Clovis Archaeology Across the Greater Southwest

Clovis Archaeology Across the Greater Southwest Dr. Vance T. Holliday - University of Arizona The First Americans, the so-called “Paleoindians,” were the earliest hunters and gatherers to settle in the southwestern US and northwestern Mexico. They lived at a time when the climate was substantially different than today—generally cooler and wetter. Rivers carried more water, and there were more and larger lakes scattered across the region. Another significant characteristic of this time was the presence of now extinct megafauna—large mammals such as mammoth, mastodon, horse, camel, dire wolf, and several big cats and bears. The best-known characteristic of the Paleoindian foragers is their stone tool technology. Archaeological research shows that the earliest well-established Paleoindian group across North America were makers of Clovis projectile points. Clovis foragers (13,200–12,800 years BP) were not common in the Southwest, but chance discoveries revealed several Clovis kill sites. Southern Arizona contains the highest concentration of mammoth kill sites in the world. Research in northern Sonora recently revealed a Clovis site with the remains of an elephant-like mega-mammal known as a gomphothere. That site (“El Fin del Mundo”) is the northern-most Ice Age gomphothere site in the Americas and the only archaeological site with gomphothere in North America. Dr. Vance Holliday received a BA in Anthropology from the University of Texas at Austin (1972), an MA in Museum Science (with a minor in Soil Science) at Texas Tech University (1977), and a PhD in Geological Sciences at the University of Colorado, Boulder (1982). He was on the Geography faculty at the University of Wisconsin-Madison (1986–2002) and is now in both Anthropology and Geosciences at the University of Arizona. His research career began on the Great Plains of the U.S., focused on reconstructing and interpreting the landscapes and environments in which the earliest occupants of North America lived, and how those conditions evolved during the Paleoindian period. Since arriving at the University of Arizona, he became Director of the Argonaut Archaeological Research Fund, which is devoted to research on the archaeology and geoarchaeology of the Paleoindian period in the southwestern U.S. and northwestern Mexico. In addition, he has been part of an international project focused on the Upper Paleolithic archaeology and paleoenvironments of southwestern Russia and central Ukraine. Presented to the Pacific Coast Archaeological Society (PCAS) on February 9, 2023. For additional information on the Pacific Coast Archaeological Society, see the PCAS website at www.pcas.org