[TXnMA]

Interesting map. Those are all stemmed points -- supposedly preceding un-stemmed and fluted clovis and Folsom...

As a lithic technologist, I've always said that the ultra-difficult fluting process had to be preceded by something simpler and easier.

However, these authors are sandbagging the data by showing only coastal sites -- and by ignoring mid-continent pre-Clovis sites like Gault in central Texas.

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FWIW, I'm on an archaeological listserver where posting this article would start a weeks-long fight. Believe me, the "There warn't no people here pre-Clovis!" cadre is still alive, kicking and vociferous in professional American archaeology. Even the mention of Dillehay's name suffices to set them off...'-)

Thanks for the link; maybe I'll go "rouse some 'stuffed-shirt rabble'" among my colleagues with it... LOL!!

[evets]

I toured the Gault site last month with Dr. Michael Collins. We used to pay the previous owner $10 to dig there all day. When the site was mostly empty of relics and 'bedrock' was hit at 3-5 feet, it was discovered that the 'bedrock' was actually a layer of Travertine and pre-Clovis relics were found below that layer. Dr. Collins said that the relics were 20,000 years old and the people were probably from Europe, arriving by boat south of the Atlantic ice shelf. Here's a reconstruction from one of the skulls.

[kitchen]

Oh yeah, do it! Just add a comment about the lack of any inclusion of Solutrean sites. Heart meds territory.