North By Gosh Dakota Clovis Cache

[uniface]

UNM Anthropologist Investigates New Clovis Culture Site in North Dakota - UNM Today | The University of New Mexico

Especially interesting in that this wasn't the usual cache of platter-like bifacial cores too thinned to produce further flake-blades or of points, but of the step between these in the reduction sequence.

Thanx to Benjamin Elbe, who posted it elsewhere

[Indianasmith]

Very cool!

[uniface]

I thought so too

[joshuaream]

Those are pretty cool, and it sounds much larger than most caches.

[mootsman]

Thanks for the link. Great story. And, yet another apparent confirmation of the 13,500 year date. Wonder what happened to all the bifaces that disappeared over the years ??

[rokdok]

I am somewhat playing the devil's advocate here, but here goes.No diagnostic Clovis points were found, so how do we know that some other culture using similar flaking techniques did not make these tools? The radiocarbon date was based on the fact that a FLAKE was found in the same layer as the charcoal, i would like to see an avocational try to convince a professional that this constituted proof of Clovis origins,what about the old bioturbation and rodent burrowing,etc. they use to question dates? "A flake, REALLY?" I can hear them now. At meadowcroft Adovasio performed meticulous excavations for years, with sequential radiocarbon dates which supported his finds of pre-Clovis artifacts, yet every excuse in the book was used by the Clovis-firsters to discredit the age of the site, and yet when the finds in this case were not from a stratified dig,and there is only one radiocarbon date, based not on a diagnostic Clovis artifact, but a flake PRESUMABLY from one, WHEN IT FITS THEIR PARADIGM, it is supposed to be taken as the gospel?And, in typical fashion, the "Johnny come lately" archeologist is the only one pictured in the article , and the amateurs who actually made the find are nowhere to be seen.

[uniface]

That flaking is as diagnostic as handwriting is. Especially in conjunction with their size, shape &c.

[Mojave]

I would say that flaking is diagnostic of American paleo-lithic techniques. It might be Clovis but it might not be. I'm not doubting it is Clovis but I'm with Dok. Blanks just like that were made by other subsequent paleo groups (and possibly prior) in the west.
Once again, the standard deviation is not included in the SINGLE carbon date, which strictly speaking, may not even be associated with the preforms.
But then again I argue too much.

[joshuaream]

Just for discussion purposes.

the first picture are the two pieces posted in the article. The second picture is some solutrean material.






I'm not a subscriber to the Clovis-Solutrean theory, but from the cache these two blades are some of the best visual evidence I've seen.

[uniface]

Originally Posted by Mojave

But then again I argue too much.

Where'd you ever get that idea ?