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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-

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