Clovis culture: the story on HearLore

Clovis culture

On the 29th of August 1927, a team of archaeologists near Folsom, New Mexico, unearthed the first undeniable proof that humans had walked the Americas during the Pleistocene epoch. They found a stone point embedded in the bones of an extinct bison species, shattering the long-held belief that the continent had been empty of people until much later. This discovery ignited a firestorm of interest, prompting a generation of researchers to scour the landscape for older evidence. Just two years later, on the 29th of August 1929, a nineteen-year-old named Ridgely Whiteman stumbled upon a site near Blackwater Draw that would define an entire era of human history. Whiteman, who had been closely following the Folsom excavations in the newspapers, found stone tools lying alongside the massive bones of a Columbian mammoth. The site, later named Blackwater Draw locality No. 1, became the type site for the Clovis culture, a name derived from the nearby town of Clovis, New Mexico. The excavation of this site, conducted between 1932 and 1937 under the direction of Edgar Billings Howard and later John L. Cotter, revealed a sophisticated toolkit that suggested a people far more advanced than previously imagined. The American Journal of Archaeology documented Howard's work in Burnet Cave, noting the discovery of extinct fauna and a Folsom type point four feet below a Basketmaker burial, a detail that hinted at the deep time these people inhabited. The Dent site in Colorado would later be identified as the first known association of these points with mammoth bones, leading some scholars like Gary Haynes to argue that the culture should have been named Dent rather than Clovis, yet the name Clovis stuck, anchoring the identity of these first widely recognized inhabitants of North America.

The Fluted Point And The Shock Absorber

The hallmark of the Clovis culture is the distinctively shaped lithic point known as the Clovis point, a masterpiece of prehistoric engineering that required immense skill to produce. These points are bifacial, meaning flakes were removed from both faces, and typically fluted, with an elongate flake removed from the base of the point running up a third or a half of its length. This fluting is what sets them apart from many later Paleoindian traditions where the flute runs the entire length of the point. The points are typically parallel-sided to slightly convex, with a concave base, and can exceed thirty centimeters in length, making them some of the largest projectile points ever created. The process of making them was fraught with danger and difficulty; the fluting often caused the stone to break during knapping, a testament to the high risk involved in their creation. Scholars have debated the purpose of the flute for decades, with some suggesting it acted as a shock absorber to redistribute stress during impact, allowing the point to survive the force of hitting a massive animal, while others argue it was purely stylistic or used to strengthen the hafting to the spear handle. Despite the lack of direct evidence of what was attached to these points, wear patterns indicate they were multifunctional objects, serving as cutting and slicing tools as well as spear tips. They were likely used as handheld thrusting or throwing weapons, possibly in combination with a spear thrower, for hunting and self-defense. The points were generally produced from nodules or siliceous cryptocrystalline rocks and were thinned using end-thinning, the removal of blade-like flakes parallel to the long-axis. They were initially prepared using percussion flaking, with the point being finished using pressure flaking, a technique that required a steady hand and years of practice. The shape and size of these points varied significantly over space and time, with the largest points being true giants of the prehistoric world.

When was the Clovis culture first discovered and where?

The Clovis culture was first discovered on the 29th of August 1929 when Ridgely Whiteman found stone tools near Blackwater Draw in New Mexico. This site became the type site for the culture and was named after the nearby town of Clovis.

What is the Clovis point and how was it made?

The Clovis point is a distinctively shaped bifacial stone projectile point that is typically fluted with an elongate flake removed from the base. It was made using percussion flaking for initial preparation and pressure flaking for finishing, often requiring years of practice to produce without breaking.

Who were the Clovis people and what did they eat?

The Clovis people were high-technology foragers who hunted big game including Columbian mammoths, mastodons, bison, and equines. Isotope analysis of the Anzick-1 burial suggests mammoths made up a large proportion of their diet with major contributions from elk and bison.

Where did the Clovis people originate and when did they live?

The Clovis people originated from Siberia and migrated into North America, with the culture spanning from 13,050 to 12,750 years Before Present. Genetic evidence from the Anzick-1 infant confirms their Asian origin and connection to Siberian populations.

What happened to the Clovis culture and what replaced it?

The Clovis culture ended around 12,750 to 12,600 years Before Present due to megafauna decline and decreasing mobility. It was succeeded by regional cultures including the Folsom tradition, Cumberland point, Suwannee point, and Western Stemmed Tradition.

The High Technology Foragers

The people who produced the Clovis culture were high-technology foragers who utilized sophisticated technology to maintain access to resources while being highly mobile. In many Clovis localities, the stone tools found at a site were hundreds of kilometers away from the source stone outcrop, with one instance showing tools traveling over one thousand kilometers. These groups likely had a low population density but maintained geographically extensive cultural networks, connecting distant communities through the movement of people and ideas. The Clovis people are suggested to have heavily utilized hides, wood, and natural fibers, though no direct evidence of these organic materials has been preserved due to the passage of time. However, bone needles found at the Clovis-associated La Prele site in Wyoming suggest they made clothes from fur, using materials from jackrabbit, red fox, and feline species such as bobcat, Canada lynx, cougar, or American cheetah. Their diet was diverse, relying heavily on big game including proboscideans like the Columbian mammoth, mastodon, and gomphothere, as well as bison and equines. Isotope analysis of the only known Clovis burial, the young child Anzick-1 from Montana, suggests that mammoths made up a large proportion of the total diet of this group, with major contributions also coming from elk and probably bison. While they were known for hunting large animals, they were not exclusively dependent on them, with several sites showing the exploitation of small game like tortoises, with lagomorphs, predominantly jackrabbits, being found at around 31% of all sites. Plant remains at Clovis sites, which are almost exclusively from eastern North America, primarily consist of food that can be easily gathered, such as fruit that required little processing, with little evidence of plant processing tools being found. In the Southern Plains, Clovis people created campsites of considerable size, 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, they created large camps that may have served as staging areas, where a number of bands may have gathered for social occasions, such as the site at Jake Bluff in northern Oklahoma where Clovis points are associated with numerous butchered Bison antiquus bones representing a herd of at least 22 individuals.

The Mystery Of The Caches

A distinctive feature of 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 with the intention to return to collect them later. Over twenty such caches have been identified across North America, suggesting a level of planning and foresight that challenges the notion of these people as purely nomadic wanderers. The purpose of these caches remains a subject of debate, with some authors interpreting them as ritual behavior rather than practical storage. The Clovis people are known to have transported ocher from its original outcrop, using it for a variety of artistic and ritual purposes, including burials and to cover objects in caches. A few Clovis culture artifacts are suspected to reflect creative expression, such as rock art, 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. They are also suggested to have produced beads out of animal bones, adding a layer of personal adornment to their material culture. The Clovis blades, long flakes removed from specially prepared conical or wedge-shaped cores, are part of the global Upper Paleolithic blade tradition 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 the blades typically carried in the mobile toolkit. Other tools associated with the culture include 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 ends. The function of these rods is unknown and has been subject to numerous hypotheses, with rods beveled on both ends most often interpreted as foreshafts to which stone points were hafted, while rods beveled on only one end are most often interpreted as projectile points. These rods may have served other purposes, such as prybars, highlighting the versatility of the Clovis toolkit.

The Genetic Link To Siberia

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 to 12,840 years Before Present. Sequencing of his genome demonstrates that he belonged to a population that is ancestral to many contemporary Indigenous peoples of the Americas, particularly those from Central and South America, and less related to those from contemporary North America, including northern Mexico. This genetic evidence confirms the Asian origin of the Clovis culture, showing that Anzick-1 is closely related to Siberian peoples. 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 the Pacific coast, but more common in the very earliest Indigenous Americans. He has also been shown to share DNA with the 24,000-year-old Mal'ta boy from central Siberia, providing a genetic bridge between the ancient populations of Siberia and the Americas. This genetic connection suggests that the Native American population had already diverged into multiple genetically distinct groups by the time of the Clovis culture, followed by subsequent migration of these populations later in the Holocene. The genetic data supports the theory that the ancestors of the people who produced the Clovis culture migrated into North America, though the exact route remains a subject of intense debate. While historically it was suggested that they migrated along the ice-free corridor, many later scholars have suggested that a migration along the Pacific coast is more likely, with a 2022 study proposing that the ice-free corridor was impassable until around 13,800 years ago, long after the earliest confirmed human presence in the Americas south of the ice sheets.

The End Of The Clovis Era

The Clovis culture represents the earliest widely recognized archaeological culture in North America, spanning around 13,050 to 12,750 years Before Present, though some scholars have argued that some sites extend the range of the culture back to 13,500 years Before Present, even if the dating for these earlier sites is not secure. 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. This is generally considered to be the result of normal cultural change through time, with no evidence that the disappearance of the culture was the result of the onset of the Younger Dryas or that there was a population decline of Paleoindians following the end of the culture. Beginning around 12,750 to 12,600 years Before Present, 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 to 400 years, indicating a period of transition rather than a sudden collapse. 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 Clovis culture was succeeded by various regional point styles, and a number of authors have suggested that the culture is ancestral to other fluted point-producing cultures in Central and South America, like the widespread Fishtail or Fell point style. 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. This is generally considered to be the result of normal cultural change through time, with no evidence that the disappearance of the culture was the result of the onset of the Younger Dryas or that there was a population decline of Paleoindians following the end of the culture.

The Overkill Hypothesis And The Climate

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 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, with the timing of megafauna extinction in North America also coinciding 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 the result of a combination of factors, rather than human hunting alone. 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. The debate continues to rage, with the Clovis peoples contributing to the Late Pleistocene megafauna extinctions in North America, though this idea has been subject to controversy. The Clovis culture is not exclusively associated with large animals, with several sites showing the exploitation of small game like tortoises, with lagomorphs, predominantly jackrabbits, being found at around 31% of all sites. The Clovis people are known to have used ivory and bone to create projectile points, and the points were at least sometimes resharpened, though 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, with the largest points exceeding thirty centimeters 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 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 the point being finished using pressure flaking.