Ice Age Atlantis? Exploring the Solutrean-Clovis ‘connection’

Abstract

Bradley and Stanford (2004) have raised now, in several instances, the claim that European Upper Paleolithic Solutrean peoples colonized North America, and gave rise to the archaeological complex known as Clovis. They do so in the face of some obvious challenges – notably the several thousand miles of ocean and the 5000 radiocarbon years that separate the two. And yet they argue in their recent paper that the archaeological evidence in support of a historical connection is ‘overwhelming’. We are profoundly skeptical of this claim; we believe that the many differences between Solutrean and Clovis are far more significant than the few similarities, the latter being readily explained by the well-known phenomenon of technological convergence or parallelism. The origin and arrival time of the first Americans remain uncertain, but not so uncertain that we need to look elsewhere other than north-east Asia.

Keywords:

• Clovis
• pre-Clovis
• Solutrean
• colonization of Americas
• Paleoindian
• marine adaptation
• lithic technology

Notes

1 Cleyet-Merle (1990: 41) is incorrect in attributing seal remains to the Solutrean period in Tito Bustillo Cave in Asturias; only late Magdalenian levels have been dug in this site, and two of them did yield seal remains: 2 astragalii in one and a humerus fragment of a new-born in another (Altuna 1976: 189).