Clovis culture
On the 29th of August 1927, archaeologists uncovered the first evidence of Pleistocene humans in the Americas near Folsom, New Mexico. They found a stone point embedded directly with the bones of an extinct bison species called Bison antiquus. This discovery proved that people lived on the continent during the last Ice Age. The find inspired many others to search for similar ancient sites. Ridgely Whiteman was only nineteen years old when he discovered the Clovis site near Blackwater Draw in eastern New Mexico in 1929. He had been closely following the excavations at nearby Folsom through newspaper reports. Excavations at Blackwater Draw continued between 1932 and 1937 under the direction of Edgar Billings Howard. Howard's crew worked until 1935 before John L. Cotter took over from the Academy of Natural Sciences at the University of Pennsylvania. Howard's team left their work at Burnet Cave in August 1932 to visit Whiteman's new site. By November, Howard returned to Blackwater Draw to investigate additional finds from a construction project. The American Journal of Archaeology mentioned Howard's work in its January, March 1932 edition. It described the discovery of extinct fauna and a Folsom type point four feet below a Basketmaker burial.
Clovis points are bifacial tools with flakes removed from both faces. They typically feature a fluted base where an elongate flake is removed from one or both sides. This flute runs up a third or half of the point length. The largest points exceed thirty centimeters in length. These artifacts required considerable effort to manufacture and often broke during the knapping process. Fluting may have acted as a shock absorber to redistribute stress during impact. Other theories suggest it was purely stylistic or used to strengthen hafting to spear handles. Clovis points were generally produced from nodules or siliceous cryptocrystalline rocks. Artisans initially prepared them using percussion flaking before finishing with pressure flaking. Blades are long flakes removed from specially prepared conical or wedge-shaped cores. These blades are twice as long as they are wide. They were modified to create endscrapers, serrated tools, and gravers. Unlike bifaces, blade cores do not appear to have been regularly transported over long distances. Only the finished blades were carried in mobile toolkits. Some authors argue that overshot flaking was intentional while others see it as accidental.
Clovis hunter-gatherers utilized sophisticated technology to maintain access to resources while remaining highly mobile. In many localities, stone tools were found hundreds of kilometers away from their source outcrops. One case involved materials traveling over one thousand kilometers. People who produced this culture likely had low population density but maintained geographically extensive cultural networks. Bone needles found at the La Prele site in Wyoming suggest they stitched clothes from fur. These needles were made from jackrabbit, red fox, and feline bones. The people exploited species like bobcat, Canada lynx, cougar, or American cheetah for their pelts. Clovis artifacts often associate with big game including Columbian mammoths, mastodons, gomphothere, bison, and equines. A handful of sites possibly suggest hunting caribou, peccaries, ground sloths, glyptodonts, tapirs, camels, and llamas. Proboscideans are the most common recorded species found at these sites followed by bison. Isotope analysis of the Anzick-1 burial suggests mammoths made up thirty-five to forty percent of the total diet. Elk and probably bison also contributed major portions to their nutrition.
Beginning in the 1950s, Paul S. Martin proposed the overkill hypothesis regarding Late Pleistocene megafauna extinctions. He suggested human hunting drove the extinction of large herbivores across North America. This theory has been subject to significant controversy since its inception. The timing of these extinctions coincides with major climatic changes making it difficult to disentangle various factors. A 2012 survey of archaeologists showed that sixty-three percent believed extinctions resulted from a combination of factors. Some researchers argue that groups of hunter-gatherers in Africa have successfully killed elephants using spears. Replica Clovis points have penetrated elephant hide in experimental tests. Yet other authors contest the effectiveness of these tools for killing proboscideans. The end of the Clovis culture may have been driven by the decline of the megafauna they hunted. Decreasing mobility also resulted in local differentiation of lithic traditions across North America. There is no evidence that the disappearance was caused by the onset of the Younger Dryas period.
The only known Clovis burial is that of Anzick-1, an infant boy found near Wilsall, Montana, in 1968. His body lay associated with over one hundred stone and bone artifacts stained with red ocher. The remains date to approximately twelve thousand nine hundred ninety years before present. Sequencing his genome demonstrates he belonged to a population ancestral to many contemporary Indigenous peoples of the Americas. This group is particularly related to those from Central and South America rather than northern Mexico. Older ancient South American remains are generally closer to Anzick-1 genetically. This suggests Native American populations had already diverged into multiple distinct groups during the Clovis era. Like other Native Americans, Anzick-1 shares close genetic ties with Siberian peoples confirming Asian origins. He belongs to Y chromosome Haplogroup Q-L54 which is common among modern Native Americans. His mitochondrial haplogroup D4h3a occurs in only 1.4 percent of contemporary populations primarily along the Pacific coast.
A 2020 study suggests the Clovis culture lasted for a relatively short period spanning thirteen thousand fifty to twelve thousand seven hundred fifty calibrated years before present. Historically, many authors argued for a Clovis first paradigm where they represented the earliest inhabitants south of the Laurentide ice sheet. Since the beginning of the twenty-first century, this hypothesis has been abandoned by most researchers. Sites like Monte Verde II in Chile date to fourteen thousand five hundred years before present. Paisley Caves in Oregon reach back to fourteen thousand two hundred years before present. Cooper's Ferry in Idaho dates to fifteen thousand eight hundred years before present. The White Sands footprints in New Mexico may be even older at around twenty-three thousand years ago. Many later scholars suggest migration along the Pacific coast is more likely than an ice-free corridor route. A 2022 study proposed that the ice-free corridor was impassable until around thirteen thousand eight hundred years ago. This timeline places human presence long after the earliest confirmed arrivals south of the ice sheets.
The end of the Clovis culture resulted from normal cultural change through time rather than sudden catastrophe. It was succeeded by various regional point styles across North America. These include the Folsom tradition in central regions and Cumberland points in mid-southern areas. Suwannee and Simpson points appeared in the southeast while Gainey points developed in the northeast Great Lakes region. The Clovis and Folsom traditions may have overlapped for approximately eighty to four hundred years. In South America, a widespread Fishtail or Fell point style existed contemporaneously with Clovis usage. Some authors suggest these South American points possibly developed directly from Clovis technology. The area of origin remains unclear though fluted points appear to have developed south of the Laurentide Ice Sheet. Western North America hosted the Western Stemmed Tradition which produced unfluted projectile points. This tradition continued in the region for several thousand years after the end of Clovis. No evidence suggests the disappearance of Clovis was caused by population decline following its end.
Common questions
When was the Clovis culture first discovered and where?
Archaeologists uncovered the first evidence of Pleistocene humans in the Americas near Folsom, New Mexico on the 29th of August 1927. Ridgely Whiteman discovered the specific Clovis site near Blackwater Draw in eastern New Mexico in 1929.
What are the physical characteristics of Clovis points?
Clovis points are bifacial tools with flakes removed from both faces that typically feature a fluted base running up a third or half of the point length. The largest points exceed thirty centimeters in length and were generally produced from nodules or siliceous cryptocrystalline rocks.
Which animals did Clovis hunter-gatherers hunt for food?
Clovis artifacts often associate with big game including Columbian mammoths, mastodons, gomphothere, bison, and equines. Isotope analysis of the Anzick-1 burial suggests mammoths made up thirty-five to forty percent of the total diet while elk and probably bison also contributed major portions to their nutrition.
Who is the only known Clovis burial and what does his genome reveal?
The only known Clovis burial is that of Anzick-1, an infant boy found near Wilsall, Montana, in 1968. His genome demonstrates he belonged to a population ancestral to many contemporary Indigenous peoples of the Americas and shares close genetic ties with Siberian peoples confirming Asian origins.
How long did the Clovis culture last according to recent studies?
A 2020 study suggests the Clovis culture lasted for a relatively short period spanning thirteen thousand fifty to twelve thousand seven hundred fifty calibrated years before present. Historically many authors argued for a Clovis first paradigm where they represented the earliest inhabitants south of the Laurentide ice sheet but this hypothesis has been abandoned by most researchers since the beginning of the twenty-first century.