Volume 27, Number 4 Center for the Study of the First Americans Department of Anthropology October, 2012 Texas A&M University, 4352 TAMU, College Station, TX 77843-4352 ISSN 8755-6898 World Wide Web site http://centerfirstamericans.org and http://anthropology.tamu.edu The Clovis/Folsom Transition: New Evidence from Jake Bluff 5 The archetypal site that defines LTHOUGH WE’VE BEEN STUDYING A momentous discovery the lingering traces of the First Jake Bluff is that rarity of rarities, an the Folsom culture Americans for nearly a century intact Paleoamerican site with both Clo- The Lindenmeier site in Colorado A has kept scientists busy since the now, we still don’t entirely understand vis and Folsom components (MT 21-2, 1930s. Today archaeologist Jason their lifeways, who they were, or how their “Probing the Past: Leland Bement and LaBelle and his students have cultures evolved over time. Oh, it’s easy to the Paleoindians of Oklahoma”). Pains- enlarged the sphere of their study look at the mass of data and of Folsom land use to 619 sites in make certain assumptions, 5 states. based on the preponderance 10 Which is to blame for the of evidence. But no matter extinction of megamammals, how logical these conjectures climate change or man the may seem, we can’t stamp them with the imprimatur of hunter? Danish scientists Eske Willerslev Truth until we’ve connected and Aline Lorenzen conclude that all the dots and polished away the responsible agent varies with the rough edges through de- the species and the continent. bate and testing — insofar as For Arctic studies they tout the any scientist will allow that benefits of sedimentary DNA— Truth with a capital T is even sedaDNA—for dating the pres- possible. ence of long-vanished species. Refining the data to this 17 A mastodon with a projectile level of confidence can be point embedded in a rib—at extraordinarily difficult. But least 800 years before Clovis! thanks to almost two decades The Manis mastodon: Is the of work at Jake Bluff (34HP60), bone fragment a freak natural NDC. BEMENT a bison kill site located on the A occurrence, as skeptics claim? EL Beaver River in northwest- L Discoverer Carl Gustafson and ern Oklahoma, several of our CSFA Director Mike Waters find it most cherished assumptions unshakable evidence of pre-Clovis NDPHOTOS: hunters in the Pacific Northwest. about the First Americans may A be on the verge of becoming TIONS A Truth — while another may be The West Arroyo processing taking excavations and paleoenvi- on its way to the scrap heap, pile, exposed in 2001. ronmental reconstructions by the once and for all. ALLILLUSTR research teams of Leland C. Bement 2 Volume 27 n Number 4 of the Oklahoma Archaeological Sur- Systematic investigations began the work of volunteers made these inves- vey and Brian J. Carter of Oklahoma in 2001 and continued through 2007, tigations important as teaching as well as State University have demonstrated that supported by grants from the National learning endeavors.” the two cultural horizons at Jake Bluff Geographic Society, the University of The excavations revealed a locale are distinct, diagnostic, and well pre- Oklahoma, the Oklahoma Department where hunters herded bison into a nar- served — and that the Clovis occupants of Wildlife Conservation, and private do- row arroyo, killed them, and butchered definitely killed and slaughtered a bison nations, particularly from Courson Oil them in place. The paleo-arroyo is V- herd there, using a method eerily similar and Gas. In addition, notes Dr. Bement, shaped in cross section and at least 20 m to that used by later Folsom hunters. “Several OU field schools, Oklahoma long. It was eroded by natural processes The researchers initially discovered Anthropological Society Spring Digs, and about 1½ m below the sandstone bedrock Jake Bluff while working at an extraordi- nary locality close by: Cooper (34HP45), the site of three distinct Folsom bison kills. During the second field season at Cooper in 1994, Bement directed a pe- destrian survey of the nearby floodplain margin. Just 400 m west of Cooper, the crew found ancient bison bone eroding out of a bluff on the toe-slope of a low hill. The locality was small but intrigu- The Mammoth Trumpet (ISSN 8755-6898) is published quarterly by the Center for the Study of the First Americans, Department of Anthropology, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX 77843-4352. Phone (979) 845-4046; fax (979) 845-4070; e-mail [email protected]. Periodical postage paid at College Station, TX 77843-4352 and at ad- ditional mailing offices. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to: Mammoth Trumpet Department of Anthropology, Texas A&M University 4352 TAMU College Station, TX 77843-4352 Copyright © 2012 Center for the Study of the First Americans. Permission is hereby given to any non-profit or educational organization or institution toreproduce without cost any materials from the Mammoth Trumpet so long as they are then distributed at no more than actual cost. The Center further requests that notification of reproduction of materials under these conditions be sent to the Center. Address correspondence to the editor of Mammoth Trumpet, 2122 Scout Road, Lenoir, NC 28645. Michael R. Waters Director and General Editor e-mail: [email protected] Ted Goebel Associate Director and Editor, Current Research in the Pleistocene e-mail: [email protected] James M. Chandler Editor, Mammoth Trumpet Carter recording the stratigraphy at Jake e-mail: [email protected] Bluff, 2004. Laurie Lind Office Manager C & C Wordsmiths Layout and Design ing, so they kept an eye on it. Four years Tops Printing, Inc. Printing and mailing later, they excavated a 1.5-by-0.5-m unit Web site: www.topsprinting.com there and found more bones lying on a World Wide Web site http://centerfirstamericans.com bedrock bench, embedded in a loamy red The Center for the Study of the First Americans is a non-profit organization. Subscrip- matrix similar to the bone-bearing stra- tion to the Mammoth Trumpet is by membership in the Center. tum at Cooper. Associated with the bone was a single chert flake. Coring nearby Mammoth Trumpet, Statement of Our Policy revealed a stratigraphic profile at least Many years may pass between the time an important discovery is made and the acceptance of research 3 m deep, yielding more bone in the pro- results by the scientific community. To facilitate communication among all parties interested in staying abreast of breaking news in First Americans studies, the Mammoth Trumpet, a science news magazine, cess, so they officially recorded the site provides a forum for reporting and discussing new and potentially controversial information important to and monitored it thereafter. Eventually, understanding the peopling of the Americas. We encourage submission of articles to the Managing Editor two more flakes and a flake knife came and letters to the Editor. Views published in the Mammoth Trumpet are the views of contributors, and do to light, confirming human association not reflect the views of the editor or Center personnel. –Michael R. Waters, Director with the bison remains. October n 2012 3 at its deepest point, and measured no more than 2 m wide at can sites in general. At the very least, as Dr. Carter puts it, “If the base — snug, easy to cordon off, and just deep enough that you find a bison kill site, you can no longer assume a purely a large animal couldn’t easily climb out, Folsom occupation.” making it an ideal natural trap. At least 22 And then there’s the Folsom com- bison, ranging in age from a few months ponent. A distinct stratum above to about 10 years old, were slaughtered the Clovis deposit yielded a Folsom there. Bone and tooth analyses reveal that point, a flake, a hammerstone spall, they comprised a small cow/calf herd in and a number of caliche pebbles, all the company of a few juveniles, and that mixed with what Carter calls a “de- they were killed in the late summer or bris lag” of bison bone fragments. early fall — just like the Cooper bison. There’s no Folsom bone bed as such, nor any discernible features. Unexpected surprises Because of the dearth of artifacts At first, Jake Bluff seemed to be very and poorer preservation than the much like Cooper, and the investiga- Clovis occupation enjoyed, the na- tors proceeded on the ture of the Folsom occupation at assumption that it too Enid Jake Bluff isn’t well understood, though it may represent was a Folsom site. But % a processing area associated with a nearby kill — perhaps they soon noted some distinct dif- one of Cooper’s. Oklahoma ferences. “The Jake Bluff carcasses City were dismantled,” Bement explains, The implications “rather than filleted, as was the case It’s amazing what you can conclude from a few bones and in the three kills at Cooper. The pro- broken rocks, assuming they’re well documented and cessing pile consisted primarily of legs intensely studied. For example, most of the Clovis assem- that had been severed from the carcasses in the blage at Jake Bluff was made of Alibates dolomite, which arroyo . [then] handed to someone on the west gully edge for comes from a quarry 200 km away in Texas. This suggests two further meat stripping.” The hunters did process some of the things. First, that the people who hunted here were culturally meat in the arroyo bottom, and to a lesser extent on the eastern aligned with Clovis people elsewhere in the Texas panhandle, bench of the gully. Interestingly, the bone bed also contained the Oklahoma panhandle, and southwestern Kansas who used bear remains, specifically, a rib and scapula from a black bear, the same lithic material.