Volume 28, Number 1 Center for the Study of the First Americans Department of Anthropology January, 2013 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 TheThe Big-GameBig-Game Hunting Conundrum 4 The event of the decade! Hunting Conundrum Take a peek at what’s in store for you at the 2013 Paleoamerican HAT IF EVERYTHING you marks of these societies are the elegant Odyssey Conference in Santa Fe. think you know about Paleoin- stone spear points typically made from the WWdians is wrong? highest-quality flints available within the 9 Laying to rest the 80-year-old University of Michigan archaeologists compass of their seasonal rounds. mystery of a stone artifact John Speth, Khori Newlander, Andrew Speth and colleagues call into question and a mammoth skeleton White, Ashley Lemke, and Lars Anderson virtually every aspect of this traditional The Angus mammoth and its think it’s time to take a step back from the model. According to their reading of the controversial artifact is a scientific conventional view of Paleoindians, built up data, Paleoindian families likely weren’t dispute finally resolved by Steve and Kathleen Holen. They find cu- over the decades since the discovery of the all that mobile and the magnificent spear rated materials rich in discoveries Folsom and Clovis sites, and re- overlooked by archaeologists. examine the basic assumptions it’s based on. In a paper slated 12 Ohio hunters made a meal of to appear in a forthcoming vol- a giant ground sloth—200 ume of the journal Quaternary years before Clovis International, they make a “de- Cutmarks found on supposed liberate attempt to rock the mastodon bones by an alert boat, to question something curator further swell a mass of pre-Clovis evidence. that seems so compelling and well established that there is 17 Feasting on Yesterday’s camel no need to examine it.” at Wally’s Beach The conventional view of We knew that camelids were the Paleoindians in North America preferred prey of South American is one of small bands of highly Paleoamericans. Now that mobile big-game hunters trav- Alberta scientists Kooyman and Hills have found the Clovis-age eling across vast expanses of butchered remains of a camel, tundra, prairie, and forest in they’re on the lookout for other search of mammoths, mast- instances in North America. odons, and bison. The hall- John Speth “rockhounding” at OSENBERG points, such as Clovis and Folsom, ac- R the Ace of Diamonds mine near tually weren’t necessary to bring down Herkimer in upstate New York. KAREN mammoths or bison. Instead of being 2 Volume 28 n Number 1 specialized megafauna-killing weaponry, sumption that Paleo indians acquired this archaeology’s most cherished, yet sel- they are better understood as symbols flint in the course of their normal annual dom seriously questioned, assumptions,” with social, religious, or political signifi- travels and not through trade or special which forms the “bedrock” of the entire cance. This would explain why it was so trips made by small groups tasked with chain of reasoning. Supposedly, Paleoin- important to make them from exotic and the job. It even has been suggested that dians needed flint of the highest quality usually visually attractive types of flint. movements of Paleoindian bands were to make spear points effective enough to tethered to these flint quarries. Why reliably bring down the biggest game. Key elements of the big-game were they so dependent upon these par- hunting model ticular sources of flint? Getting flint Building upon the discoveries of Clovis This brings us to what Speth and his How did Paleoindians get their flint? and Folsom points in direct association coauthors refer to as “one of Paleoindian Does the distance from kills and camp- with the bones of big-game animals, archaeologists have extrapolated from the demonstrable fact that Paleoindians hunted big game in several documented instances to the conclusion that Paleoin- dians were big-game hunting specialists. From this premise, it follows that Paleo- indians, to be successful, needed to be 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 © 2013 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 NA e-mail: [email protected] li James M. Chandler Editor, Mammoth Trumpet A MA A I e-mail: [email protected] MAR Laurie Lind Office Manager Lars Anderson excavating at the Hohle Fels C & C Wordsmiths Layout and Design Upper Paleo lithic site in Germany. Tops Printing, Inc. Printing and mailing Web site: www.topsprinting.com highly mobile over an enormous range World Wide Web site http://centerfirstamericans.com in order to keep up with their preferred The Center for the Study of the First Americans is a non-profit organization. Subscrip- prey. tion to the Mammoth Trumpet is by membership in the Center. Paleoindian spear points were crafted preferentially from the highest-quality Mammoth Trumpet, Statement of Our Policy flint in a region. The distance between Many years may pass between the time an important discovery is made and the acceptance of research camp and kill sites, where spear points 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, made from exotic flint types were found, provides a forum for reporting and discussing new and potentially controversial information important to to the sources of those exotic flint types understanding the peopling of the Americas. We encourage submission of articles to the Managing Editor has been used as a measure of the extent and letters to the Editor. Views published in the Mammoth Trumpet are the views of contributors, and do of Paleoindian residential mobility. not reflect the views of the editor or Center personnel. –Michael R. Waters, Director Underlying this inference is the as- January n 2013 3 sites to the stone quarries tell us anything about the size of Speth and his team argue that, too often, archaeologists Paleoindian territories? only look for practical or utilitarian explanations for the ac- The predominant view of archaeologists is that entire tions of hunters and gatherers. They quote British archaeol- bands, or at least residential groups, of Paleoindians traveled ogist Richard Bradley, who quipped that most archaeologists together to their favorite flint quarries in order to gear-up seem to think that “successful farmers have social relations for the months of following herds of big-game animals. But with one another, while hunter-gatherers have ecological Speth and colleagues ask, Why couldn’t these exotic flints relations with hazelnuts.” have been acquired through trade or through the extraor- In fact, however, the lives of hunting and gathering dinary efforts of individu- peoples are replete with rich symbolism, als or small groups who even if it can be hard to see in the meager traveled to the sources, traces of those lives recovered by archae- gathered the material, and ologists. Speth and his team suggest that brought it back to their s families? Ashley Lemke holding a mammoth vertebra The late Lewis Binford at the Riley mammoth site in Michigan. argued in an influential pa- per published more than O 30 years ago that people T acquired the raw materi- TORON als they needed for mak- F ing tools in the course of O Y it their normal hunting and ERS iv gathering activities. In other words, people nor- UN Y, uff GH U D mally didn’t go too far out O ul ull PA of their way to get flint. C C Instead, they scheduled M T their movements and ac- OBER tivities so they could collect R what they needed along the s Andrew White at the Kosko site (12-Ko-492), way to their next hunting Kosciusko County, Indiana. or gathering destination. s Khori Newlander (and his dog, Oliver) prepar- He wrote that the “procure- ing for a University of Michigan football game. ment of raw materials is embedded in basic subsis- “many of the gorgeous, delicate, difficult- tence schedules.” to-make, and extremely fragile points for Speth and his coauthors which the Paleoindian period is so justly assert that this interest- famous” are not simply utilitarian spear ing idea has become “Pa- points, but are highly charged symbolic leoindian gospel” without icons—particularly when crafted from being thoroughly tested. exotic raw materials. The several depos- They consider numerous its, or caches, of extra-large fluted points ethnographic examples of also indicate that these artifacts served just the opposite and con- Y more than a simply utilitarian function clude that it just isn’t true illipp (M T 17-1, “Lithic Caches: The Puzzling A PH A in all cases.