| ARTIFACTS FROM FAMOUS
CLOVIS, NEW MEXICO PALEOINDIAN SITE ARE RE-EXAMINED, OFFERING NEW
CLUES ABOUT ORIGINS OF FIRST AMERICANS
Museum Publishes Retrospective,
with Challenging New Research Conclusions,
in Clovis Revisited MAY 1999 -- Back in the Depression era 1930s, John L. Cotter, then a graduate student at the University of Pennsylvania, found himself in Clovis, New Mexico -- the right place at a very exciting time. It was here in the inhospitable dust bowl high plains that archaeologists, under the leadership of Edgar B. Howard, were making headline discoveries about the earliest human beings yet found in North America. It was here that the young Cotter got his big break -- the opportunity to write up an extraordinary "Mammoth Pit" find, where ancient human tools, including flint spear points and mammoth bones, were uncovered together. Here was the first fully-documented direct evidence of mammoth and humans living contemporaneously, solid proof that people had inhabited the area more than 11,000 years ago. In the 1990s, Dr. Cotter -- Curator Emeritus at the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology -- working with Anthony T. Boldurian, Associate Professor of Anthropology, University of Pittsburgh, Greensburg -- set about reinvestigating the Clovis artifacts, which are now housed at the University of Pennsylvania Museum (human tools) and the Academy of Natural Sciences (mammoth bones). They wanted to scrutinize one of the most important early American collections, in light of new research techniques and decades of new knowledge in their field. The results of their research, recently published by University Museum Publications in Clovis Revisited: New Perspectives on Paleoindian Adaptations from Blackwater Draw, New Mexico, offer exciting and controversial new clues about just where those elusive first Americans actually may have come from, and when they may have first arrived. Clovis Revisited leads the reader through a maze of ideas about the initial peopling of North America, pausing along the way to examine findings from various sites alleging evidence of humans in America prior to Clovis, perhaps as early as 17,000 years ago. A focal point chosen by the authors, corresponding with an existing theory so new that it has been revealed almost exclusively in periodical magazines, entertains the possibility of a pre-Clovis colonization of America by Western Europeans via the North Atlantic during the Ice Age, not solely from east Asia into Alaska as traditionally held. Clovis Revisited may be the first exposé of this idea in an actual book, with details of its likelihood, implications, and an assembling of clues. After his groundbreaking work at Clovis, Dr. Cotter went on to a long and distinguished career in North American historical archaeology, remaining active with publications and museum work despite his official "retirement" in 1980. He died February 5, 1999, at the age of 87, just days after he had approved the final proofs of Clovis Revisited. A native son of South Philadelphia, Dr. Boldurian is a former curator of the Clovis Site National Historic Landmark, and has been an active researcher in the fields of Paleoindian anthropology and stone tool analysis since 1978. Dr. Boldurian's interest in pursuing a career in archaeology began at age 11, during a school field trip to the University of Pennsylvania Museum where he first saw the Clovis artifacts on display. In addition to the description and analysis of Clovis artifacts and the examination of related data, Clovis Revisited features a lively historical account of the seminally important Southwest Early Man Project directed by archaeologist Edgar B. Howard (under whom Cotter worked). Clovis Revisited: New Perspectives on Paleoindian Adaptations from Blackwater Draw, New Mexico, co-authored by Dr. Anthony T. Boldurian and Dr. John L. Cotter, is available through University Museum Publications. The Center for the Study of the First Americans (Oregon State University) hosts Clovis and Beyond Conference in New Mexico, October 99 |