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Clovis and the American Mastodon at Big Bone Lick, Kentucky

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Kenneth B. Tankersley ,
Michael R. Waters  and
Thomas W. Stafford Jr.
Kenneth B. Tankersley
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, University of Cincinnati, OH 45221 ([email protected])
Michael R. Waters
Affiliation:
Center for the Study of the First Americans. Departments of Anthropology and Geography, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX 77843-4352 ([email protected])
Thomas W. Stafford Jr.
Affiliation:
Stafford Research Laboratories, 200 Acadia Avenue, Lafayette, CO 80026 ([email protected])
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Abstract

Contemporaneity of people and the American mastodon (Mammut americanum) at Big Bone Lick, Kentucky, has been extensively debated for more than two hundred years. Newly interpreted stratigraphic excavations and direct AMS ¹⁴C measurements on mastodon bones from Big Bone Lick, Kentucky, indicate that the megafauna are a palimpsest of fossils spanning at least 1,200 calendar years (11,020 ± 30 to 12,210 ± 35 RC yr B.P.). The radiocarbon evidence indicates that mastodons and Clovis people overlapped in time; however, other than one fossil with a possible cut mark and Clovis artifacts that are physically associated with but dispersed within the bone-bearing deposits, there is no incontrovertible evidence that humans hunted Mammut americanum at the site.

Résumé

Résumé

La contemporaneidad de los seres humanos y el mastodonte americano (Mammut americanum) en Big Bone Lick, Kentucky, ha sido extensamente debatida por más de doscientos años. Tanto las excavaciones estratifigráficas recién interpretadas como las determinaciones directas de AMS ¹⁴ C llevadas a cabo en los huesos de mastodonte procedentes de Big Bone Lick, Kentucky, indican que la megafauna es un palimpsesto de fósiles que abarcan por lo menos unos 1200 años civiles (11,020 ± 30 to 12,210 ± 35 RC años a.p.). A la vez, las pruebas de radiocarbono indican que los mastodontes y la gente Clovis traslaparon en el tiempo. Sin embargo, aparte de un solo fósil de colocación problemática y los artefactos Clovis físicamente asociados pero dispersados dentro de las capas que contienen restos óseos, no hay evidencias incontrovertibles que los seres humanos cazaban a los Mammut americanum en el sitio.

Type
Reports
Information
American Antiquity , Volume 74 , Issue 3 , July 2009 , pp. 558 - 567
Copyright
Copyright © Society for American Archaeology 2009

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