ARCHAEOLOGY
Discovery of Ancient Spearpoints in Texas Has Some Archaeologists Questioning the History of Early Americas
Archaeologists have discovered two previously unknown forms of spearpoint technology at a site in Texas. The triangular blades appear to be older than the projectile points produced by the Paleoamerican Clovis culture, an observation that’s complicating our understanding of how the Americas were colonized—and by whom.
Clovis-style spear points began to appear around 13,000 to 12,700 years ago, and they were produced by Paleoamerican hunter-gatherers known as the Clovis people. Made from stones, these leaf-shaped (lanceolate) points featured a shallow concave base and a fluted, or flaked, base that allowed them to be placed on the end of a spear.
New research published today in Science Advances describes the discovery of two new spearpoint technologies at the Buttermilk Creek Complex of the Debra L. Friedkin archaeology site in Bell County, Texas, which date to between 13,500 and 15,000 years ago. Because these spearpoints pre-date Clovis culture, they may have inspired the development of subsequent projectile point styles, including those made by the Clovis people, said Michael Waters, the lead author of the new study and an archaeologist at Texas A&M University. Either that, he said, or the previously unknown spearpoints were brought to North America during a separate migration into the continent.
https://gizmodo.com/discovery-of-ancient-spearpoints-in-texas-has-some-arch-1829970738
