COASTAL HERITAGE VOLUME 19, NUMBER 4 SPRING 2005 Ancient Tools? Searching for the First Americans SPRING 2005 • 1 CONTENTS 3 ANCIENT TOOLS? SEARCHING FOR THE FIRST AMERICANS Small stone pieces excavated at the Topper site in Allendale County could be central to the story of Homo sapiens. Coastal Heritage is a quarterly publication 11 of the S.C. Sea Grant Consortium, a university- CHAIN REACTION based network supporting research, education, The Earth’s climate is naturally volatile. Now humans are and outreach to conserve coastal resources and enhance economic opportunity for the people tampering with its intricate mechanisms. of South Carolina. Comments regarding this or future issues of Coastal Heritage are welcomed. 13 Subscriptions are free upon request COASTS INSPIRE MODERN HUMANITY by contacting: Modern human behavior could have been stimulated by climate change, S.C. Sea Grant Consortium burgeoning human population, and competition for rich resources of the coast. 287 Meeting Street Charleston, S.C. 29401 phone: (843) 727-2078 14 e-mail: [email protected] EBBS AND FLOWS Executive Director M. Richard DeVoe ON THE COVER: Some archaeologists argue that these stone fragments excavated at the Director of Communications Topper site in South Carolina are ancient tools crafted by humans Linda Blackwell 16,000 to 20,000 years ago. If these experts are correct, it would push back the date Editor of the first Americans’ arrival in the New World. INSET PHOTO/WADE SPEES John H. Tibbetts BACKGROUND PHOTO/COURTESY OF SOUTH16 CAROLINA INSTITUTE OF ARCHAEOLOGY Art Director AND ANTHROPOLOGY Patty Snow Contributing Writer Susan Ferris � Board of Directors The Consortium’s Board of Directors is composed of the chief executive officers of its member institutions: Dr. Andrew A. Sorensen, Chair President, University of South Carolina James F. Barker POWER TOOL. President, Clemson University Clovis tools have been found John E. Frampton Executive Director in every state in the nation. S.C. Department of Natural Resources For decades, archaeologists Dr. Raymond S. Greenberg thought that the Clovis President, Medical University of South Carolina people were the first Major General John S. Grinalds migrants to the Americas. President, The Citadel Now most experts believe Leo I. Higdon, Jr. that people arrived in the President, College of Charleston Americas before Clovis. Dr. Andrew H. Hugine, Jr. PHOTO/COURTESY OF SOUTH CAROLINA INSTITUTE OF President, S.C. State University ARCHAEOLOGY AND ANTHROPOLOGY Dr. Ronald R. Ingle COPYRIGHT © 2005 by the South Carolina Sea Grant Consortium. All rights reserved. President, Coastal Carolina University 2 • COASTAL HERITAGE TOOL KIT. Albert Goodyear, a University of South Carolina archaeologist, holds a piece of chert, a type of rock broken open by prehistoric Americans. This chert, used to make tools, was found at the Topper site near the Savannah River. PHOTO/WADE SPEES Ancient Tools? Searching for the First Americans By John H. Tibbetts ome ancient Americans migrated to coastal South Early hunter-gatherers who used Topper were Carolina for the same reasons that many likely coast-dwellers, says Goodyear. Ancient people S northerners still relocate here today. They preferred may have lived in settlements along the South living near water and the seashore in a warm climate. Carolina shoreline most of the year, harvesting That’s an educated guess by Albert Goodyear, a shellfish and fishing and perhaps hunting marine University of South Carolina archaeologist who has drawn mammals. international headlines for excavating and interpreting In the spring, they likely traveled inland along artifacts at an archaeological site named Topper located the Savannah River, a major artery linking the along the Savannah River in Allendale County. In May Atlantic Ocean to the interior. They might have 2005, the USC archaeology team will continue excavating netted migratory fish swimming upstream to spawn. at Topper, named for a local man who first showed On a river bluff at the Topper site in Allendale Goodyear the site. County, early Americans broke open cream-colored Goodyear’s findings at Topper have placed South rock called chert. Chert is a glassy, flint-like stone Carolina in the middle of a fierce debate about the origins used to carve tools from antler, wood, and bone. of the first Americans. Now South Carolina could become The Topper site was one of the best sources of central to the changing story of Homo sapiens. chert in the region. People from across eastern North Thousands of years ago, when the area now known as America probably came to the Topper chert quarry to South Carolina was colder and dryer than today but more make tools. pleasant than farther north, ancient Americans migrated Scientists agree that early Americans used Topper to Topper, Goodyear says. “Topper may have drawn people as an important tool-making site at least 13,000 years from all over the hemisphere simply because they were ago. But, in November 2004, Goodyear, an expert on looking to relocate in warmer climes.” ancient tool-making, announced that testing appar- SPRING 2005 • 3 ently showed that people were visiting every county in South Carolina. Topper at least 50,000 years ago. For decades, virtually every Goodyear’s team had found knowledgeable scientist accepted the prehistoric burnt plant material from a Clovis-first theory—that Clovis charcoal fire buried deep under layers people were the first Americans. of sediment. The burnt material was year date at Topper shoots off the Goodyear himself believed it until the sent to a laboratory in California, charts to most experts, Goodyear late 1990s. Only apparent fools where its age was determined by state- acknowledges. thought otherwise. “If you were an of-the-art radiocarbon techniques. “Until we dig (more artifacts) archaeologist who claimed to find a Small stone tools and flakes— and publish (results), I doubt you’ll pre-Clovis site,” says Goodyear, “it was tool-making byproducts—were found get many people to comment tantamount to saying you just saw in the same geological level as the positively on that,” says Goodyear. Elvis leave Burger King.” burnt material. Scientists cannot “I’m sitting out there on a limb, and But this theory is wrong and date chert; instead, they rely on we have a lot of work to do.” should be abandoned, says Michael B. testing adjacent organic material or Nevertheless, Goodyear’s team Collins, an archaeologist at the sediments. at Topper has also unearthed University of Texas. “We’ve demon- Goodyear’s 50,000-year announce- numerous small tools in sediment strated fatal flaws in Clovis-first. ment startled his colleagues because it dated by optically stimulated We’ve got to come up with a replace- does not jibe with current scientific luminescence at an age of 16,000 to ment theory.” understanding of when the earliest 20,000 years old. In recent years, archaeologists Americans arrived on this continent. Although also controversial, have excavated human artifacts that Today’s archaeological evidence these ancient tools could fit neatly are older than Clovis, or are the same strongly indicates an arrival after about into a new model of the first age but reflect a different way of life. 18,000 years ago, at the earliest. Even Americans’ migration to this Various sites, in both North and South so, the first Americans’ arrival date is a continent. If eventually accepted by America, prove that Clovis were not moving target. Just a decade ago, the research community, the tools the first Americans. scientists argued adamantly that would help further undermine a Now Goodyear says he also has Americans did not migrate to the scientific consensus that lasted for strong evidence proving that people Western Hemisphere until 13,500 generations. were visiting at Topper 16,000 to years ago. From the 1930s to the late 20,000 years ago, working with small American archaeology is changing 1990s, archaeologists believed that chert tools such as chisels and quickly because researchers are finding the first Americans were big-game scrapers. Microscopic evidence, he new evidence of earlier explorers of the hunters who arrived in the New argues, shows signs of purposeful New World. Nevertheless, a 50,000- World from the Bering land bridge scratching and polishing—indications that connected Siberia and Alaska that the artifacts were manmade. about 13,500 years ago. Ancient A skeptical colleague, however, TOPPER MAP. hunters followed mammoths and says that Goodyear has jumped to Excavations at the Topper site have other big game into Canada south conclusions. Stone pieces older than placed South Carolina in the middle of a along the eastern slope of the about 13,500 years old at Topper are fierce debate about the origins of the first Rocky Mountains and then quickly not tools, says Collins. Instead, natural Americans. spread across the Great Plains, processes fractured them. “Many of us according to traditional archaeo- have looked at these ‘tools,’ and logical theory. everything I’ve seen is absolutely a Archaeologists called them natural fracture.” Clovis people for their beautiful, Most archaeological sites in sophisticated, and distinctively North America claiming pre-Clovis sculpted spear points first discov- tools have failed to gain scientific ered near Clovis, New Mexico, in acceptance. Researchers decided that 1932. Numerous spear points were freezing and thawing, fires, or other located near mammoth bones, natural events fractured stone pieces suggesting that the weapons were that only looked to some like tools. used to kill the animal. Clovis Nevertheless, two pre-Clovis points have since been found in sites in North America—one in every state in the lower 48 and Pennsylvania called Meadowcroft 4 • COASTAL HERITAGE HAND MADE. The earliest Americans could have used stone- and-wood tools like this one to score, groove, and engrave bone as they crafted various implements.