| The tools and points shown in this image represent the Paleo- and Transitional
Paleo-to-Early Archaic Periods, ca. 12,000 to 10,000 BC and 10,000 to 8000
BC respectively. The earliest recognized type of projectile point is the
Clovis Point, so named for the site in New Mexico where such points were
found in association with the bones of ancient Mammoths, which were hunted,
killed and butchered by Clovis peoples. Numerous species of what paleontologists
call ‘megafauna’ lived during the periods given above. The retreat of glacial
masses from northern portions of the United States began a long period
of climatic and environmental changes which altered the precipitation and
floral growth of vast regions of the continent. As a result, the extinctions
of numerous species of megafauna came to pass, and the last of the giant
bisons, mammoths and horses, to name but a few species, became extinct
by 6-7000 BC.
The regions south of what is now Lake Michigan must have bee teeming
with game. Ancient hunters were no doubt present to benefit from this abundance,
and the numbers of Paleo-Indian sites marking the region testify to their
successes in exploiting these resources.
Paleo-Indian sites are rare—mostly because the population-levels at
this early period in the peopling of the Americas was very low—some estimates
put the numbers of humans inhabiting the Americas during the Paleo-Period
at 500,000 or less… The stories told by careful excavation of such sites
can shed new light upon these peoples’ lifeways and subsistence-strategies,
and can help to understand both migrational routes used as well as the
distribution of various cultural groups. |
