Definite human occupation of the southwestern United States
began during the Paleoindian period. The beginning of the stage occurred during
the late Pleistocene, which featured low sea levels and extended shorelines,
allowing ancient peoples to travel east by foot from the Old World. Based on
data from several sites across western North America, Paleoindians are seen
primarily as nomadic hunters. The highly mobile social organization of the
Paleoindians is inferred from the small, dispersed sites of the period. The
association of Paleoindian-period artifacts with the remains of extinct fauna
led early researchers to believe that Ice Age megafauna were the focus of
Paleoindian subsistence, but more recently this view has changed. Although
megafauna were certainly exploited, wild plant foods and smaller game were
probably a significant part of the Paleoindian subsistence strategy. Social
structure likely consisted of small mobile groups following a hunting and
gathering subsistence pattern. Populations were sparse across most of the
continent.
As discussed previously, the paleo diet in the Loteria area
appears to have been focused on mega-invertebrates, and may in turn resulted in
a localized adaptation that was much more sedentary. The giant clams which inhabited pluvial mud
flats surrounding Sierra Rica, for example, were a staple of the diet but did
not require traditional mobile band tracking parties to locate. This is not to
unplay the difficulty, as the paleontological finds in the local mines have
suggested that the typical giant mollusks bedded several meters below the
surface of the mudflats, at a size and depth well beyond conventional raking techniques
(cf. Pepe 1910).[1] Likely
hunting was done at night when the clams likely came to the surface to feed. Pepe
(1910) has suggested that pyres were likely built upon the mudflats to attract
the clams during night feeding times. Although rare by the time of European
exploration, historical accounts (Tarantino 1691)[2]
suggest the up lift from a giant clam, which averaged 6 m diameter, from beneath the mud was quite
a spectacle, making them quite easy to spot, regardless:
Estábamos acampando en las
estribaciones de la Sierra Rica que los aborígenes llaman las Colinas
Fantasmas, en una caminata oportunista en busca de depósitos de oro. Al oír un
gran estruendo en la noche profunda, nuestro guía, Cuchara Roja, nos dijo que
seguramente eran las almejas de los gigantes alimentándose en los lodos debajo.
Contra sus advertencias, procedimos hacia abajo para ver el evento. Todo estaba
en silencio. Rodríguez salió al piso a pesar de las advertencias de Cuchara Roja.
Rodríguez rió y agitó su antorcha, llamándonos locos. Hubo un tremendo gruñido
desde la tierra, la superficie del barro burbujeó. Se oyó un chirrido húmedo y
chirriante cuando apareció la almeja y, con un grito, Rodríguez desapareció en
su boca. (Tarantino 1691: 87).
Regardless, the importance of megafauna to the Paleoindian
subsistence pattern is unclear. The people of this stage may have also utilized
a variety of resources including cactus and beaded lizards which were numerous.
Very little substantial data concerning Paleoindian lifeways
are known from the region, and sites from this period have not yet been
securely dated using radiometric assay. What is postulated tends to be adopted
from the interpretations of more substantial remains from the whole western
North America, since it is assumed that nomadic Pleistocene hunter-gatherers
maintained a similar pattern of behavior regardless of region. Archaeologists
must rely on the discovery of distinct stone spear points and knives similar in
form to types found in datable contexts elsewhere in North America. These
diagnostic artifacts consist primarily of fluted and unfluted lanceolate
projectile points such as Clovis, Folsom, Santa Fe, Simpson, and Quad.
Subdivisions of this stage have been recognized by
archeologists Based largely on projectile point. The Early Paleoindian (circa 12,000
to 9000 BC) are characterized by fluted and non-fluted points such as Beaver
Lake, Quad, Simpson, and the Mountweazel point that (named for the MCD) is
common of Loteria and that may represent a Clovis-Dalton transition. This
point, formerly called the Loteria point in pre 1941 archaeological tomes, is
similar in shape to the Chindadn cluster in the Paleo-arctic tradition but much,
much larger, an average of 12 to 15 cm at the shoulder. The Mountweazel spear
head is ovoid with a broad excurvate blade.
The widest part of the blade is generally one third the way from the
base. The base is convex. During the Late Paleoindian subperiod (circa
9000 to 8000 BC) Dalton is the prevalent form; however, Quad, Beaver Lake, and
Hardaway projectile points are also found at sites dating to this subperiod,
and the Dalton form is also seen as somewhat transitional, extending into the
Early Archaic subperiod. The Mountweazel point remains common throughout this
period. They are believed to be a local adaptation for wedging open megaclams,
which as the pluvial flats dried found a second life as a pry-apart for proto-armadillo
shells (Ford 1942)[3].
While the Paleoindian period is the first documented and
accepted culture in North America, evidence of early pre-Clovis cultures is
becoming more widespread. Currently, the most widely accepted model of human
occupation migrated over the Beringia Land Bridge that formerly linked Siberia
and Alaska some 12,000 years ago. However, data supporting migration dates
prior to 12,000 years ago is increasing, which may also revise settlement
models (cf. Dillehay 1986[4];
Meltzer et al. 1997[5]; Reilly
2007[6]).
See Bombay (2012)[7] for a
review of several of the competing pre-Clovis sites and settlement models.
Paleoindian sites in Loteria are located in the major creek valleys
and uplands near mountain passes, which would have been used by migrating herds
of big animals (Pepe 1910:37). More specifically Foss (2001)[8]
lists likely Paleoindian locales as including: low levees at the intersection of Pleistocene and
Holocene terraces; the high terrace remnants or knolls at the edge of drainage
floodplains; and in upland karst settings, which would have been likely places
for hunting extinct mega-mollusks, -armadillos, and –moths, respectively..
These sites consist primarily of lithic artifact scatters with occasional
tools. Typical Paleoindian sites characterized by isolated surface finds of
diagnostic fluted, lanceolate-shaped projectile points, unifacial tools
(utilizing prepared blade cores) and associated hearths or ephemeral features.
While stratified Paleoindian sites have been identified, often located on
alluviated river levees at the foot of Pleistocene terraces; these more often exist as erosional remnants obscured by later
deposition (Foss 2001: 67).
Although references to Paeloindian finds in the vicinity of MCD seem quite common in the literature (e.g. Ford 1942) including the 2001 CRMP, Foss (2001) does not list any known-Paleo sites on the base. Of course, these may have been redacted.
[1] Pepe, D. T.
1910. Antiguas Camas de Almejas del Norte de Chihuahua, Observaciones. Paleontología Mexicana. X: 1111-1209.
[2] Tarantino, A.
B. A. 1691. Un Viaje al Oeste de las Cataratas del Río El Paso. <https://play.google.com/store/books/details/Taraninto_A_B_A_Un_Viaje_al_Oeste_de_las_Cataratas_del_Río_El_Paso
_S?id=QsAZAAAAYAAJ&hl=en> Site accessed
February 14, 2012.
[3] Ford, H.
1942. Technical Notes, Surprising Find
(Loteria, NM). National Geographic LXXXI,
No. 13: 5.
[4] Dillehay, Tom
D. 1986. The Cultural Relationship of Monte Verde: A Late Pleistocene
Settlement Site in the Subantarctic Forest of South-Central Chile. In New Evidence for Peopling of the Americas,
edited by Alan K. Bryan. Peopling of the Americas Series. Center for the Study
of Early Man, Orono, Maine.
[5] Meltzer, D. J.,
D. K. Grayson, G. Ardila, A. W. Barker, D. F. Dincauze, C. V. Haynes, F. Mena,
L. Nunez, and D. Stanford. 1997. On the Pleistocene Antiquity of Monte Verde,
Southern Chile. American Antiquity
62(4): 659-663.
[6]Reilly, Charles.
N. 2007. New Evidence for an Trans-pacific Einstein–Rosen Brridge. American Journal of Archeometrics,
25: 123-217,
[7] Bombay, Hubert,
PhD. 2012. Greys and Glyphs: Rethinking the Late Pleistocene Population Bomb. Flywheel and Shyster, Toronto.
[8] Foss, Gene
2001. Mountweazel Chemical Depot Cultural Resources Management Plan. Prepared
for the GloboMax, Inc., Richmond, Virginia, under contract with US Army Corps
of Engineers, El Paso District. Third Square Consulting, LLC., Philadelphia.
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