Evidence Aquits Clovis People Of Ancient Killings, Archaeologists Say

University Of Washington ^ | 2-25-2003 | Joel Schwartz

[blam]

I have always contended that there was never a human population large enough to hunt these animals to extinction. It is also my contention that humans have been in the Americas for at least 200,000 years.

I wouldn't rule out a human virus that crossed species though.

[who_would_fardels_bear]

My understanding was NOT that they went out and hunted down these animals one-by-one, but that they did other things that caused mass kill offs, such as starting massive forest fires and hunting a few animals that ran out of the flames.

Burning down forests for a few bites of beef sounds rather silly, though as well.

[EggsAckley]

Interesting article.

[CaptainJustice]

Finally, the closure I've been needing. ;)

[Burkeman1]

Pretty flimsy evidence to dismiss the predation theory. I would say it has more to do with PC about primitive peoples being at "harmony with nature" and would never "over hunt". There is much evidence to show ancient humans killed far more than they needed. Climte change is ridiculous since many of these mega fauna survived multiple ice ages and ice age withdrawals. There is mucho evidence to show as modern humans spread throughout the planet- soon after mega fauna disappeared. They were easy kills as they had no natural fear of humans as predators.

[RudeJude]

Interesting article, thanks.
I have always been fascinated by this; if the soil around our place wasn't all sandy loam I'd be out digging for bones!

[ElkGroveDan]

What? Not our indigenous peoples! No sirree they would not have harmed mother earth or her endangered species.

Probably some white male explores drifted across the Atlantic by accident and then set about causing the mass extinctions.

[Spunky]

Kennewick Man had a Clovis Spear Head inbedded in him.

Here is the latest regarding the Kennewick Man battle.

Feb. 21, 2003
Court blocks study of bones pending appeal
By The Associated Press

PORTLAND - Eight anthropologists who want to study an ancient skeleton must wait until a federal court has heard an appeal of the case by four Northwest tribes that consider the bones sacred.

The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals' decision, made last week, prevents any study of the 9,300-year-old skeleton known as Kennewick Man, which scientists have sought to examine since 1996.

With the 9th circuit involved the scientist will never have a chance. For the rest of the article click link below.
Latest on Kennewick Man

[Notforprophet]

Mmmmmm... grilled ground sloth.

[latrans]

So they werent ecologists, they sure made cool spear points, wish I could find one.

[marktwain]

Lack of evidence is not evidence. Just because there is no "smoking gun", which is very hard to produce after 10,000 years, doesn't mean that the theory is discredited. It just means that the criteria that these authors set for evidence was not met.

They found that Clovis people hunted mastodons, and mastodons went extinct shortly after. See, that is proof of climate change causing the extinction. Their logic, that they did not find enough evidence of predation is poor, because how do they define what "enough" evidence is?

[blam]

From another article I posted some time back.

3. Arguments from New Zealand Maori legends

From New Zealand two arguments come. First we have the Maori legends stating that, several centuries ago, fire came from the sky, burned most of the forests and killed the Moa birds (the Maori adamantly reject the western scholars opinion that overhunting was the reason for the Moa disappearance). Secondly there is the recent finding of a number of shallow and definitely very recent impact craters, named the Tapanui craters, in the South Island. Additionally, layers of soot, datable at the cratering time, have been detected in several places. The Tapanui craters and the presence of soot can be taken as a confirmation that "fire" came from the sky, burned the forests and killed the Moas, as the Maori legends state. The time of the event has been estimated at circa 800 years ago, therefore falling at our proposed date. For more information on the event see Steel and Snow [6] and Pajak [7,8].

[merak]

It's not just a question of killing things; it's also a question of mobility. Ancient man, particularly in the Americas in which there's no evidence that he ever rode horses or any other animal, simply didn't get around well enough to kill off entire species of animals over whole countries.

[blam]

"Lack of evidence is not evidence. "

The maker of the theory must prove the theory. It is not up to others to disprove. IMO, the theory has not been proven.

[blam]

"Homo sapien sapien has absolutely not been in the New World for 200,000 years."

Read this thread or at least the last three posts.

I have also often thought about how many people were killed in the meteorite that caused the Barringer Crater, 50,000 years ago. (In Arizona) That must have played the devil with all living things in North America, huh?

[blam]

Jump in here.

[farmfriend]

Climate change, not humans, was the culprit.

I thought humans caused climate change. Oh, sorry. I forgot that it is only capitalist humans that cause climate change