Stone Age 101 - Clovis

By popular demand a spin-off of my Stone Age 101 series that focuses on North America.You can find the rest of the series here: pelycosaur24.deviantart.com/ga…

The Question when humans migrated to America is a little controversial, with lots of different estimated based of lots of different factors. But if you look at unmistakable archaeological evidence (that means no mastodon skulls that where probably crushed by ... literally anything but humans) it is pretty safe to say that the first Americans arrived over the Beringia land bridge around 17.000 BP - 15.000 BP. There are theories that suggest that South America was settled separately via Polynesia.

For this drawing I choose to focus on the Clovis culture. Today the Clovis people are no longer seen as the first inhabitants in America but they are the first large scale culture with a good defined stone tool typology - which makes them ideal for this series!

The Clovis culture appears around 14.000 BP and in very short time spread over most of North and Central America. The stone tools made by the Clovis are very characteristic and the long bladed "clovis tips" made from semi-precious stones are often found at the sites.

Almost all Clovis sites are “Kill sites”, which gives us a good understanding of what they hunted. Their main prey consisted of Bison, Deer, Pronghorn and Bighorn sheep. Mammoths and Mastodon are only present in some kill sites.

As for settlements there is one site that suggests that Clovis people lived in hut or tent like structures.

There is only one burial site in Anzick, Montana, where the ceremonial use of red ocher is documented. That is also the spot I choose for my representative woman.

As far as I know (please correct me if I am wrong) there is no evidence of any form of art (save for a few geometric scratched stones found at Gault Site in Texas) in the Clovis Culture.

What is interesting is that the Clovis culture is very well represented in the Disney movies Brother bear 1 and 2. They use some pretty accurate Clovis tips in the movie, the clothing looks good and in the second movie you can even see a settlement with accurate Stone Age huts. So thumbs up for Disney for making what is probably the most accurate animated movie set in the Stone Age.