E. James Dixon. 1999. Bones, Boats, and Bison: Archeology and the first colonization of western North America. University of New Mexico Press.
Over the last decade or so, an amazing array of archaeological data concerning the populating of the American continent has seen its way into print; not the least of these include the Monte Verde and Kennewick Man stories. Presented as a confusing mass of brief snippets in newspapers, and despite some concerted efforts by some of the popular archaeology magazines such as Archaeology and Scientific American's Discovering Archaeology, the amount of data and the variety of sites and site information is often bewildering to professionals, not to mention the general public. Fortunately, in 1999 E. James Dixon published a soft-bound synthesis of the data so far, entitled Bones, Boats, and Bison: Archeology and the First Colonization of Western North America.
Dixon's extensively researched book boasts a hefty 55 page bibliography, to which he points the reader, in particular noting the seminal work by H. Marie Wormington, whose 1957 Ancient Men of North America is a classic. He spends a chapter discussing the history of paleoindian research, setting the stage for the discussion of the conflicting and controversial evidence to come.
Most helpful are Chapters 3 and 4, which summarize the data on the most important archaeological sites in North and South America, and present Dixon's evaluation of their evidence using the five criteria established by researcher C. Vance Haynes and supported by most other scientists:
Most helpful are Chapters 3 and 4, which summarize the data on the most important archaeological sites in North and South America, and present Dixon's evaluation of their evidence using the five criteria established by researcher C. Vance Haynes and supported by most other scientists:
1. Are the artifacts clearly the product of human manufacture?
2. Is the recovered material within clear stratigraphic context?
3. Are there reliable, concordant, and stratigraphically consistent radiocarbon dates from the deposit?
4. Are paleoenvironmental studies consistent with ages assigned to the site?
5. Are there human remains that are reliably dated older than 11,500 years before the present?
While as yet there are no human remains anywhere in the Americas reliably dated earlier than 11,500 BP, the other four criteria have been met by a handful of sites. These few sites--Cactus Hill, Goldstream Pit, Hebior, and Shaefer in North America and Monte Verde and Pedra Pintada--are casting out traditional notions of how the New World was populated.
2. Is the recovered material within clear stratigraphic context?
3. Are there reliable, concordant, and stratigraphically consistent radiocarbon dates from the deposit?
4. Are paleoenvironmental studies consistent with ages assigned to the site?
5. Are there human remains that are reliably dated older than 11,500 years before the present?
While as yet there are no human remains anywhere in the Americas reliably dated earlier than 11,500 BP, the other four criteria have been met by a handful of sites. These few sites--Cactus Hill, Goldstream Pit, Hebior, and Shaefer in North America and Monte Verde and Pedra Pintada--are casting out traditional notions of how the New World was populated.
The remaining chapters discuss the skeletal evidence from early sites; and then detail the cultural development of the various regions of the west, including stone, bone and antler tools, possible structures, subsistence methods and migration patterns.
The book is not exhaustive, luckily; that would be exhausting. But as a summary of the pertinent data which is currently throwing the scientific world into a tizzy, it is well written and readable by scientist and the general public alike.
The book is not exhaustive, luckily; that would be exhausting. But as a summary of the pertinent data which is currently throwing the scientific world into a tizzy, it is well written and readable by scientist and the general public alike.
