Comments on the Lithic Technology and Geochronology of the Goodson Rock Shelter

ABSTRACT

In a recent article published in PaleoAmerica, authors Metin I. Eren, David J. Meltzer, and Brian M. Andrews describe a set of Clovis-like artifacts recovered from an Archaic context at Goodson Rock Shelter, Oklahoma. With this discovery, they conclude that we cannot reliably recognize true Clovis assemblages and sites, especially caches, without true Clovis points, and that we should not consider other technological characteristics such as overshot flaking and prismatic blade manufacture as unequivocally representing Clovis. In this essay, we propose two additional working hypotheses that potentially explain the reported record from Goodson Rock Shelter: (1) the assemblage is not a Clovis look-alike at all; or (2) the assemblage is Clovis, but mixed with artifacts from younger occupations. We respectfully call on Eren, Meltzer, and Andrews to provide additional information about the Goodson Rock Shelter assemblage’s context and associations, as well as a more thorough luminescence analysis of the site’s lowest deposits.

KEYWORDS:

• Goodson Rock Shelter
• Clovis technology
• Clovis caches

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

Bruce B. Huckell received his PhD in Arid Lands Resource Sciences at the University of Arizona in 1990. He was Senior Research Coordinator at the Maxwell Museum and Research Associate Professor in the Anthropology Department at the University of New Mexico (UNM) (1994–2014) and is now Associate Professor of Anthropology at UNM. His research interests include Paleoindian and Archaic archaeology of the North American Southwest and Plains, as well as hunter-gatherer paleoecology, lithic technology, experimental archaeology, and geoarchaeology.

C. Vance Haynes Jr received his PhD from the Department of Geosciences at the University of Arizona in 1965. He was on the Anthropology faculty at SMU (1968–1974) and then in both Anthropology and Geoscience at the University of Arizona from 1974 until retirement in 1999. His research has included Paleoindian archaeology and geology and late Quaternary geology across the US, Paleolithic archaeology and geology of the eastern Sahara of Egypt and Sudan, radiocarbon dating, US military ordnance 1860-1898, and historic archaeology of the US Indian wars.

Vance T. Holliday received his PhD in Geosciences from the University of Colorado in 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. He is Executive Director of the Argonaut Archaeological Research Fund, devoted to exploring the early peopling of the greater Southwest. His interests include Paleoindian archaeology and geoarchaeology as well as Quaternary soils and paleoenvironments, and Paleolithic geoarchaeology of eastern Europe.

ORCID

Bruce B. Huckell http://orcid.org/0000-0002-6327-2578

Vance T. Holliday http://orcid.org/0000-0002-7361-3911