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Text Topper is an archaeological site located along the Savannah River in Allendale County, South Carolina in the United States. It is noted as the location of controversial artifacts believed by some archaeologists to indicate human habitation of the New World earlier than the Clovis culture, previously believed to be the first people in North America. Artifacts at this site may predate Clovis by 3,000 years or more. The primary excavation has gone down to the 50,000 B.C. level, searching for any other archaeological evidence. Until increasing challenges in the first decade of the 21st century to the Clovis theory based on this site and others, it was unusual for archaeologists to dig deeper than the layer of the Clovis culture, as they then believed that no human artifacts would be found older than Clovis.
Among the objects from the "pre-Clovis" stratum dated to 16,000-20,000 years BP, this "Topper Chopper" offers some of the most compelling evidence for human agency. Aside from the bifacial flaking of the edge, this simple implement, although badly weathered, still clearly displays the classic zoomorphic features repeatedly appearing in the material first recognized in 1987 at 33GU218 in Ohio and, not surprisingly, many other locations that have since come to light. The object possesses a typical overall abstract bird form and two very characteristic features consistently deeply carved into such figures: a mouth cut in the form of a bird facing inward, and a diamond-shaped eye. It is also significant that the figure incorporates "reflectional symmetry", a hallmark of human agency, in that the image is repeated (although not as distinctly in this case) on the opposite side of the rock. And its flat base allows the figure to stand upright. The general form of this stone is a very common one both in North American artifact material and in European artifacts dating from the Paleolithic. [1]
Meadowcroft Rockshelter is an archaeological site located near Avella in Jefferson Township, Washington County, in southwestern Pennsylvania, United States. The site, a rock shelter in a bluff overlooking Cross Creek (a tributary of the Ohio River), is located 27 miles west-southwest of Pittsburgh [3] in the Pittsburgh metropolitan area. The site, including a museum and recreation of an 18th-century village, is operated by the Heinz History Center. The artifacts from the site show the area has been continually inhabited for 16,000 years, since Paleo-Indian times. The Rockshelter was named a National Historic Landmark in 2005. It is also recognized as a Pennsylvania Commonwealth Treasure and is an official project of Save America's Treasures.
A field school from the University of Oregon has been examining the site since 2002 and analyzing its pre-Clovis artifacts. [1] In the summer of 2007, they identified the oldest human DNA yet discovered in the American continents. This assertion is based on several samples of coprolite (fossilized excrement) found in the Paisley Caves complex, between Lakeview and Bend, Oregon, on the eastern side of the Cascade mountain range. [2][3][4] Since then, other authors have questioned the authenticity of these findings by arguing about the relevance of the evidence gathered from ancient DNA and stratigraphy on the one hand, [5] and from the morphological assignment of the coprolites to humans on the other. [6]
The fossils were found in Paisley Five Mile Point Cave at the same level as a small rock-lined hearth some 7 feet (2 m) below the modern surface. At that level was also discovered a large number of bones from waterfowl, fish, and large mammals including extinct camel and horse. Radiocarbon dating places these coprolites between 12,750 and 14,290 calendar years before the present, probably representing a pre-Clovis occupation. DNA analysis provides apparent genetic ties to Siberia or Asia. [7]
Evidence at other archaeological sites — as well as 1930s work at Paisley Caves — had also been thought to provide such evidence, but questionable excavation techniques clouded the issue. Knowing this, the U of O team worked carefully to avoid the mistakes of the past. [1] The theory that pre-Clovis immigrants traveled to North America down the Pacific Coast suggests that the travelers would have passed through the hinterlands of what is Oregon today. The Paisley Caves, up-river from the Pacific Ocean along the Klamath River, are therefore an ideal spot to search for the evidence of such people. The fossils provide evidence of the groups possibly having lived there. DNA from coyote, fox, and dog (or wolf) were also found. [8]
Hunting tools were later found in the caves. [9][10][11]
The caves are in the Summer Lake basin at 4,520 feet (1,380 m) elevation and face to the west in a ridge of Miocene and Pliocene era basalts mixed with soft volcanic tuffs and breccias from which the caves were carved by Pleistocene era waves from Summer Lake. The caves are located north of the city of Paisley, Oregon. [8][12]
The Paisley Caves in Oregon record the oldest directly dated human remains (DNA) in the Western Hemisphere. More than 100 high-precision radiocarbon dates show that deposits containing artifacts and coprolites ranging in age from 12,450 to 2295 14 C years ago are well stratified. Western Stemmed projectile points were recovered in deposits dated to 11,070 to 11,340 14 C years ago, a time contemporaneous with or preceding the Clovis technology. There is no evidence of diagnostic Clovis technology at the site. These two distinct technologies were parallel developments, not the product of a unilinear technological evolution. “Blind testing” analysis of coprolites by an independent laboratory confirms the presence of human DNA in specimens of pre-Clovis age. The colonization of the Americas involved multiple technologically divergent, and possibly genetically divergent, founding groups.
Smithsonian Institution scholars describes the discovery of scores of stemmed projectile points and crescents dating to that time period. The artifacts are associated with the remains of shellfish, seals, geese, cormorants and fish. Funded primarily by grants from the National Science Foundation, the team also found thousands of artifacts made from chert, a flint-like rock used to make projectile points and other stone tools. Some of the intact projectiles are so delicate that their only practical use would have been for hunting on the water, said Jon Erlandson, professor of anthropology and director of the Museum of Natural and Cultural History at the University of Oregon. He has been conducting research on the islands for more than 30 years. "This is among the earliest evidence of seafaring and maritime adaptations in the Americas, and another extension of the diversity of Paleoindian economies," Erlandson said. "The points we are finding are extraordinary, the workmanship amazing. They are ultra thin, serrated and have incredible barbs on them. It's a very sophisticated chipped-stone technology."
The technologies involved suggest that these early islanders were not members of the land-based Clovis culture, Erlandson said. No fluted points have been found on the islands. Instead, the points and crescents are similar to artifacts found in the Great Basin and Columbia Plateau areas, including pre-Clovis levels at Paisley Caves in eastern Oregon that are being studied by another UO archaeologist, Dennis Jenkins. Last year, Charlotte Beck and Tom Jones, archaeologists at New York's Hamilton College who study sites in the Great Basin, argued that stemmed and Clovis point technologies were separate, with the stemmed points originating from Pacific Coast populations and not, as conventional wisdom holds, from the Clovis people who moved westward from the Great Plains. Erlandson and colleagues noted that the Channel Island points are also broadly similar to stemmed points found early sites around the Pacific Rim, from Japan to South America.
The technologies involved suggest that these early islanders were not members of the land-based Clovis culture, Erlandson said. No fluted points have been found on the islands. Instead, the points and crescents are similar to artifacts found in the Great Basin and Columbia Plateau areas, including pre-Clovis levels at Paisley Caves in eastern Oregon that are being studied by another UO archaeologist, Dennis Jenkins. Last year, Charlotte Beck and Tom Jones, archaeologists at New York's Hamilton College who study sites in the Great Basin, argued that stemmed and Clovis point technologies were separate, with the stemmed points originating from Pacific Coast populations and not, as conventional wisdom holds, from the Clovis people who moved westward from the Great Plains. Erlandson and colleagues noted that the Channel Island points are also broadly similar to stemmed points found early sites around the Pacific Rim, from Japan to South America.
At each site he found the same microscopic spherules, which are the diameter of a human hair and distinct in appearance. He describes their look as tiny black ball bearings with a marred surface pattern that resulted from being crystalized in a molten state and then rapidly cooled. His investigation also confirmed that the spherules were not of cosmic origin but were formed from earth materials due to an extreme impact. LeCompte said it was Topper and Goodyear's collaboration, however, that yielded the most exciting results. "What we had at Topper and nowhere else were pieces of manufacturing debris from stone tool making by the Clovis people. Topper was an active and ancient quarry at the time," LeCompte said. "Al Goodyear was instrumental in our approach to getting samples at Topper." Goodyear showed LeCompte where the Clovis level was in order to accurately guide his sampling of sediments for the Younger Dryas Boundary layer. He advised him to sample around Clovis artifacts and then to carefully lift them to test the sediment directly underneath. "If debris was raining down from the atmosphere, the artifacts should have acted as a shield preventing spherules from accumulating in the layer underneath. It turns out it really worked!" Goodyear said. "There were up to 30 times more spherules at and just above the Clovis surface than beneath the artifact
The Farpoint Site (State of California formal designation: CA-LAN-451), is a recent and major archaeological discovery in California. The exciting discovery at the site was a Clovis projectile point (spearhead). The point was miraculously saved by Mr. Edgar Perez, Native American Cultural Resources Specialist, while he was monitoring a backhoe excavating a trench for a new mansion development on Point Dume. We knew we had a major find but we didn't know how major until we closely examined the specimen in our laboratory. It was noticed that the stone point did not fit the local archaeological record. Instead its precise overall shape, its slightly concave base and the fact that it had "fluted flakes" detached from its base, were all attributes indicating that the point belonged to the Clovis Culture. The Clovis Culture is the oldest identifiable culture in the New World. The name derives from the town of Clovis, New Mexico where the first Clovis site was found. Not being Clovis experts ourselves, we had the point examined by the foremost Clovis expert scholars around the country (including Prof. Vance Haynes, Univ. of Arizona; Professor Bruce Huckell, Director of the Maxwell Museum of Anthropology at the Univ. of New Mexico, and Prof. Don Johnson, Univ. of Illinois). Also Dr. Dennis Stanford, Chief Archaeologist at the Smithsonian, not only confirmed the find as Clovis, but states the unique status of the Farpoint Site in the Americas (see his quotes below). The Clovis Culture dates from about 11,500 Before Present to possibly as late as 11,000 years ago. It is also the widest spread of any ancient culture in the New World, ranging from Canada to Venezuela and from the U.S. eastern seaboard to the west, with the Farpoint site being the first discovery of a Clovis Site with a subsurface imbedded point at "continent's end," on the dramatic Point Dume along the Malibu coast. The world of the time Clovis was the late Ice Age (Pleistocene Epoch), one with many glaciers, frigid landscapes and ice-cold rivers and waterways. Ancient Clovis People used their distinctive Clovis Points to hunt the "megafauna" (or big game) of the Late Pleistocene, game such as the large mammoths, mastodons and extinct bison
There are two theories for the origins of the Clovis Culture. The traditional theory is that Clovis represents ancient Native Americans who immigrated across the Bering Land Bridge, between Siberia and Alaska and from there they made their way ever south until both North and South America were inhabited. However, according to Dr. Dennis Stanford, there are no antecedents for the Clovis spearheads in Asia whereas there are in ancient Europe. Therefore he believes Clovis people originated from the Solutrean Culture of what is now Spain and France, and coursing their way on boats along the coastlines of northwest Europe and then westward around Iceland, Greenland, to Nova Scotia, then southward along the Atlantic seaboard until they reached what is now the SE United States. From there Clovis proliferated and expanded westward, inhabiting virtually every State, until the Farpoint Site was reached at Continent's end. Dr. Stanford told me, however, that if we obtained a radiocarbon date earlier than the Clovis sites in the eastern U.S., he might have to revise his theory. That's how important the Farpoint Site is. Also if we were to find even one human tooth of the Clovis from Farpoint, we could do mitochondrial DNA analysis of it and see if there is a genetic match indicating which theory would appear to be correct. I also want to mention that we have already obtained (in 2000) a radiocarbon date of 9,000 years ago, which made Farpoint the oldest site in the City of Malibu at that time. Dr. Stanford believes Farpoint will date to 11,000 years ago or to the time of terminal Clovis.