Use-wear studies were undertaken to determine if the Clovis bifaces discovered at the Gault site in Central Texas were utilized implements or rather products of lithic raw material procurement. Those bifaces bearing microscopic traces indicative of use were studied in detail to determine the use-history of the tools. This thesis describes an experimental program aimed to build analogues for probable biface functions. A series of projectile impact studies, butchering experiments, and expedient-like tool useactivities were conducted to document the traces acquired on the tool surface from use. The experimental results are used to identify the utilized tools, demonstrate their functional purpose, and suggest the extent of tool use of the prehistoric biface assemblage.

The Clovis caches in this study consist of assemblages of tools left behind in an area either for future use or as ritual offerings. Clovis caches are the earliest of such assemblages known in North America. This research specifically examines a sample of four caches: East Wenatchee from Douglas County, Washington; Anzick from Park County, Montana; Simon from Camas County, Idaho; and Fenn, inferred to be from Sweetwater County, Wyoming. The artifact types in this study include fluted points, bifaces, blades, flakes, bone rods, and miscellaneous. The variables used in this study include maximum length, mid-length and maximum width, thickness, (length*width*thickness)/1000, length/width, and width/thickness; using millimeters as the basic measurement unit. This study utilizes five methods in the study of the caches: descriptive statistics, factor analysis, cluster analysis, correspondence analysis, and geoarchaeology. The descriptive statistics reveal the most prominent trends that become more apparent in the subsequent statistical analyses. Such trends include East Wenatchee containing the largest points but the smallest bifaces, Anzick and Simon having significant biface variation, Fenn tending to be average in most respects, and bone rods being larger in East Wenatchee than they are in Anzick. The factor analysis explores the relationships between the variables and assigns them to larger components. Length, width, thickness, and length*width*thickness comprise the size component, and length/width and width/thickness make up the shape component. The cluster analysis examines the artifacts within each site and between all sites to identify the most appropriate grouping arrangements based on similarities in artifact measurements. The general results show that fluted points form three clusters according to size more than shape, bifaces are highly variable but have no obvious clusters, and bone rods form three clusters with the first two being strictly divided by site. The correspondence analysis shows that the differences in count data between caches appear to relate to the geographic distances between them. Finally, geoarchaeological analysis posits that East Wenatchee has no discernable pit feature, Anzick contains only one human burial, Simon was not deposited in a pluvial lake, and Fenn would have been shallowly buried but was probably disturbed by erosion.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Wyoming, 2008. / Title from PDF title page (viewed on June 24, 2009). Includes bibliographical references.

The origins of Clovis technology and the nature and timing of the first populations to reach the Western Hemisphere is one of the most contentious issues in American archaeology. With the rejection of “Clovis-first”, many scholars consider that all colonising migrations followed a route out of Asia and across Beringia into North America. However, none of the technologies present in the far northeast of Asia or Beringia exhibit the manufacturing processes that were used in Clovis. To address this enigma, Stanford and Bradley proposed a radical alternative for the origins of Clovis. They argue that a small pioneering group of Solutreans crossed the Atlantic ice sheets of the LGM and reached the shores of North America. The basis for this argument stems from technological similarities between Clovis and the Solutrean, as well as from climatic, oceanographic, and ethnographic data. Biface manufacture is at the centre of their technological analysis, specifically comparing the reduction sequences of the distinctive Solutrean laurel leaf points and comparing them to Clovis points. This thesis tests the assumption of Stanford and Bradley that the blade manufacturing technologies of Clovis and Solutrean were “virtually identical”. By analysing the blade manufacturing processes from the Solutrean assemblage at Laugerie-Haute and the Clovis assemblage from the Gault site and comparing them to the broader technological patterns present across Eurasia between ~30,000 BP and 11,000 BP; this thesis supports the findings of Stanford and Bradley with the amendment that Clovis specifically intended to produce curved blades but did not use blades to produce projectile points. While convergence cannot be completely ruled out, there is a lack of evidence that would explain the number of similarities in the manufacturing processes. Thus it remains highly likely that interaction across the ice-edge corridor of the Atlantic may have occurred during the LGM.

Prehistoric quarries in America are poorly understood and thus problematical to take into account when making inferences about past behavior. A microwear analysis of Clovis blades from the 2000 Texas A&M University excavations at the Gault site (41BL323), located in southern Bell County, Texas, provided a window into this problem. Texas A&M excavations on the site produced an extraordinarily large number of Clovis artifacts in two bounded geologic units, 3a and 3b. Included in the artifact types are blades, specialized elongate flakes associated with a core and blade technology. In conducting a microwear analysis of the Clovis blades from Gault, I proposed the following questions: (1) were the Clovis blades utilized at Gault?; (2) is there a difference in the use-wear patterns of Clovis blades from the geological units 3a and 3b?; and (3) is Gault, as a quarry/workshop site, a place to just obtain raw materials or did it also serve as a craft site? Observations from experiments, stereomicroscope analysis, compound microscope analysis, and SEM/EDS analysis led to answers for two research questions: (1) blades were used at Gault and (2) there is a difference between Clovis units 3a and 3b. Eight Clovis 3a blades, or 3.0% of the total Clovis 3a blade/blade fragment population (n=264), exhibit use-wear. Six Clovis 3b blades, 3.3% of the total Clovis 3b blade/blade fragment population (n=182), exhibit use-wear. In general, Clovis 3b blades were used on harder contact materials (wood to bone) than those in Clovis Unit 3a (softer contact materials similar to grass, sinew, and rawhide). The function(s) of quarries and quarry-related workshops were interpreted by William Henry Holmes as a place to obtain raw materials, while Kirk Bryan interpreted them as a place to bring other materials to work in craft activities. Following the microwear analysis of Clovis blades/blade fragments at Gault, I compared Gault to three other Paleoindian quarry-workshop sites (Wells Creek, Dutchess Quarry, and West Athens Hill). My intent is to provide supplemental data for the consideration when applying Holmes’ and Bryan’s respective hypotheses.

One of the most challenging questions surrounding the Clovis colonization of North America is the character and structure of terminal Pleistocene environments, including floral and faunal communities. A series of cores in the mouth of an arroyo revealed late Pleistocene - early Holocene wetland sediments buried 12 meters below surface, at the approximate elevation of the entrenched modern San Pedro River channel. A suite of ¹⁴C dates show that wetlands of the ancestral San Pedro River occupied portions of the inner valley coincident with the Younger Dryas (13,000 - 11,500 cal yr BP) and the early Holocene (10,000 - 9,500 cal yr BP). A lack of Sporormiella fungal spores indicates that mammoths were rare or absent when Clovis populations appeared in the valley around 12,800 cal yr BP. Palynological and stable carbon isotope analyses show that C₄ grasses increased at 9,940 cal yr BP, just prior to frequent burning after 9,510 cal yr BP and rapid erosion at 9,470 cal yr BP. δ ¹⁸O values from soil carbonates vary but do not record a systematic shift in precipitation source or temperature during the late Pleistocene - early Holocene transition. The establishment of C₄ grasslands in the inner valley correlates with widespread changes in the Chihuahuan Desert flora around 10,000 cal yr BP. A relatively dense accumulation of Clovis-mammoth associations in San Pedro Basin contrasts the lack of megaherbivores indicated at Palominas Arroyo. The upper San Pedro Basin of southeastern Arizona contains a minimum of four Clovis-mammoth associations, making it possibly one of the densest concentrations of human-proboscidean sites on earth in terms of time and space. I use the Younger Dryas-age stratum known as the "black mat" to compare the Clovis-age archaeofaunal record of the basin to its paleontological background in order to measure the level of human predation that created this remarkable record. This analysis indicates that Clovis people were affecting the last mammoth populations to a significant degree, a situation expected only in the presence of abundant mammoths. I argue that this condition was met in the San Pedro Basin, possibly in the form of a terminal Pleistocene refugium. If the refuge hypothesis indeed explains mammoth predation, then Clovis-mammoth associations should occur as clusters as they do in the San Pedro Basin rather than as isolates as they are known to occur elsewhere. The use of radiocarbon frequency distributions to reconstruct prehistoric human and animal populations must account for taphonomic loss and other factors that affect the archaeological and paleontological records. Surovell et al. (Journal of Archaeological Sciences, 36, 1715–1724) have recently proposed a volcanic-based correction factor for removing "taphonomic bias" from temporal frequency distributions. Analysis of 718 radiocarbon dates sampled from the alluvium of the San Pedro and Santa Cruz Rivers and their tributaries in southeastern Arizona shows that discovery and scientific biases play an equally important role in the creation of radiocarbon frequency distributions, and that "taphonomic bias" has not been systematic through time. The latter principle is further demonstrated using a sample of 123 Pliocene to Clovis-age proboscideans from the San Pedro Valley. We propose an alternative model that is based on the nature of the stratigraphic record, with discovery bias, scientific bias, taphonomic loss, and the shape of the calibration curve all operating to influence the temporal frequency distribution of prehistoric phenomena.

The Clovis style point was used by Paleoindians to hunt and kill the proboscidean mammoths and mastodons of the era in the New World. How the Paleoindians specifically used Clovis technology and their hunting strategies are ambiguous. Middle range theory is used in a comparison of ethnographic, archaeological, paleontological, and experimental archaeological evidence. Deductive and inductive reasoning are used in conjunction with this data to develop an interpretive model. This type of study can help to reconstruct a part of the past lifeways of the Clovis Paleoindians. A general model taken from the evidence is presented of Paleoindian proboscidean hunting strategy and the possible design and use of weaponry. However, the majority of the data comes from western Clovis sites associated with Columbian mammoths. A universal or regional based model for Paleoindian proboscidean hunting tactics and weapon design and employment cannot be fully dictated. Creating a model of this type requires an intensively thorough survey of all Clovis archaeological and ancient proboscidean sites. / Department of Anthropology

This dissertation presents new data on early Paleoindian stone technologies in the Southern Plains periphery. Analyses of lithic artifact assemblages show that significant technological changes occurred between the transitions from pre-Clovis to Clovis and from Clovis to Folsom/Midland. After an initial introduction to the problems in chapter one, a detailed technological description of the pre-Clovis assemblage from the Debra L. Friedkin site, Texas is presented. Site-scale and general technological comparisons to Clovis reveal similarities and differences. I conclude that the pre-Clovis assemblage at Friedkin cannot be considered Clovis, but could represent an ancestral technological assemblage. The third chapter presents the analysis of Clovis bifaces from the Hogeye site, Texas. I identify patterns in the biface reduction process and suggest that these patterns could be use to distinguish between regional Clovis cultural signatures and the idiosyncrasies of individual Clovis flintknappers. The fourth chapter compares Clovis and Folsom/Midland technologies and site-use at a single site, the Debra L. Friedkin site, Texas. I show that while late-stage biface reduction and point production were the focus of both occupations, Folsom/Midland groups also reduced some early- or middle- stage bifacial cores. More broadly, the Friedkin site shows that Clovis and Folsom/Midland settlement along Buttermilk Creek varied. Ultimately, this dissertation provides new evidence of possible Clovis origins, documents Clovis biface reduction signatures, and identifies site-use and technological similarities and differences between Clovis and Folsom/Midland. Defining and comparing early Paleoindian adaptations and technologies is key to understanding how humans dispersed into North America and how they adapted to new and changing environments during the last Ice Age.

The archaeological record of the first Americans in Mexico is poorly known and somewhat confusing. However, the state of Sonora presents a remarkably pristine setting for studying the late Pleistocene occupation of North America. The early archaeological record in Sonora is stunning in terms of its relative abundance and only within the past ten years has this fact become evident. The Paleo-Indian sites are concentrated in north-central Sonora on and surrounding, the Llanos de Hermosillo. The settlement pattern appears to indicate that Clovis groups were generalized hunter and gatherers that exploited a wide range of environments, and their diet was based upon a wide variety of foodstuffs. The Clovis groups of Sonora developed a sophisticated settlement pattern and land use determined by the location of lithic sources for tool making, water sources, large prey animals and a mosaic of edible plants and small animals. Exploiting an extensive territory probably permitted them to remain in the same region for longer periods of time. The presence of only few late Paleo-Indian diagnostic points could represent the decrease of population density in Sonora, but most likely it is an indication that after Clovis a regionalization of the hunter and gather groups took place in Sonora. The Sonoran Clovis occupation is a testimony that multiple regional Clovis adaptations emerged each with specific responses of plants, animals and resources.

This thesis presents an investigation into Paleoindian projectile-point morphology. A goal of this research is to determine if evidence of a normative cultural manufacturing protocol can be identified on Clovis projectile points which can then be used to address research questions concerning Clovis point variability, and ultimately, the spread of this tool-form across North America. This paper addresses obstacles to behavioral investigations of stone tool morphology such as the effects of resharpening and raw material type on tool shape. I argue that a culturally normative process of manufacture was maintained throughout the life-history of Clovis projectile points which translated into a specific shape maintained to the time of exhaustion and discard. As an analytical tool, this study utilizes the geometric morphometric method to retain the geometry of each artifact throughout analysis by focusing on spatial covariation among landmarks uniformly found on each tool. This thesis investigates variability in 123 fluted projectile points from 23 archaeological sites in North America which met criteria meant to control for security of context in the archaeological record. Principle components describing the shape-variability inherent in this data-set were generated using geometric morphometrics and multivariate statistical analyses were employed to identify major factors of variability. This research concluded that Clovis projectile-point shape was determined by normative cultural behavior maintained throughout the life of the artifact and not the result of raw material type or resharpening processes. Therefore, the projectile-point variability found to be geographically patterned provided evidence of Paleoindian movement and the spread of tool form. Multivariate analysis of variance determined that a regional trend in variability was present. The distribution of within-site variance suggested that artifacts from sites in the West were very homogeneous while artifacts from Eastern sites were more variable. The multivariate cluster and discriminant function analyses also demonstrated a closer affinity between artifacts in the Southwest and Northwest than either has with the Northeast. The similarities in projectile point morphology between the Southwest and Northwest regions suggest movement beginning with a Southwest point of origin from which Pleistocene peoples may have carried their fluted point technology north and east.