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Ancient stone artifacts reveal the day-to-day lives of Clovis people while offering tantalizing clues of an even earlier culture
July 3, 2008 | 6
Excavations at the Gault site in central Texas have uncovered a rich collection of artifacts from the Clovis culture dating from 13,300 to 12,800 years ago. Many archaeologists suggest these finds are redefining what we know about these early Americans, pointing to a more settled culture than previously believed....[More]
Clovis culture is defined both by its time span and its distinctive projectile points. These Clovis points were discovered at Gault; all were damaged and resharpened multiple times and only discarded when they were no longer useful....[More]
For decades archaeologists believed Clovis people were primarily big game hunters who ate large animals such as mammoths. In contrast, excavations at Gault have turned up burned and broken bones of small animals such as birds and turtles, pointing to a diverse diet that included small game....[More]
A greater variety of tools has been uncovered at Gault than at any other Clovis site. Pictured here are a sampling of stone tools designed for tasks such as working hide (an end scraper and hide punch), working wood (an adze), and hunting game (a projectile point)....[More]
Additional evidence for the variety of tasks performed at Gault is derived from the microscopic wear-patterns of tools. These Clovis tools were used as (a) a blade for working hide; (b) a knife for cutting soft material, possibly meat; (c) an adze for working wood; and (d) a sickle for cutting grass....[More]
One of the most unusual finds at Gault is this gravel pavement 21.5 feet (two meters) square. The team carefully uncovered and documented this area, which experts suggest formed the floor of some kind of shelter....[More]
Another unusual finding at Gault are the engraved stones that may represent the earliest art in the Western Hemisphere. Of 200 engraved stones found at the site, a dozen are from the Clovis period....[More]
This incised stone was carved on both sides with a fascinating--and so far incomprehensible--pattern. The engraved stones are some of the most intriguing artifacts from Gault, says Dennis Stanford, head of the anthropology department at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History....[More]
As exciting as the Clovis-era artifacts found at Gault, some archaeologists are even more thrilled by findings from below the Clovis soil layers. These stone flakes and fragment of a tool core are from deposits believed to predate Clovis by up to a thousand years, even though archaeologists believed for decades that Clovis were the first people in the Americas....[More]
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6 Comments
Add CommentClovis has always seemed like a random data point to me, in terms of being the
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisIs Michael D. Coe still active?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisConsider what appears to be an ancient stone road(or who knows what), found *deep* underwater off of Cuba. Likely it wasn't underwater at the time. That may be one more clue to add to the puzzle of how the 1st people arrived.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThe "interesting" markings on the stones may be considered early cartegraphic remnants. The tools could have served as early maps of streams, rivers or hunting trails. Precise geometric patterns, such as the series of squares/rectangles, could be ceremonial or decorative in nature.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisSome of the "fluted" points look similar to one found in a cornfield across the street from "Jasper Park" in Vera Cruz, PA. The teacher there had shown it to me I was looking at another highway extension to impact jasper mine activities there in the late 1970s. He said U of Penn thought it at least 10,000 years old. He had some carborundum nodules he also collected nearby. It's sometimes called "turtleback" jasper, either from the spotted brown (turns red in heat) or the large nodules were reduced to large "turtles" to carry like one I saw a Maryland flint-knapper had, traded as far away as New England, the state sign says. One of the earliest articles printed in the "American Anthropologist" discussed the pit mines though abandoned about 1640 dated from Dr. Mercer's tree-ring dating a very early citation for that type of dating (190?). He was a large collector of folk art and tools and had a museum nearby.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisRegarding Fig 9 of 10:
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI am a sculptor and I would be challenged to incise such precise linear elements into stone without metal tools. Then again, I would be challenged to manufacture a spear point from stone with stone.
The next point of interest is the degree of symetric correlation evident with the obverse and reverse of the artifact. Obviously they are not equal, but, the short double horizontal element near the bottom of this image is retained by both sides, as is the basic characteristic of single lines connecting the horizontal elements to closed forms. On one side the closed forms are vacant, and on the other side some of the closed forms are decorated. This would suggest that the horizontal elements and the closed forms have a spatial and/or temporal relationship indicated by the connecting single line which could include symbolic expansion/reduction from one side to the other.
My first impression is that the designs are representing a specific species of vegetation. The horizontal elements represent the soil level and perhaps a partially visible tuber or corm, the single linear connecting elements stalks, and the closed forms the leaves or flowers of the plant at differnt stages of development.
If this be the case then the artifact may have served the function of a "flash card" for children who were about to go out on their first gathering foray.
Or, it could just be an idle doodle of something of interest during a time of plenty. Such is art.