54. Possible Relatives in the Americas

Cactus Hill site (Virginia, USA)

by George Weber

Location of Cactus Hill, 70 km (45 miles) south of Richmnond, Virginia

 The Cactus Hill site has been worked by archaeologists Lynn and Joseph McAvoy since 1995. It has a layer of Clovis tools (dated to around 10-11,000 years, a tool type that has for many years been thought to be be the work of the earliest known migrants into America. What makes the site special and unusually important is that it has unmixed stratified layers below Clovis with charcoal from a hearth dating to 15,000 years ago. As is usual with dates going beyond Clovis, there is intense controversy. However, the dating was tested using several different methods - and it does seem to be correct. This makes Cactus Hill one of the oldest sites found so far in North America, and it pust the "there is no-pre-Clovis" faction on the defensive. .

Unfortunately, no human remains have been found at the site, but fossil shark's teeth that must have been brought by human agency from a Miocene deposit 20 km (12 miles) away on the Nottoway River.

Lucinda McWeeney reports that plant remains found indicate that the site at the time of its earliest occupation by humans had a cooler climate than today. Animal remains (turtle and deer) also suggest that the site may have been a seasonal hunting camp.

Archaeologist Joseph McAvoy (right) and Lynn McAvoy work at Cactus Hill.

The Cactus Hill site

The Cactus Hill stratigraphy

Samples of pre-Clovis stone tools from the lowest (oldest) level of the Cactus Hill Site. Details given are from Mark Rose.

The tools found at the lowest (pre-Clovis) level and thought to be 15,000 years old have been analysed by Larry Kimball. He thinks that the two roughly pentangular points found at that that level were deliberately made this shape and not re-worked later. The thinness of the pieces and the striking platforms on the sides suggest that the tools were not reshaped. In addition, micro-wear indicates that the points were hafted onto spears or arrows and fractures at the tip suggest they were broken in impact. Over 90% of the stone tools from this earliest level are blades whose micro-wear indicate that they were hafted and used in butchering and in the processing of hides. Micro-wear also indicates that more than half the cores from which these blades were struck were then used for hide scraping. The lowest level of the Cavtus Hill Site does not have any endscrapers, drills or bipolar pieces, but two of the blades were turned into burins.

Clovis tools from the Cactus Hill site above the oldest level.

Among web-sites with further information are:

- http://www.sciencenews.org/articles/20000415/fob1.asp

- http://www.athenapub.com/cacthill.htm

- http://www.trussel.com/prehist/news199.htm

- http://seismo.berkeley.edu/~perron/files/thesis.html

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Last change 1 November 2006