Hot take: the Clovis First theory still has more going for it than people admit

I was at the 2022 SAA conference in Chicago and a grad student from Arizona told me 'you're just scared to let go of the old guard's ideas.' But she couldn't explain why the Monte Verde dates (14,500 years ago) still have so much debate around the excavation methods. Has anyone else noticed how the 'pre-Clovis' crowd sometimes glosses over site contamination issues?

2 comments

2 Comments

gonzalez.reese25d ago

Right on. That grad student would've gotten an earful from me too about stratigraphic mixing.

jesse_fisher25d ago

Caught that episode on the practical archaeology podcast a while back, and @gonzalez.reese absolutely hit the nail on the head about how easy it is to lose context in a hurry.