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I am suspicious of the Clovis interpretation, as I don't think that the early inhabitants could have entered the Western Hemisphere and then diffuse across so many ecosystems so quickly. How does one transition from, say, the Pacific Northwest with rain forests, to the semi-arid California coast, to the deserts of Mexico, to the rainforests of the Central American mountains, to the Andes, and on to Tierra del Fuego.

The survival skills which I would need for one environment would not be very useful somewhere else. Certainly, those people were pretty bright and "in tune" with the environment so that they could survive, and presuambly prosper, in harsh surroundings, but I just don't see how they can populate the Western Hemisphere as quickly as the Clovis model demands.

I admit that I don't know where pre-Clovis people would have come from. There apparently isn't much evidence of humans in east Siberia prior to about 18000 BC (or is that 18000 years ago), although I wonder how thoroughly the fossil record in Siberia is known.

"How does one transition from, say, the Pacific Northwest with rain forests, to the semi-arid California coast, to the deserts of Mexico, to the rainforests of the Central American mountains, to the Andes, and on to Tierra del Fuego."

I'm not sure those conditions existed like that at that time.

"I admit that I don't know where pre-Clovis people would have come from. There apparently isn't much evidence of humans in east Siberia prior to about 18000 BC (or is that 18000 years ago), although I wonder how thoroughly the fossil record in Siberia is known."

Iberia, Not Siberia

Well put.

Before Clovis the belief was that the Americas had been occupied for maybe 3000 years, and that before Columbus, no one had reached the Americas by ship. It was a foolish, unsubstantiated belief, and was an outgrowth of the politics of the time.

Isolationist politics are still at work today (the Buchanan Brigade, for just one such example).

Louis Leakey, while studying and lecturing in the US, brought down upon himself the wrath of the godfather of the 3000 year chronology by suggesting that 3000 years weren't nearly enough for the development of so many distinct cultures and languages, and (at that time) three civilizations. Later, Leakey was involved with the Calico site, which at 200K years old was rejected, despite the obvious connections with the stone "technology" sites found elsewhere in the world.

Clovis points were first identified in 1932 (thereabouts) but were not accepted due to the discerned dating. Radiocarbon dating cleared away remaining doubt about the antiquity of Clovis, but rather than opening minds, the permissible maximum age was merely set to a higher figure, what I call "Clovis First and Only".

Thanks to the efforts of (and the abuse heaped upon) Tom Dillehay, the CFAO belief system is stone cold dead, although it still speaks through some trance mediums from time to time. ;')

George W. Bush will be reelected by a margin of at least ten per cent

How does one transition from, say, the Pacific Northwest with rain forests, to the semi-arid California coast, to the deserts of Mexico, to the rainforests of the Central American mountains, to the Andes, and on to Tierra del Fuego.

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