Pre Clovis and Paleoindian

This report continues the author’s research on the location, status and artifact inventories of Paleoindian sites in Northern Alabama (c.f. Cole 2006) by providing a summary of the site data for Madison County, Alabama, and providing a comparison of the findings to that of neighboring Limestone County. Using data from private collections, the author seeks to answer three questions in this study. First, how can researchers use this data to identify high density sites prior to their impact? Second, how did Early Paleoindian groups choose their site locations, and finally, how can researchers identify how their foraging cycle may have looked?

This work has been made possible by the generous sharing of primary data by a number of researchers including site level provenience of Paleoindian artifact finds. These records have been added to the Alabama Paleoindian Point Survey and the Alabama State Site File so that future investigators can continue to study these important sites and artifacts.

The 2013 to 2016 archaeological recovery of the Bowser Road mastodon (Mammut americanum), Orange County, New York, (R.M. Gramly, 2017*) advances PaleoAmerican and Clovis studies (+/- 11,000 to 13,000 years before present).______

A case is made in this paper that the heel bone area chop-marks were made with an Achilles tendon severing (hamstringing) axe. Winner of Best Student Paper and Presentation: Eastern States Archaeological Federation 2017 conference, New London, Connecticut, USA._______

The following is paraphrased from (R.M. Gramly, 2017)*:
Butcher evidence on 82 separate bone components. Included in the assemblage were atlatl handles (spear throwers) made from curated human-split proboscidean ribs from a separate animal/s (Strontium test confirmation).These atlatls (twenty-one) were ritually broken and placed at the head of the mastodon skeleton.________

C13 and C12 dated collagen (three tests) were performed on samples from the mastodon. One C13 and and one C12 bioapatite test were performed, as well. The immediate above tests were from three labs*, respectively:  Beta Analytic Radiocarbon Dating Laboratory (Beta-391565) 10,950 +/-40 RCYBP (= Radio Carbon Years Before Present) | 12,730-12,855 CYBP (= Calendar Years Before Present)  by Dr. Ron Hatfield; Arizona AMS Laboratory at the University of Arizona 11,187 +/-88 RCYBP  | 12, 840-13,220 CYBP via Drs. Greg Hodgins and C. Vance Haynes, Jr (AA105131);  Dr. Douglas K. Dvoracek at the University of Georgia’s Center for Applied Isotope Studies UGAMS labs: 10,946 +/-35 RCYBP | 12,730-12,835 CYBP; and 10,530+/-35 RCYBP | 12,410-12,575 CYBP [bioapatite] (respectively: UGAMS-20742c; UGAMS-20742a).______

*Archaeological Recovery of the Bowser Road Mastodon, Orange County, New York.
A book by R.M. Gramly. Published by:  ASAA/Persimmon Press Monographs in Archaeology, 2017.  North Andover, Massachusetts: 364 pages, color.

American archeology has long been polarized over the issue of a human presence in the Western Hemisphere earlier than Clovis. As evidence of early sites across North and South America continues to emerge, stone tool assemblages appear more geographically and temporally diverse than traditionally assumed. Within this new framework, the prevailing models of Clovis origins and the peopling of the Americas are being reevaluated. This paper presents age estimates from a series of alluvial sedimentary samples from the earliest cultural assemblage at the Gault Site, Central Texas. The optically stimulated luminescence age estimates (~16 to 20 thousand years ago) indicate an early human occupation in North America before at least ~16 thousand years ago. Significantly, this assemblage exhibits a previously unknown, early projectile point technology unrelated to Clovis. Within a wider context, this evidence suggests that Clovis technology spread across an already regionalized, indigenous popu...

Ushki sites complex (Central Kamchatka) is one of the most famous geoarchaeological objects in Northeast Asia. The article presents the results of trasological analysis of stone beads and pendants from Paleolithic burial of VIIth cultural layer of Ushki-I site. The ornaments are among the most ancient and widespread evidence of symbolic behavior in the region. Through the use of modern microscopic and photographic equipment the author found various categories of use-wear traces and traces of manufacture on them. Analysis of use-wear and experimental data allowed to identify a number of functional types of ancient personal ornaments and reconstruct the main stages of manufacturing. The first type of personal ornaments includes beads and one pendant that were used as components of necklaces, bracelets or amulets. Single beads for hanging on a string or strap represent the second type. The third type of personal ornaments (plaque to be sewed on clothes) includes a pendant with five holes. The technology of producing the ornaments consisted of such operations as primary abrasive finishing, drilling and polishing.

This paper summarizes the findings from archaeological excavations conducted at three open-air prehistoric sites located along the central Buffalo River in Perry County, Tennessee. Analysis and technical reporting of the recovered samples was completed in 2013, but a summation of the project findings and a consideration of the site assemblages within the context of regional archaeological research was never completed. Under a separate contract, Panamerican Consultants undertook this task in 2021. This chapter presents the results of the additional research.

Early man arrived in Middle America from the north sometime within
the Pleistocene. Almost all evidence of his presence indicates an
arrival no earlier than 40,000 yrs. B.P. and probably later than
35, 000 B.P. From about 11,500 B.P. to 9,000 B.P. there are some definite direct associations between man and the late Pleistocene animals. These animals were mainly large terrestrial herbivores hunted by man until their extinction. This period occurred at the end of the Pleistocene ice age. The discovery of human artifacts directly associated with large Pleis­tocene herbivores in kill-sites illustrates man's utilization of these
animals in his diet. The Purpose of this paper is not to stipulate
the belief that early man was primarily a big-game-hunter, since 
there are some indications that he was not, but most evidence of
early man in Middle .America was indicated by kill-sites where large
Pleistocene animals were slaughtered.

The large Pleistocene animals generally associated with man both stratigraphically and directly (through artifact association) are mammoths , mastodons, camels, horses, and bison. One thing Ithink should be pointed out now is that all these animals, though
extinct in many parts of the world, do have directly related ancestors
still surviving in the present world. The present day related late­
Pleistocene-type animals are elephants, modem horses, modern camels
(in both the New and Old World), and cattle (even buffalo in the New
World). For this reason they really have not expired from existence,World). For this reason they really have not expired from existence, but have, for some unanswered reason, become extinct in certain areas while some close relatives have generally survived. It is also possible importance that these related pleistocene type animals, that have survived, have almost all become closeiy associated, if not completely controlled by man through different degrees of domestication. The simple fact that certain breeds have been able to live with man may very well be the reason for their survival.

Junius Bird's work at Fell's Cave, Chile in 1936 and 1937 established the presence of Early PaleoIndian peoples using "fish tail" fluted points in southernmost South America.  Compiling data from various researchers, including numerous radiocarbon dates, it appears that South American "fish tails" are co-eval with Folsom.  Other discoveries, including an unpublished fluted point recorded by Bird, are good Clovis analogues.

Compelling archaeological evidence of an occupation older than Clovis (~12.8 to 13.1 thousand years ago) in North America is present at only a few sites, and the stone tool assemblages from these sites are small and varied. The Debra L. Friedkin site, Texas, contains an assemblage of 15,528 artifacts that define the Buttermilk Creek Complex, which stratigraphically underlies a Clovis assemblage and dates between ~13.2 and 15.5 thousand years ago. The Buttermilk Creek Complex confirms the emerging view that people occupied the Americas before Clovis and provides a large artifact assemblage to explore Clovis origins.