Evidence of an Early Projectile Point Technology in North America at the Gault Site, Texas, USA

Date

2018-07

Authors

Williams, Thomas J.
Collins, Michael B.
Rodrigues, Kathleen
Rink, William Jack
Velchoff, Nancy
Keen-Zebert, Amanda
Gilmer, Anastasia
Frederick, Charles D.
Ayala, Sergio J.
Prewitt, Elton R.

Journal Title

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Volume Title

Publisher

American Association for the Advancement of Science

Abstract

American archaeology has long been polarized over the issue of a human presence in the Western Hemisphere earlier than Clovis. As evidence of early sites across North and South America continues to emerge, stone tool assemblages appear more geographically and temporally diverse than traditionally assumed. Within this new framework, the prevailing models of Clovis origins and the peopling of the Americas are being reevaluated. This paper presents age estimates from a series of alluvial sedimentary samples from the earliest cultural assemblage at the Gault Site, Central Texas. The optically stimulated luminescence age estimates (~16 to 20 thousand years ago) indicate an early human occupation in North America before at least ~16 thousand years ago. Significantly, this assemblage exhibits a previously unknown, early projectile point technology unrelated to Clovis. Within a wider context, this evidence suggests that Clovis technology spread across an already regionalized, indigenous population.

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Keywords

Gault Site, Clovis technology, early projectile point technology, Alluvial sedimentary samples, human habitation, archaeology, Anthropology

Citation

Williams, T. J., Collins, M. B., Rodrigues, K., Rink, W. J., Velchoff, N., Keen-Zebert, A., Gilmer, A., Frederick, C. D., Ayala, S. J., & Prewitt, E. R. (2018). Evidence of an early projectile point technology in North America at the Gault Site, Texas, USA. Science Advances, 4(7).

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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

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