Plains Indian Studies - Smithsonian Institution Libraries
Plains Indian Studies - Smithsonian Institution Libraries
Plains Indian Studies - Smithsonian Institution Libraries
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NUMBER 30 203<br />
published advocating that Clovis peoples might<br />
be the first New World immigrants. One, proposed<br />
by C. V. Haynes (1978), is based on a<br />
cultural-technological model and on the lack of<br />
conclusive data to the contrary, while the other<br />
is based on a predator-prey-ecological model<br />
(Martin, 1973).<br />
C. Haynes (1978:130) points out that many of<br />
the technological traits found in Clovis, such as<br />
spurred end scrapers, blades, burins, bifacial reduction<br />
techniques for working stone, shaft<br />
straighteners and cylindrical bone tools, and the<br />
use of red ochre may have been derived from the<br />
late Paleolithic cultures of Eurasia. In the absence<br />
of any obvious precursors, he suggests that Clovis<br />
people arrived in the New World already<br />
equipped with an Eurasian paleolithic tool kit at<br />
some time between 12,000 and 13,000 years ago.<br />
In two separate papers, however, Haynes (1969,<br />
1970) suggests that man may have been in North<br />
America at least 30,000 years ago and offers a<br />
three-period scheme consisting of an early Paleo-<br />
<strong>Indian</strong> stage (greater than 30,000 years old), a<br />
middle stage (30,000 to 12,000 years ago), and a<br />
late period (12,000 and 7,000 years ago). If so,<br />
then scientifically sound evidence for early stages<br />
should eventually be found, and can only be<br />
verified by an objective examination of stratified<br />
sites of the appropriate age.<br />
The other hypothesis calling for a later arrival<br />
of man is that of the "Pleistocene Overkill" model<br />
(Martin, 1973). It proposes that man entered the<br />
New World around 13,000 years ago with a fully<br />
developed Upper Paleolithic tool kit equipped to<br />
exploit efficiently a new game range; the new<br />
arrivals then swept rapidly across North and<br />
South America, completely exterminating many<br />
of the large animals that could not resist humans<br />
as predators.<br />
Computer simulation models of human advance<br />
presented by Mosimann and Martin (1975)<br />
support this overkill hypothesis; but the entire<br />
model is incongruous with basic biological<br />
(Odum, 1971) and cultural (Clark, 1968) theories<br />
of natural population expansion. A more logical<br />
explanation of Pleistocene faunal extinction is<br />
that many factors, including hunting by man,<br />
were responsible for the demise of these species.<br />
The primary cause was no doubt the effects of<br />
climatic changes at the end of the Wisconsinan<br />
glaciation, which sufficiently altered habitats so<br />
that many species, including some that were not<br />
hunted by man, became extinct (Graham,<br />
1979:65).<br />
Since there are no known stone projectile points<br />
universally accepted as being older than Clovis,<br />
some archeologists have proposed a "pre-projectile<br />
point" horizon (Krieger, 1964; Willey, 1971).<br />
This was first advocated by Krieger (1964:42-51)<br />
who contended that people with a core and flake<br />
technology, derived from Asiatic sources, were<br />
the first to exploit the New World. Unfortunately,<br />
the archeological complexes from which Krieger's<br />
model was generated did not come from wellcontrolled<br />
or excavated sites. None of Krieger's<br />
listed sites can be attributed either to a cultural<br />
stage or to a chronological age because most<br />
represent quarry detritus.<br />
Miiller-Beck (1966), comparing North American<br />
assemblages to those from Eurasian collections,<br />
divides the Paleo-<strong>Indian</strong> culture into two<br />
distinct technological traditions. The first, characterized<br />
by a specialized hunting technology<br />
utilizing bifacial projectile points, developed on<br />
the open plains of Central Europe during early<br />
Upper Pleistocene. It was basically a continuation<br />
of the hand-ax traditions, contemporaneous with<br />
Mousteroid bifacial and flake-tool industries. The<br />
artifact assemblage from the Kostyenki site in the<br />
Ukraine is identified specifically as the Old World<br />
cultural complex that is typologically closest to<br />
the older Llano complex of North America (including<br />
Clovis and Sandia). These early industries<br />
with specialized projectile points supposedly<br />
expanded into the New World between 28,000<br />
and 26,000 years ago. The second invasion, about<br />
11,000 years ago, was primarily that of the Aurignacoid<br />
industries. These cultures, having basically<br />
a core-blade-burin industry, formed the<br />
basis of the later Eskimo and Aleut cultures.<br />
Few data support a spread of complexes with<br />
bifacial projectile points down the ice-free corri-