tradition in central North America, the Cumberland point in mid/southern North America, the Suwannee and Simpson points in the southeast, and the Gainey points in the northeast-Great Lakes region. The Clovis and Folsom traditions may have overlapped, perhaps for around 80–400 years. A number of authors have suggested that

3525-456: The first in situ Folsom point with the bones of the extinct bison species Bison antiquus . This confirmation of a human presence in the Americas during the Pleistocene inspired many people to start looking for evidence of early humans. In 1929, 19-year-old Ridgely Whiteman, who had been closely following the excavations in nearby Folsom in the newspapers, discovered the Clovis site near

3600-527: The first professionally excavated Clovis site, in August 1932, and visited Whiteman and his Blackwater Draw site. By November, Howard was back at Blackwater Draw to investigate additional finds from a construction project. The American Journal of Archaeology , in its January–March 1932 edition, mentions Howard's work in Burnet Cave, including the discovery of extinct fauna and a "Folsom type" point 4 ft below

3675-443: The general acceptance of Monte Verde II. Monte Verde II represents a campsite with wooden tent-like structures that was later covered by a bog, sealing the site under a layer of anerobic peat. The occupants of the site made rope and utilized animal skins, and consumed a variety of plant foods, including seaweed (despite the site being 60 kilometres (37 mi) from the ocean at the time), tubers, seeds, fruits and nuts. Remains at

3750-540: The hunting and extinction of large herbivores having a knock-on effect causing the extinction of large carnivores. This suggestion has been the subject of controversy. The timing of megafauna extinction in North America also coincides with major climatic changes, making it difficult to disentangle the effects of various factors. In a 2012 survey of archaeologists in The SAA Archaeological Record , 63% of respondents said that megafauna extinctions were likely

3825-431: The ice free corridor as previously hypothesized, people may have populated the Americas through a coastal route. A group of 12 respected archaeologists revisited the site in 1997 and concluded that Monte Verde was an inhabited site and predated the Clovis culture. One of Dillehay's colleagues, Dr. Mario Pino , claimed a lower layer of the site is 33,200 years old, based on the discovery of burned wood several hundred feet to

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3900-437: The idea that they were continually resharpened "long-life" tools has been questioned. The shape and size of Clovis points varies significantly over space and time; the largest points exceed 10 centimetres (3.9 in) in length. The points required considerable effort to make and often broke during knapping, particularly during fluting. The fluting may have served to make the finished points more durable during use by acting as

3975-761: The international archaeology community was greatly increased in 1989 when Dillehay delivered a presentation on Monte Verde at a conference on settlement of the Americas at the University of Maine . Archaeologist David J. Meltzer notes on that presentation: The images Tom Dillehay was showing of the well-preserved remains at Monte Verde—wooden artifacts and house planks, fruits, berries, seeds, leaves, and stems, as well as marine algae, crayfish, chunks of animal hide, and what appeared to be several human coprolites found in three small pits—were unlike anything most of us, who long ago had learned to be used to stone tools and grateful for occasional bits of bone, had ever seen. Because of

4050-417: The manufacture of a biface are struck from prepared edges of a piece and travel from one edge across the face", with limited removal of the opposite edge. Whether or not the overshot flaking was intentional on the part of the stoneknapper has been contested, with other authors suggesting that overface flaking (where flakes that travel past the midline but terminate before reaching the opposite end are removed)

4125-514: The nature of the preservation of Monte Verde, it was one of the first Pre-Clovis sites to be accepted by the academic community. Dillehay, himself, doubted his dates due to the strong hold the Clovis First hypothesis had on the academic community. Monte Verde was one of the most accepted Pre-Clovis sites, according to a survey done by Amber Wheat in 2012. Out of 132 respondents (mainly archaeologists), approximately 65% of them confirmed Monte Verde as

4200-400: The oldest Clovis sites. Historically, it was suggested that the ancestors of the people who produced the Clovis culture migrated into North America along the " ice-free corridor ", but many later scholars have suggested that a migration along the Pacific coast is more likely. The Clovis culture is known from localities across North America, from southern Canada to northern Mexico and across

4275-539: The oldest on record for any species of potato, wild or cultivated, suggest that southern Chile was one of the two main centres for the evolution of Solanum tuberosum tuberosum , the common potato. Remains of forty-five different edible plant species were found within the site, over a fifth of them originating from up to 150 miles (240 km) away. This suggested that the people of Monte Verde either had traded on or traveled regularly in this extended network. Other important finds from this site include human coprolites ,

4350-501: The point being finished using pressure flaking . Clovis blades —long flakes removed from specially prepared conical or wedge-shaped cores—are part of the global Upper Paleolithic blade tradition. Clovis blades are twice as long as they are wide and were used and modified to create a variety of tools, including endscrapers (used to scrape hides), serrated tools, and gravers. Unlike bifaces, Clovis blade cores do not appear to have been regularly transported over long distances, with only

4425-464: The population was around 20–30 inhabitants. A human footprint was also observed in the clay, probably from a 70 kg (150 lb) adult. The area consists of four distinct sites, Monte Verde I, Monte Verde II, Chinchihuapi I, and Chinchihuapi II. The Monte Verde site has two distinct levels. The upper level, MV-II, has been extensively characterized. Its occupation is reliably dated to sometime between 14,800 – 13,800 BP. The lower level, MV-I,

4500-610: The presence of lithic tools and flakes, as well as burned features associated with burned animal and plant remains in CH-I. Material evidence gathered at Monte Verde has reshaped the way archaeologists think about the earliest inhabitants of the Americas. Radiocarbon dating has provided a date of 14,000 BP and possibly 14,800-33,000 BP. Previously, the earliest accepted site had been determined to be near Clovis, New Mexico, dating between 13,500 and 13,000 BP, over 1,000 years later than Monte Verde. The new dates supplied by Monte Verde have made

4575-442: The regions use these particular local seaweed varieties for medicinal purposes. Using an ethnographic analogy, this suggests that the Monte Verde residents used these varieties for similar purposes, which further suggests an extensive knowledge of marine resources. Together with a relative lack of stone tools, it appears that these first settlers were maritime-adapted hunter-gatherer-fishermen, and not necessarily big-game hunters like

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4650-453: The result of a "combination of factors". The only known Clovis burial is that of Anzick-1 , an infant boy who was found near Wilsall, Montana , in 1968. The body was associated with over 100 stone and bone artifacts, all of which were stained with red ocher, and it dates to approximately 12,990–12,840 years BP. Sequencing of his genome demonstrates that he belonged to a population that is ancestral to many contemporary Indigenous peoples of

4725-402: The results obtained in a 2007 study by the same authors. Other authors have argued that some sites extend the range of the Clovis culture back to 13,500 years BP, though the dating for these earlier sites is not secure. Some scholars have supported a long chronology for Clovis of around 1,500 years. Historically, many authors argued for a "Clovis first" paradigm, where Clovis, which represents

4800-633: The rods is unknown and has been subject to numerous hypotheses. Rods that were beveled on both ends are most often interpreted as foreshafts to which stone points were hafted, with a pair of rods surrounding each side of the point (or alternatively, the point being surrounded by a single beveled rod and the end of the wooden shaft, ) while rods that are beveled on only one end, with the other being pointed, are most often interpreted as projectile points. The rods may have served other purposes, such as prybars. Clovis people are also known to have used ivory and bone to create projectile points. A distinctive feature of

4875-498: The site a key factor in the debate over the first migration route from Asia to North America. Before the discovery of Monte Verde, the most popular and widely accepted theory was the overland route, which speculates that the first American inhabitants migrated from Asia across the Bering Strait and then spread throughout North America. However, the early dates associated with Monte Verde appear to weaken this theory. Prior to 13,000 BP,

4950-525: The site show that the occupants also butchered now extinct megafauna , including the gomphothere (elephant-relative) Notiomastodon and the llama Palaeolama . Paleoecological evidence of the coastal landscape's ability to sustain human life further supports a " coastal migration " model. Dating of rock surfaces and animal bones suggests the coastal corridor was deglaciated and became habitable after 17,000 years BP. Although testing coastal migration theories can be difficult due to sea level rise since

5025-428: The sites, using test pits and core drillings. They discovered 12 small burned features directly associated with both burned and unburned animal remains, manuport stones, and anthropologically modified flakes, which were dated between 18,500 BP and 14,500 BP. These findings likely indicate seasonal activities in the area. Up until 2019, Dillehay has conducted two additional excavations at the Chinchihuapi site, revealing

5100-737: The south of Monte Verde. Radiocarbon dating established the wood as 33,000 years old. Dillehay was cautious of this earlier date, and as of 2007 it has not been verified or accepted by the scientific community. MV-I has been radiocarbon dated to 33,000 BP. As with other sites that suggest extremely early dates, such as the Topper site in South Carolina and Pedra Furada in Brazil, this deeper layer remains controversial. The only other archaeological site in Southern Chile comparable in age to Monte Verde

5175-566: The stone tools found at a site were hundreds of kilometers away from the source stone outcrop, in one case over 900 kilometres (560 mi) away. The people who produced the Clovis culture probably had a low population density but with geographically extensive cultural networks. The Clovis culture is suggested to have heavily utilized hides, wood, and natural fibres, though no direct evidence of this has been preserved. Clovis culture artifacts have often been found associated with big game, including proboscideans ( Columbian mammoth , mastodon , and

5250-400: The tent-like structure, two large hearths had been built for community usage, most probably for tool making and craftwork. Each of the living quarters had a brazier pit lined with clay. Around those hearths, many stone tools and remnants of spilled seeds, nuts, and berries were found. A 13,000-year-old specimen of the wild potato , Solanum maglia , was also found at the site; these remains,

5325-571: The time of the Clovis culture, followed by subsequent migration of these populations later in the Holocene . Like other Native Americans, Anzick-1 is closely related to Siberian peoples , confirming the Asian origin of the Clovis culture. He belongs to Y chromosome Haplogroup Q-L54 , which is common among contemporary Native Americans, and to mitochondrial haplogroup D4h3a, which is rare among contemporary Native Americans (occurring in only 1.4%, primarily along

5400-410: The type of fluted point thereafter associated with megafauna (especially mammoths) at over a dozen other archaeological sites in North America would have been more appropriately named "Dent" rather than Clovis, the town near Blackwater Draw that gave the type of point its name. A feature considered to be distinctive of the Clovis tradition is overshot flaking, which is defined as flakes that "during

5475-872: The use of red ochre , and engraved stones. The best-known examples of this were found at the Gault site in Texas and consist of limestone nodules incised with expressive geometric patterns, some of which mimic leaf patterns. Clovis peoples, like other Paleoindian cultures, used red ocher for a variety of artistic and ritual purposes, including burials, and to cover objects in caches. Clovis peoples are known to have transported ocher 100 kilometres (62 mi) from its original outcrop. They are also suggested to have produced beads out of animal bones. Clovis hunter-gatherers are characterized as "high-technology foragers" who utilized sophisticated technology to maintain access to resources under conditions of high mobility. In many Clovis localities,

5550-514: Was re-dated to around 18,500 to 14,500 BP. Charcoal remains, charred animal bone fragments and several lithic artifacts, about 34% of which were derived from non-local sources, were discovered. The older end of this range is controversial, however, as it is based on putative lithic tools which some have suggested are instead naturally occurring objects. According to the most recent studies by Dillehay and Pino, Monte Verde II has been dated to around 14,550 calibrated years Before Present. The site

5625-410: Was the primary goal. Other elements considered distinctive of the Clovis culture tool complex include "raw material selectivity; distinctive patterns of flake and blade platform preparation, thinning and flaking; characteristic biface size and morphology, including the presence of end-thinning; and the size, curvature and reduction strategies of blades". It has long been recognised that the definition of

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