Archaeologists Find Pre-Clovis Projectile Points in Texas

Image credit: N. Velchoff / Gault School of Archaeological Research.

Via sci-news.com

At the Gault archaeological site in central Texas, archaeologists have unearthed a projectile point technology never previously seen in North America, which they date to be 16,000-20,000 years old. The findings, published in the journal Science Advances, suggest humans occupied the North American continent prior to Clovis — considered the first culture to use projectile points to hunt on the continent, and dated to around 11,000 years ago.

For decades, scientists believed the Western Hemisphere was settled by humans roughly 13,500 years ago, a theory based largely upon the widespread distribution of Clovis artifacts dated to that time.


In recent years, though, archaeological evidence has increasingly called into question the idea of ‘Clovis First.’

Now, Texas State University researcher Thomas Williams and colleagues, working at the Gault site northwest of Austin, has dated a significant assemblage of stone artifacts to 16,000-20,000 years of age, pushing back the timeline of the first human inhabitants of North America far before Clovis.

“Clovis artifacts are distinctive prehistoric stone tools so named because they were initially found near Clovis, New Mexico, in the 1920s but have since been identified throughout North and South America,” Dr. Williams said.

“The Gault projectile points are unique. We haven’t found anything else like them.”

“Combine that with the ages and the fact that it underlies a Clovis component and the Gault site provides a fantastic opportunity to study the earliest human occupants in the Americas.”

The presence of Clovis technology at the Gault site is well-documented.

Excavations below the Clovis deposits revealed well-stratified sediments containing artifacts — called Gault Assemblage — distinctly different from Clovis.

The finds include small projectile point technology, biface stone tools, blade-and-core tools, and flake tools.

Dr. Williams and co-authors compared Gault artifacts to Clovis tools and found that the blade-and-core traditions, in particular, are similar to Clovis blade-and-cores (meaning they continued into the time of Clovis), but biface traditions underwent significant changes in the Clovis level.

“Meanwhile, the early projectile point technology is ‘unrelated’ to Clovis at all,” they noted.

Based on optically stimulated luminescence dating, the Gault Assemblage sediment samples are approximately 16,000-20,000 years old.

“The Gault site, which encompasses a valley at the intersection of the Edwards Plateau and Blackland Prairie, would have had great appeal to early human arrivals,” the researchers said.

“Reliable springs provided ample water for both humans and wild game during drought, and high-quality chert (flint) outcroppings were valuable for use in crafting tools and projectile points.”

“Significantly, the Gault site excavation provides evidence pushing back earliest human habitation of North America by at least 2,500 years,” they said.

“Within a wider context, this evidence suggests that Clovis technology spread across an already well-established, indigenous population.”

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Thomas J. Williams et al. 2018. Evidence of an early projectile point technology in North America at the Gault Site, Texas, USA. Science Advances 4 (7): eaar5954; doi: 10.1126/sciadv.aar5954

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