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3. The Paleo-lndians
- University Press of Mississippi
- Chapter
- Additional Information
The Pateo-Indians The Paleolithic period gets its name from the Greek words, paleo, meaning ancient, and lithic, meaning stone. The compound word, PaleoIndian , simply means the ancient native Americans who are said to have lived during the Paleolithic period . The beginning of the Paleolithic in the New World begins with the first settlers there. As we have seen, the actual time period is the subject of much scientific discussion, and a consensus has yet to be reached. Those archaeologists who support the validity of the radiocarbon dates of such sites as Meadowcroft in Pennsylvania, which has been dated at 12,800 B.P. to 19,600 B.P. and the Monte Verde site in Chile, where the upper layers have been dated at 13,000 B.P.and lower levels at 33,000 B.P., believe that the first migration may have come as early as 40,000 to 50,000 years ago. Even if one accepts the more conservative of the controversial dates, one must agree with Virginia Morrell (1990) that "they necessarily imply that the initial migration took place at least 20,000 years ago, because human bands, moving on foot, a few tens or hundreds of kilometers per generation, would have had to start that early to reach Chile by 13,000 B.P." If the earliest migrations did occur between 20,000 and 40,000 years ago, it might have been without projectile points. Instead, these 3 40 peoples are believed to have been less skilled at flint knapping and to have depended on wooden sticks with fire-hardened points, flakes, scrapers, and pebble choppers similar to those found in Siberian sites. Many of the controversial early sites have produced just such pebble tools. One such find, from northwestern Alabama, was described by Dan Josselyn and Matthew Lively in 1956 as the Lively Complex (Walthall 1980). The two men and several other amateur archaeologists found numerous examples of chipped cobbles and flakes, which they described as being much like those from the Old World. However, John A. Walthall and other skeptics believe the finds to be the normal by-products of stone tool production . In 1975, Don W. Dragoo reported finding similar tools belonging to what he terms the "heavy core tool complex" at the Wells Creek site in northern Tennessee. Like Lively and Josselyn, he describes large core tools that have been "heat treated." Such "thermal alteration" binds the impurities into the stone (often chert) to make a "more uniform material with the ability to fracture like glass rather than like rock," (Purdy 1986) and changes the color of the stone, often from yellow to pink. Although Dragoo feels that the large tools may be "Early Lithic" in age, he does say that their makers may have used them "as a source of flint for smaller tools" (Dragoo 1973). Criticism has been directed at other "pre-projectile point" sites as well. In New Mexico, Richard MacNeish discovered hearths, butchered bones, and stone tools that have been dated at 38,000 B.P. Skeptics believe that the site's stratigraphical levels are mixed up, and that the finds are later than MacNeish thinks. Wooden tools, such as would have been used by these hypothetical early immigrants are unlikely to survive decomposition under most circumstances. The conditions at Monte Verde in Chile are unique in that the boggy soils provide a lowoxygen environment that inhibits decomposition. Tom Dillehay's excavations have unearthed such items as digging sticks, wooden spear tips, and other wooden artifacts which have been dated at 12,000 to 13,000 years ago. Amazingly, his team of excavators also found evidence of a row of huts, as well as plant and animal remains. These finds were interpreted as evidence of hunting/gathering people who were largely dependent upon the collecting of some forty-two species of plants, including wild potatoes , nuts, fruits, and leafy greens, and upon the hunting and The Paleo-Indians 41 [54.208.238.160] Project MUSE (2024-03-28 23:59 GMT) snaring of a variety of small animals , including fish and rodents. They also found some preserved mastodon meat that is thought to be evidence of prehistoric scavenging rather than hunting. At another site nearby, Dillehay's team found twenty-six stone artifacts that they date at 33,000 B.P. Again, some skeptics believe those lithic materials were created by natural rather than human processes (Wolkomir 1991). The Meadowcroft site, located southwest of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania , was excavated...