The term 'paleoindian' refers to the fairly brief period of American prehistory when the diet and subsistence of the people was big game hunting--such as mammoths and mastodons, between about 12,000 and 10,000 years ago.
The earliest of these large-mammal hunters is the so-called Clovis culture, widely known throughout the North American continent and dated at the earliest 11,500 BP. Big game hunters in South America are of the similar age and called Fishtail sites, from their distinctive projectile point forms.
Paleoindian Issues and the New World Entrada
Until the last couple of decades, Paleoindian was considered by most archaeologists the culture of the first occupants of the Americas, having come into the Americas using the so-called "ice free corridor" about 12,000 years ago. Recent research has revealed that the corridor was probably not open as early as some of the sites in the Americas and some migration probably occurred along the western coastline.
These coastal people probably were not traditional 'big game hunters' as defined by Paleoindian, but likely had a more Archaic-like lifestyle of generalized hunting and gathering. Early coastline sites of Paleoindian age are called Pre-Clovis. When that entrada occurred is under great debate.
Important Paleoindian Groups: Clovis, Nenana Culture, Folsom, Western Stemmed Tradition, Plano , Fishtail sites.
Paleoindian Sites: Murray Springs, Piney Branch, Daisy Cave, Gault Site, Shawnee Minisink , Blackwater Draw, Eel Point, Danger Cave, Little Salt Spring (all in US), Santa Isabel Iztapan (Mexico), Capelinha (Brazil).
Sources
Paleoindian and Archaic Burials Bibliography
This glossary entry is part of the Dictionary of Archaeology.
