Published: March 29, 2008 08:50 pm      

Young: In search of the first Americans

For years, most of the archeologists working in North America were convinced the Clovis culture dating to around 13,000 years ago were the first people to migrate into North America. Occasionally, someone would discover a new site in which were found a few artifacts thought to be older than Clovis. Each time this happened, other archeologists were able to disprove the facts connected with the site as being older than Clovis. Yet nowhere in Europe did any archaeologist find projectile points identical to the Clovis points from North America.

The only connection for many years which might help tie Clovis to some of the early European cultures was the presence of a specific tool known as a burin. This small tool is rather difficult to describe to anyone who is not familiar with the process of flaking chert or flint into various weapon tips and other tools, but I will try to explain what a burin is. Visualize a fairly thin piece of chert about the size of your hand with the fingers extended outward. Then think about cutting off the ends of your fingers which in turn would form a more or less 90-degree angle with your first finger. This small 90-degree corner would be referred to as a burin. Another way of describing what a burin looks like would be to take a large hunting or kitchen knife and break the blade in half. Since the non-cutting side of a knife blade is fairly thick, the angle where the blade was broken off would resemble a burin. In the case of a burin made from chert, the maker needed the thick strong back to be able to provide strength for the purpose of digging more than cutting into a piece of bone. The archeological community thinks the reason the early people produced burins was so that they had a sharp 90-degree corner in which they could cut into hollow bones in an effort to extract the marrow inside the bones. One of the odd things about burins in North America is the fact these small formal tools were only produced by the earlier cultures such as the Clovis people. Also in Europe, burins are found associated with the early cultures of the same age as Clovis or even older.

We use the term “type site” when we are describing a specific artifact where it was first discovered. In the case of Clovis, the type site for this projectile point is formally known as Blackwater Draw. Blackwater Draw, located in northeastern New Mexico, was originally discovered during a sand and gravel mining operation. Clovis points were found in a deeply stratified site which also produced Folsom points from a higher level above the Clovis horizon. Even higher up within the site were other early style projectile points such as Plainview and Milnesand. At Blackwater Draw, Clovis points were found in direct association with extinct animal bones, mostly mammoth but other extinct fauna were present. Several years later, Dr. Green with Texas Tech University was visiting the site and while he was walking around in a recently bulldozed area, he starting finding several long pieces of high grade chipped chert. He recognized these chert pieces and knew they were called blades, a specially prepared tool commonly found on very early sites in Europe. Eventually he found a total of 26 blades and even though the pieces were not in situ, each blade had gravel concretions adhered to the surfaces. He knew these particular gravel concretions were only found at the same level with the previously discovered Clovis points. He published his findings and the archeological community knew the Clovis people produced special blades just like their counterparts in Europe. These blades along with the burins alluded to the fact the Clovis people were somehow connected to one or more of the European cultures. Eventually a second discovery of Clovis blades was made near Anadarko, Okla., and then in 1982, Kevin Davis discovered several Clovis blades at a site now under the waters of Richland-Chambers Reservoir. Kevin, my wife Bobbie Jean, and I excavated for nearly three months at the site eventually recording 16 blades. This was the first cache of Clovis blades to be found in Texas and only the third site in the southwest to produce these very special tools. Unlike Blackwater Draw, nothing else was found associated with the blades from Navarro County.

Most of the known Clovis sites found in North America were found in the arid areas of the southwest and the High Plains. Typically the fauna found associated with the Clovis material were extinct mammoths, horse and camel. In other words, large animals which would have produced a lot of meat for a group of nomadic hunters. Eventually other sites were discovered in which the diets of the Clovis people was shown to be more diversified. One site northwest of Dallas known as the Lake Ray Roberts site was excavated by Dr. Reid Ferring from North Texas University. No mammoth remains were found, instead the remains of an extinct form of bison along with many smaller animals. Turtles, snakes, fish and a host of four-legged animals such as rabbits, rats and mice were found at the site. Another site down in central Texas was excavated and within the Clovis levels, a host of various small mammals was found in association with Clovis material. Also at this site which was a shelter, not a true cave but a large overhang, the archeologist discovered an area where the Clovis people had brought fairly large round river rocks into the shelter and constructed a rectangular floor. We know from several different deeply excavated sites the environment was much wetter during the Clovis time period so it seems the Clovis people had enough ingenuity to build a floor in an effort to keep their feet and food supplies dry. As more and more archeological sites associated with the Clovis culture were discovered, the archeological community realized the Clovis people were highly intelligent producing several special tools such as blades and burins but also a highly technical form of projectile point. Our old image of these people as being more or less a stone-age culture was beginning to change. If these people were so sophisticated enough to make the various tools associated with their culture, where did the Clovis culture begin? Since there wasn’t any evidence of Clovis points in Europe, the Clovis culture had to have started in North America. However, there was undeniable proof of a connection between Clovis and the same age European cultures because both groups produced identical blades and burins. This chipping strategy undeniably tied the people from one continent to another.

Next week: Other connections from America to Europe