The Millennium before Clovis

This paper reviews the published information, uncertainties about claims, and possible technological and cultural relationships of a sample of sites which have older-than-Clovis dates in North America. The goal is to trace the origins of “Classic” Clovis techno-cultural patterns. Some sites in the sample contain lithic artifacts and some do not. Production technology and artifact characteristics in a number of the lithic sites (such as Debra Friedkin and possibly Page-Ladson) may be evidence of Clovis ancestry, but the lithic materials in most pre-Clovis sites cannot be explicitly linked to Clovis. A few nonlithic sites (such as Manis, Firelands, and Lindsay) may indicate a pre-Clovis pattern of large-mammal exploitation foreshadowing a later Clovis trait. Overall, the available data are incomplete or ambiguous, and as a result, individual interpretations have produced incompatible models of Clovis origins.