Charlie Lake Cave is a stratified rockshelter in northeastern British Columbia located within the so-called "Ice Free Corridor". Charlie Lake Cave is the northern-most evidence yet discovered of a fluted point coupled with evidence of big game hunting (i.e., Clovis-like; the site is simply too far from any other Clovis site to be called Clovis). The cave is of a single room about 4.5 x 6 meters, and deposits range a few centimeters in thickness to over four meters. The floor of the cave would have been quite steep during the earliest occupations.
The three oldest components at Charlie Lake are Paleoindian, radiocarbon dated between 9,500 and 10,500 years ago. Artifacts recovered from it include one fluted point, a small amount of debitage and a diverse range of animals, including butchered bison bone. Two raven skeletons were recovered from the earliest levels, which may represent ritual depositions. Other occupations at Charlie Lake date to as recently as 4500 BP.
Charlie Lake's date and location are key pieces of evidence discounting the "Ice Free Corridor" hypothesis. At 10,500 years old it is younger than most of the Clovis sites in North America. Further, DNA analysis of the bison indicates it is related to southern bison, rather than its northern relatives.
Sources
See the discussion of the Ice Free Corridor hypothesis.
Driver, Jonathan C. 1999 Raven skeletons from Paleoindian contexts, Charlie Lake Cave, British Columbia. American Antiquity 64(2):289-298.
Driver JC, Handley M, Fladmark KR, Nelson DE, Sullivan GM, and Preston R. 1996. Stratigraphy, Radiocarbon Dating, and Culture History of Charlie Lake Cave, British Columbia. Arctic 49(3):265-277.
Fladmark, Knut R., Jonathan C. Driver, and Diana Alexander 1988 The Paleoindian Component at Charlie Lake Cave (HbRf 39), British Columbia. American Antiquity 53(2):371-384.
This glossary entry is part of the Dictionary of Archaeology.
