Abstract
There has long been a controversy concerning Man’s antiquity in the New World. Our oldest unquestioned sites are those of the Clovis Complex which date to 11,000-12,000 B.P. In this paper, an attempt is made to set up a testing program that might lead to the discovery of Pre-Clovis (Early Early Man) sites within the contiquous 48 states, should they exist. It is believed that the derived concepts also have application in other parts of the world. Rigorous standards are given for the “best site situation” necessary to solve the problem for everyone’s satisfaction. The methodology involves outlining a list of possible archaeo-geomorphic contexts in which to seek ancient sites, with the idea of determining if any of them are more likely to produce the best site situation than others. Nine archaeo-geomorphic contexts are discussed and evaluated. These include surface sites and the following subsurface sites: underwater, coastal, volcanic, eolian, slope, cave, alluvial, and depression or basin sites. It is concluded, by the process of elimination, that the latter seem to be our best bet to meet the aforementioned rigorous standards. A testing program is suggested on the High Plains where many basins occur, and where some of our better early sites have been found. How we should test is discussed in terms of locating basins, choosing basins to test, and testing procedures. Subsidiary benefits are seen resulting from this program even if the problem of Man’s antiquity should not be determined by this method of research.