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On the Nature and Antiquity of the Manix Lake Industry UC Merced Journal of California and Great Basin Anthropology Title On the Nature and Antiquity of the Manix Lake Industry Permalink https://escholarship.org/uc/item/87v6x9ph Journal Journal of California and Great Basin Anthropology, 10(2) ISSN 0191-3557 Authors Bamforth, Douglas B Dorn, Ronald I Publication Date 1988-07-01 Peer reviewed eScholarship.org Powered by the California Digital Library University of California Journal of California and Great Basin Anthropology Vol. 10, No. 2, pp. 209-226 (1988). On the Nature and Antiquity of the Manix Lake Industry DOUGLAS B. BAMFORTH, Dept. of Anthropology, Univ. of Nebraska, Lincoln, NE 68588-0368. RONALD I. DORN, Dept. of Geography, Arizona State Univ., Tempe, AZ 85287. X HE antiquity of human occupation in the THE MANIX LAKE INDUSTRY New World undoubtedly is one of the major Prehistoric Manix Lake existed in what is unresolved culture-historical problems in now the valley of the Mojave River east of North American prehistory. On the one Barstow, California (Fig. 1). Although this hand, a dominant position with a long his­ region is now extremely arid, geomorphic tory in American archaeology (cf. Wilmsen and stratigraphic evidence clearly shows that 1965) holds that human beings arrived in the the river fed a large, permanent lake in the New World at the close of the Pleistocene, Manix Basin for much of the late Pleistocene no longer than 12,000 years ago, and that (Jefferson 1985). The lake attained a maxi­ Clovis sites represent the oldest occupation mum level of approximately 1,780 ft. (543 in the Americas (Haynes 1970; Martin 1973; m.), and drained before ca. 17,000 B.P. (Dorn Waters 1985). On the other hand, a less et al. 1986; Meek 1988). During extensive widely accepted school of thought sees a surface surveys around the ancient shorelines variety of evidence for human occupation in of this basin, particularly the 1,780-foot the Americas well back into the Pleistocene, shoreline, Simpson (1958, 1960, 1964) found a with dates ranging from 19,000 B.P. at Mea- variety of artifacts which she grouped to­ dowcroft Rockshelter, Pennsylvania (Stucken- gether as the Manix Lake Industry. She rath et al 1984), to 32,000 B.P. at Boquiero assigned these artifacts a late Pleistocene do Sitio da Pedra in Brazil (Guidon and age coincident with the maximum lake stand, Delibrias 1986), and to at least 220,000 B.P. thought at the time of her research to date at Calico Hills in the California desert between 12,000 and 25,000 B.P. (Bischoffetal. 1981). The Manix Lake Industry is characterized Unfortunately, much of the debate by large, roughly worked bifaces, as well as between these two positions is characterized by a few simple types of unifacially re­ by preliminary research reports, hasty touched flakes, hammerstones, "Clactonian" examinations of sites, a near absence of flakes, and discs. Specimens identified as published data, and unsystematic and incom­ Manix Lake implements principally are found plete analyses. This is particularly true in the eastern Calico Mountains adjacent to when the debate is over claims for early the Coyote Lake embayment of the Manix occupation in southern California, a region Basin, on desert pavement surfaces composed that has produced more purportedly early of volcanics and raw nodules of chert, chal­ material than any other part of North cedony, and jasper. Although Simpson noted America (cf. Moratto 1984). The purpose of that debris from lithic procurement and ini­ this paper is to present recent data bearing tial tool production occurred on these sites, on one of these claims, the Manix Lake she explicitly argued that this debris is Industry (Simpson 1958, 1960, 1964). distinct from the material she identified as [209] 210 JOURNAL OF CALIFORNIA AND GREAT BASIN ANTHROPOLOGY >> X! e UIM. uss O J o 1—.. M -.-> x: .^ T) D-, QB tn O M &£ tn OJ uD .^ (0 ^H OQ ^^ o MANIX LAKE INDUSTRY 211 part of the Manix Lake Industry. lected only the most finished artifacts, Simpson's discussion of the Manix Lake creating a biased view of the material on Industry can be divided into two hypotheti­ the sites surveyed; (3) artifacts typologically cal arguments. The first is the argument identical to those found as isolates and that Manix Lake implements represent the designated ancient are commonly associated level of technology extant in North America directly with their primary reduction debris; during the period when they were made, that (4) embeddedness in a desert pavement is no is, that these implements were deposited guarantee of great antiquity; and (5) the around Manix Lake as finished pieces. The Manix Lake artifacts are not associated with second is the argument that these imple­ the high stand of the lake but with the ments represent a late Pleistocene occupa­ desert pavements containing the stone from tion. which they were made. The first position is supported principally Glennan supported these arguments by an by the following: (1) the occurrence of the analysis of new collections from the eastern artifacts as isolates rather than in direct edge of the Calico Mountains. Simpson association with the abundant manufacturing (1976) found the argument unconvincing. debris found elsewhere on the sites with them; (2) the degree of refinement of the DATING MANIX LAKE IMPLEMENTS artifacts identified as Manix Lake imple­ One of the major problems with assigning ments; and (3) the existence of edge damage a Pleistocene age to the Manix Lake Indus­ interpreted as evidence of use on some of try is the complete absence of direct chro­ the artifacts. nological information on Manix Lake imple­ The second position is supported by the ments. As the preceding section discusses, following: (1) the fact that the implements analyses to date have relied entirely on are embedded in desert pavements; (2) the inferential links between surface artifacts typological crudeness of the implements and whose age is unknown and geomorphic fea­ their formal similarity to Old World artifacts tures whose age is known. Recent work known to be of Pleistocene age; (3) the lack using cation-ratio dating, however, provides of projectile points on the sites that produce direct chronometric data on Manix Lake im­ Manix Lake implements; and (4) the apparent plements. Although a full report on this association of Manix Lake implements with work is forthcoming (Whitley and Dorn, the high stand of the lake, which is known unpublished data), its chronological results to date from the late Pleistocene. are directly relevant here. Like other purported pre-Clovis occupa­ Cation-ratio dating is a new method of tions in the New World, the Manix Lake dating surface artifacts recovered from arid Industry has not been accepted by most regions (Dorn 1983; Dorn and Whitley 1984; archaeologists. Glennan (1976; also see Dorn et al. 1986; Harrington and Whitney Wallace 1962) provided the most explicit 1987). This method is based on changes objections to both the dating and the inter­ over time in the chemical constituents of pretation of the Manix Lake material, rock varnish, an accretion on rock surfaces arguing that (1) the Manix Lake assemblages that is composed of clay minerals, oxides of are typologically crude because they are manganese and iron, and minor and trace el­ quarry and workshop debris rather than ements including organic carbon. The minor formed artifacts; (2) the collecting proce­ elements that accumulate in this varnish dures used in the Manix Lake surveys se­ have different susceptibilities to leaching by 212 JOURNAL OF CALIFORNIA AND GREAT BASIN ANTHROPOLOGY meteoric water. Over time, moisture leaches the Mojave Desert (Dorn and Whitley 1984). away certain of these elements (cations) at a Six radiocarbon analyses were obtained on faster rate than others. the organic components of varnish after the Thus, there is a progressive change in curve was constructed, and the additional the ratio of the more mobile cations (e.g., ^^C/cation-ratio calibration points corrobor­ potassium [K] and calcium [Ca]) to more ated the initial results. stable cations (e.g., titanium [Ti]) over time. The curve used to derive the dates em­ By itself, a cation ratio (such as [K+Ca]/ ployed in later sections of this paper differs Ti) provides relative dates for varnished sur­ sli^tly from the one depicted in Figure 2, faces: higher ratios indicate younger ages. and these dates therefore vary slightly from However, the ratios can also be calibrated those reported elsewhere (Bamforth et al. by an absolute chronology. By measuring 1986; Dorn et al. 1986). This is because the cation ratio in varnish on geomorphic recent tests at the University of Arizona surfaces of known age, the age of the sur­ tandem accelerator (Ronald Dotn, unpub­ faces and the cation ratios can then be lished data on file at Arizona State Univer­ plotted against one another to construct a sity; Dorn et al. 1987) indicate that ^^C least-squares regression, called a cation- dates derived from desert varnish average leaching curve, which describes the rate at approximately 10% younger than the age of which unstable cations are leached over the underlying varnish surface. This time. The age of varnish whose antiquity is discrepancy apparently results from (1) a unknown can then be determined by plotting slight delay between the exposure of a its cation ratio on this curve, thereby pro­ surface to the varnishing process and the viding a minimum age for the underlying onset of that process; and (2) the fact that surface. Changes in cation ratios can also even using only organic material from the be calibrated by extracting the organic con­ lowest levels of the varnish for Tandem tent of the lowest (i.e., oldest) levels of the Accelerator Mass Spectrometry (TAMS) varnish on a surface and obtaining both a analysis includes material deposited over a radiocarbon date on this material and a period of time after the varnish began to cation-ratio reading.
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