David Kilby | Texas State University (original) (raw)
Papers by David Kilby
Journal of Texas Archaeology and History: Special Volume No. 6, 2024
Eagle Nest Canyon, or Mile Canyon, has a storied archaeological history spanning 90 years and cou... more Eagle Nest Canyon, or Mile Canyon, has a storied archaeological history spanning 90 years and counting, a field research record unrivaled in the Lower Pecos Canyonlands archaeological region of southwest Texas and adjacent parts of Mexico (Black 2013). Here we recount that history with an emphasis on the latest and ongoing chapter, that of the Ancient Southwest Texas Project (ASWT) of Texas State University. This papers serves as an historical context for the collection of papers that follows.
Journal of Texas Archaeology and History: Special Volume No. 6, 2024
From 2014-2017 the Ancient Southwest Texas Project (ASWT) of Texas State University conducted exc... more From 2014-2017 the Ancient Southwest Texas Project (ASWT) of Texas State University conducted excavations at Eagle Cave (41VV167), Texas. During these excavations, a discrete Paleoindian-age occupation associated with burned rock, chipped stone tools and debitage, and the scattered elements of Bison antiquus was encountered. Radiocarbon assays from the cultural component cluster between approximately 12,500 and 12,600 cal BP (Koenig et al. 2022) placing the deposit solidly in a Younger Dryas and Folsom-age time frame. While formal chipped stone artifacts from this period have received more attention, this paper addresses an artifact class often considered mundane in comparison: lithic debitage.
Journal of Texas Archaeology and History: Special Volume No. 6, 2024
The goals of this paper are to review the history of Bonfire Shelter research and to provide an o... more The goals of this paper are to review the history of Bonfire Shelter research and to provide an overview of its deposits that includes the bonebeds along with the lower-profile components that exist between and above them. Where warranted, the overview presents new observations resulting from ASWT work at the site, with the caveat that more formal analysis remains in progress. An additional goal of this article is to serve as an introduction to a series of more focused articles on ASWT research on Bone Bed 1 and Bone Bed 2 at Bonfire Shelter that follow in this collection.
Journal of Texas Archaeology and History: Special Volume No. 6, 2024
This paper summarizes features and artifacts associated with the Southern Pacific Railroad on the... more This paper summarizes features and artifacts associated with the Southern Pacific Railroad on the Skiles Ranch between ENC and the town of Langtry, Texas based on work carried out as an Honors Thesis at Texas State University (Mezzell 2022a, 2022b) and field documentation carried out as part of the 2019 Texas State University Archaeological Field School (Black and Kilby 2024). The goals of this paper are to provide an introductory overview of the archaeological resources related to the railroad and preliminary interpretation and reflections based on this record and the information in Skiles (1996).
Journal of Texas Archaeology and History: Special Volume No. 6, 2024
This paper concludes a volume that highlights the completed and ongoing archaeological research i... more This paper concludes a volume that highlights the completed and ongoing archaeological research in Eagle Nest Canyon (ENC) carried out by the Ancient Southwest Texas (ASWT) project of Texas State University in collaboration with graduate students, independent researchers, dedicated volunteers, and the Shumla Archaeological Research and Education Center (Shumla). Here we briefly review the goals and accomplishments of ASWT, and then move on to summarize ASWT data, discuss ongoing research, and outline potential future research.
Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports, 2022
Clovis projectile points are found in association with mammoths and other proboscideans at multip... more Clovis projectile points are found in association with mammoths and other proboscideans at multiple sites from across much of North America. The conventional, and arguably parsimonious, explanation for this association is that Clovis points were weapons used to hunt the animals with which they were found. Recently, Eren et al. (2021) argued that experimental data coupled with estimations of mammoth anatomy indicate that Clovis points would not have been effective for proboscidean hunting and were more likely used as cutting tools for scavenging carcasses. We find a number of weaknesses in their argument, including their estimations of mammoth anatomy, the validity of their experimental design, and their assumptions regarding Clovis hunting behavior. We evaluate their argument in light of ethnographic, experimental, and archaeological data and conclude that each of these datasets strongly supports the interpretation of Clovis points as weapons designed for use in hunting large animals, including proboscideans.
American Antiquity, 2022
An enduring problem in North American archaeology concerns the nature of the transition between t... more An enduring problem in North American archaeology concerns the nature of the transition between the Clovis and Folsom Paleoindian complexes in the West. Traditional models indicate a temporal hiatus between the two complexes implying that Folsom was a population replacement for Clovis. Alternatively, if Folsom was an innovation that occurred within Clovis populations and subsequently spread, we would expect to see a temporal overlap. Here, we test these hypotheses using high-quality radiocarbon dates and Bayesian statistics to infer the temporal boundaries of the complexes. We show that the Folsom complex initially appears between 12,900 and 12,740 cal BP, whereas Clovis disappears between 12,720 and12,490 cal BP. Therefore, Folsom may have appeared about 200 years before Clovis disappeared, and so the two complexes likely co-occurred in the West for nearly eight generations. This finding suggests that Folsom was a successful adaptive innovation that diffused through the western Clovis population, eventually going to fixation over multiple generations.
American Antiquity, 2021
Recent excavations by the Ancient Southwest Texas Project of Texas State University sampled a pre... more Recent excavations by the Ancient Southwest Texas Project of Texas State University sampled a previously undocumented Younger Dryas component from Eagle Cave in the Lower Pecos Canyonlands of Texas. This stratified assemblage consists of bison (Bison antiquus) bones in association with lithic artifacts and a hearth. Bayesian modeling yields an age of 12,660-12,480 cal BP, and analyses indicate behaviors associated with the processing of a juvenile bison and the manufacture and maintenance of lithic tools. This article presents spatial, faunal, macrobotanical, chronometric, geoarchaeological, and lithic analyses relating to the Younger Dryas component within Eagle Cave. The identification of the Younger Dryas occupation in Eagle Cave should encourage archaeologists to revisit previously excavated rockshelter sites in the Lower Pecos and beyond to evaluate deposits for unrecognized, older occupations.
PaleoAmerica, 2021
Various chronologies of the earliest Native American occupations have been proposed with varying ... more Various chronologies of the earliest Native American occupations have been proposed with varying levels of empirical support and conceptual rigor, yet none is widely accepted. A recent survey of pre-Clovis dated sites (Becerra-Valdivia and Higham 2020) concludes a pre-Last Glacial Maximum (>26,500-19,000 cal yr BP) entry of humans in the Americas, in part based on recent work at Chiquihuite Cave, Mexico. We evaluate the evidence used to develop this inference. To provide clarity, we present three explicit dispersal models for the earliest human dispersals to the Americas: Strict Clovis-First (13,050 cal yr BP), Paleoindian (<16,000 cal yr BP), and Pre-Paleoindian (>16,000 cal yr BP, encompassing pre-LGM, preferred by Becerra-Valdivia and Higham (2020)), and we summarize the current genetic and archaeological evidence bearing on each. We regard all purported Pre-Paleoindian sites as equivocal and the Strict Clovis-First model to be equally unsupported at present. We conclude that current data strongly support the Paleoindian Dispersal model, with Native American ancestors expanding into the Americas sometime after 16,000 cal yr BP (and perhaps after 14,800 cal yr BP), consistent with well-dated archaeological sites and with genetic data throughout the western hemisphere. Models of the Americas' peopling that incorporate Chiquihuite or other claimed Pre-Paleoindian sites remain unsubstantiated.
PaleoAmerica, 2021
Archaeologists working in Mexico recently claimed evidence for pre-Last Glacial Maximum human occ... more Archaeologists working in Mexico recently claimed evidence for pre-Last Glacial Maximum human occupation in the Americas, based on lithic items excavated from Chiquihuite Cave, Zacatecas. Although they provide extensive array of ancillary studies of the cave's chronostratigraphic and paleoenvironmental record, the data they present do not support their central argument, that these lithic items are anthropogenic and represent a unique lithic industry produced by early human occupants. They give limited consideration to the most plausible alternative explanation: that the assemblage is a product of natural processes of disintegration, roof fall, and mass movement of the cave fill, and thus the lithic materials are best explained as geofacts. We assess the evidence by considering the alternative hypotheses (1) that the observed phenomena are artifacts or (2) that they result from natural processes. We conclude that hypothesis 2 is more strongly supported and that Chiquihuite Cave does not represent evidence for the earliest Americans.
Various chronologies of the earliest Native American occupations have been proposed with varying ... more Various chronologies of the earliest Native American occupations have been proposed with varying levels of empirical support and conceptual rigor, yet none is widely accepted. A recent survey of pre-Clovis dated sites (Becerra-Valdivia and Higham 2020) concludes a pre-Last Glacial Maximum (>26,500-19,000 cal yr BP) entry of humans in the Americas, in part based on recent work at Chiquihuite Cave, Mexico. We evaluate the evidence used to develop this inference. To provide clarity, we present three explicit dispersal models for the earliest human dispersals to the Americas: Strict Clovis-First (13,050 cal yr BP), Paleoindian (<16,000 cal yr BP), and Pre-Paleoindian (>16,000 cal yr BP, encompassing pre-LGM, preferred by Becerra-Valdivia and Higham (2020)), and we summarize the current genetic and archaeological evidence bearing on each. We regard all purported Pre-Paleoindian sites as equivocal and the Strict Clovis-First model to be equally unsupported at present. We conclude that current data strongly support the Paleoindian Dispersal model, with Native American ancestors expanding into the Americas sometime after 16,000 cal yr BP (and perhaps after 14,800 cal yr BP), consistent with well-dated archaeological sites and with genetic data throughout the western hemisphere. Models of the Americas' peopling that incorporate Chiquihuite or other claimed Pre-Paleoindian sites remain unsubstantiated.
PaleoAmerica, 2021
Various chronologies of the earliest Native American occupations have been proposed with varying ... more Various chronologies of the earliest Native American occupations have been proposed with varying levels of empirical support and conceptual rigor, yet none is widely accepted. A recent survey of pre-Clovis dated sites (Becerra-Valdivia and Higham 2020) concludes a pre-Last Glacial Maximum (>26,500-19,000 cal yr BP) entry of humans in the Americas, in part based on recent work at Chiquihuite Cave, Mexico. We evaluate the evidence used to develop this inference. To provide clarity, we present three explicit dispersal models for the earliest human dispersals to the Americas: Strict Clovis-First (13,050 cal yr BP), Paleoindian (<16,000 cal yr BP), and Pre-Paleoindian (>16,000 cal yr BP, encompassing pre-LGM, preferred by Becerra-Valdivia and Higham (2020)), and we summarize the current genetic and archaeological evidence bearing on each. We regard all purported Pre-Paleoindian sites as equivocal and the Strict Clovis-First model to be equally unsupported at present. We conclude that current data strongly support the Paleoindian Dispersal model, with Native American ancestors expanding into the Americas sometime after 16,000 cal yr BP (and perhaps after 14,800 cal yr BP), consistent with well-dated archaeological sites and with genetic data throughout the western hemisphere. Models of the Americas' peopling that incorporate Chiquihuite or other claimed Pre-Paleoindian sites remain unsubstantiated.
PaleoAmerica, 2021
Archaeologists working in Mexico recently claimed evidence for pre-Last Glacial Maximum human occ... more Archaeologists working in Mexico recently claimed evidence for pre-Last Glacial Maximum human occupation in the Americas, based on lithic items excavated from Chiquihuite Cave, Zacatecas. Although they provide extensive array of ancillary studies of the cave's chronostratigraphic and paleoenvironmental record, the data they present do not support their central argument, that these lithic items are anthropogenic and represent a unique lithic industry produced by early human occupants. They give limited consideration to the most plausible alternative explanation: that the assemblage is a product of natural processes of disintegration, roof fall, and mass movement of the cave fill, and thus the lithic materials are best explained as geofacts. We assess the evidence by considering the alternative hypotheses (1) that the observed phenomena are artifacts or (2) that they result from natural processes. We conclude that hypothesis 2 is more strongly supported and that Chiquihuite Cave does not represent evidence for the earliest Americans.
Journal of Archaeological Science, 2021
The Nelson stone tool cache was discovered in 2008 in Mount Vernon, Ohio. The cache does not incl... more The Nelson stone tool cache was discovered in 2008 in Mount Vernon, Ohio. The cache does not include any diagnostic materials, and independent age control is unavailable. Although aspects of its 164 bifaces are suggestive of a Clovis affiliationincluding the occasional occurrence of unmistakable flute scarsnearly all are in the early-to mid-stages of production, there are no definitive finished Clovis fluted points that would make it possible to assign the cache to that time period. To ascertain its cultural affiliation, we undertook a detailed qualitative and quantitative comparison of the Nelson cache bifaces with ones known to be both Clovis and post-Clovis in age. We also conducted geochemical sourcing, ochre analyses, and microwear analysis to understand the context of the cache, regardless of its age and cultural affinity. By some key measures it is consistent with Clovis caches in this region and elsewhere, but the case remains unproven. Nonetheless, if the Nelson cache is from the Clovis period, it is significant that most of its bifaces appear to be made on large flakes, in keeping with Clovis technology in the Lower Great Lakes, and an economically conservative, risk-mitigating strategy that conforms to predictions of human foragers colonizing the area in late Pleistocene times.
PaleoAmerica, 2021
Folsom is an early Paleoindian archaeological tradition found in the North American West. Here we... more Folsom is an early Paleoindian archaeological tradition found in the North American West. Here we report new AMS radiocarbon dates for the Barger Gulch and Lindenmeier sites in Colorado along with unsuccessful dating attempts for Blackwater Draw, the Mitchell Locality, Shifting Sands, and Lipscomb on the Southern Plains. We applied Bayesian modeling using IntCal20 to our updated set of Folsom dates and estimate that the Folsom tradition lasted for a period spanning between 355-510 years at the 68 per cent credible interval or 325-650 years at the 95 per cent credible interval, starting sometime between 12,845-12,770 calendar years ago (cal yr BP) and ending sometime between 12,400-12,255 cal yr BP. Additionally, we model the spans of the start and end boundaries and find that both the adoption and abandonment of Folsom technology occurred over relatively short periods, less than 100 years and likely less than 50 years.
Plains Anthropologist, 2020
Bonfire Shelter (41VV218) is a nationally significant site in the Lower Pecos region of the West ... more Bonfire Shelter (41VV218) is a nationally significant site in the Lower Pecos region of the West Texas borderlands that contains a record of episodic use by hunter-gatherers spanning at least twelve millennia. At least two major bison hunting episodes are evident at Bonfire Shelter, one associated with Paleoindian Plainview and Folsom projectile points (Bone Bed 2), and another associated with Late Archaic Castroville and Montell points (Bone Bed 3). The approximately 12,000-year-old layers comprising Bone Bed 2 may represent the oldest and southernmost bison jump in North America, but this interpretation is the subject of recent debate. In addition, older deposits containing Rancholabrean fauna but lacking stone tools (Bone Bed 1) date to approximately 14,000 years ago and are proposed by previous researchers to be at least partially the result of human activity. This article reviews the issues surrounding Bone Bed 2 and Bone Bed 1 and presents new radiocarbon dates, artifacts, features, along with some initial observations and ongoing plans for renewed field investigations at Bonfire Shelter carried out by the Ancient Southwest Texas Project at Texas State University.
Journal of Texas Archeology and History, 2020
Locality X is a diffuse scatter which consists primarily of more than 1,000 tiny lithic artifacts... more Locality X is a diffuse scatter which consists primarily of more than 1,000 tiny lithic artifacts distributed throughout a massive stratum of eolian sand adjacent to a lunette southeast of Blackwater Draw Locality 1. The discovery of a single side-notched projectile point along with radiocarbon dates indicate that this newly discovered locality may represent a Late Prehistoric camp associated with the prehistoric springs that characterize the site. As such, it would represent the first discrete Late Prehistoric locality identified at the Blackwater Draw site; however, questions arose regarding the assemblage's validity as a primary site of human activity. The unusually small artifact sizes and their location on the landscape raised the possibility that Locality X represents a secondary accumulation of size-sorted artifacts originating from the multiple archaeological localities lying upwind along the margins of the pond, redeposited in an aggrading lunette feature. Particle size analysis and wind tunnel experiments were carried out to test this hypothesis. Results indicate that, while the site has clearly been reworked by wind, eolian processes alone do not account for the accumulation of the artifacts, and the site appears to represent a primary location of cultural activity. The study generated new information relevant to understanding wind transport of small artifacts as well as confirming the existence of a new locality at the Blackwater Draw site.
48th supplement to the Revue Archéologique de l'Est, 2019
Chapter VI, summary chapter of the volume "Les silex solutréens de Volgu (Rigny-sur-Arroux, Saône... more Chapter VI, summary chapter of the volume "Les silex solutréens de Volgu (Rigny-sur-Arroux, Saône-et-Loire, France)," a memoir focused on the iconic Solutrean Volgu biface cache. English translation follows in Epilogue; front material and plates included.
Jean-Paul THEVENOT dir. avec la coll. de Jehanne AFFOLTER, Miguel ALMEIDA, Thierry AUBRY, J. David KILBY, Jacques PELEGRIN, Jean-Baptiste PEYROUSE, Hugues PLISSON, Gabriel TEURQUETY, Les silex solutréens de Volgu (Rigny-sur-Arroux, Saône-et-Loire, France) : un sommet dans l’art de la « pierre taillée »
Paper presented at the 84th Annual Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology Albuquerque, NM., 2019
In attempting to work out the chronological relationship between newly discovered mammoth kills a... more In attempting to work out the chronological relationship between newly discovered mammoth kills and plant processing sites in southern Arizona in the 1950s, Emil Haury succinctly concluded, “the hunters were here first.” In the ensuing decades, it became clear that underlying the relatively conspicuous archaeological record of the agricultural Southwest is an abundant record of Paleoindian occupations, with a correspondingly abundant history of significant discoveries and insights regarding late Pleistocene hunter-gatherers in western North America. This presentation reviews the role of the Greater Southwest in past and present Paleoindian research, and serves as an introduction and context for the papers that follow in The Paleoindian Southwest symposium.
Journal of Archaeological and Anthropological Science, 2019
North America was first settled in the late Pleistocene by Paleoindian peoples, Clovis is the bes... more North America was first settled in the late Pleistocene by Paleoindian peoples, Clovis is the best documented archeological complex associated with this settlement. Undoubtedly, Clovis groups faced adaptive challenges in the novel environments of a sparsely populated New World. In this paper, we ask whether Clovis had small-world networks to help them create and maintain connections across the vast landscape of western North America. Small worlds are properties of many real networks and are characterized by high clustering and short path lengths. To investigate this, we examined the topology of Clovis lithic networks in western North America. We employed two commonly used measures of network topology in our analyses of regional Clovis lithic networks and show that stone raw material was transported and exchanged with the characteristics of a small world. We also show that caching and the long-distance movement of stone was an important part of creating small worlds. Clovis small-world lithic networks may have mapped onto Clovis social networks or may have been independent of other networks, but either way, lithic exchange networks were far from random and served an important role in connecting local populations.
Journal of Texas Archaeology and History: Special Volume No. 6, 2024
Eagle Nest Canyon, or Mile Canyon, has a storied archaeological history spanning 90 years and cou... more Eagle Nest Canyon, or Mile Canyon, has a storied archaeological history spanning 90 years and counting, a field research record unrivaled in the Lower Pecos Canyonlands archaeological region of southwest Texas and adjacent parts of Mexico (Black 2013). Here we recount that history with an emphasis on the latest and ongoing chapter, that of the Ancient Southwest Texas Project (ASWT) of Texas State University. This papers serves as an historical context for the collection of papers that follows.
Journal of Texas Archaeology and History: Special Volume No. 6, 2024
From 2014-2017 the Ancient Southwest Texas Project (ASWT) of Texas State University conducted exc... more From 2014-2017 the Ancient Southwest Texas Project (ASWT) of Texas State University conducted excavations at Eagle Cave (41VV167), Texas. During these excavations, a discrete Paleoindian-age occupation associated with burned rock, chipped stone tools and debitage, and the scattered elements of Bison antiquus was encountered. Radiocarbon assays from the cultural component cluster between approximately 12,500 and 12,600 cal BP (Koenig et al. 2022) placing the deposit solidly in a Younger Dryas and Folsom-age time frame. While formal chipped stone artifacts from this period have received more attention, this paper addresses an artifact class often considered mundane in comparison: lithic debitage.
Journal of Texas Archaeology and History: Special Volume No. 6, 2024
The goals of this paper are to review the history of Bonfire Shelter research and to provide an o... more The goals of this paper are to review the history of Bonfire Shelter research and to provide an overview of its deposits that includes the bonebeds along with the lower-profile components that exist between and above them. Where warranted, the overview presents new observations resulting from ASWT work at the site, with the caveat that more formal analysis remains in progress. An additional goal of this article is to serve as an introduction to a series of more focused articles on ASWT research on Bone Bed 1 and Bone Bed 2 at Bonfire Shelter that follow in this collection.
Journal of Texas Archaeology and History: Special Volume No. 6, 2024
This paper summarizes features and artifacts associated with the Southern Pacific Railroad on the... more This paper summarizes features and artifacts associated with the Southern Pacific Railroad on the Skiles Ranch between ENC and the town of Langtry, Texas based on work carried out as an Honors Thesis at Texas State University (Mezzell 2022a, 2022b) and field documentation carried out as part of the 2019 Texas State University Archaeological Field School (Black and Kilby 2024). The goals of this paper are to provide an introductory overview of the archaeological resources related to the railroad and preliminary interpretation and reflections based on this record and the information in Skiles (1996).
Journal of Texas Archaeology and History: Special Volume No. 6, 2024
This paper concludes a volume that highlights the completed and ongoing archaeological research i... more This paper concludes a volume that highlights the completed and ongoing archaeological research in Eagle Nest Canyon (ENC) carried out by the Ancient Southwest Texas (ASWT) project of Texas State University in collaboration with graduate students, independent researchers, dedicated volunteers, and the Shumla Archaeological Research and Education Center (Shumla). Here we briefly review the goals and accomplishments of ASWT, and then move on to summarize ASWT data, discuss ongoing research, and outline potential future research.
Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports, 2022
Clovis projectile points are found in association with mammoths and other proboscideans at multip... more Clovis projectile points are found in association with mammoths and other proboscideans at multiple sites from across much of North America. The conventional, and arguably parsimonious, explanation for this association is that Clovis points were weapons used to hunt the animals with which they were found. Recently, Eren et al. (2021) argued that experimental data coupled with estimations of mammoth anatomy indicate that Clovis points would not have been effective for proboscidean hunting and were more likely used as cutting tools for scavenging carcasses. We find a number of weaknesses in their argument, including their estimations of mammoth anatomy, the validity of their experimental design, and their assumptions regarding Clovis hunting behavior. We evaluate their argument in light of ethnographic, experimental, and archaeological data and conclude that each of these datasets strongly supports the interpretation of Clovis points as weapons designed for use in hunting large animals, including proboscideans.
American Antiquity, 2022
An enduring problem in North American archaeology concerns the nature of the transition between t... more An enduring problem in North American archaeology concerns the nature of the transition between the Clovis and Folsom Paleoindian complexes in the West. Traditional models indicate a temporal hiatus between the two complexes implying that Folsom was a population replacement for Clovis. Alternatively, if Folsom was an innovation that occurred within Clovis populations and subsequently spread, we would expect to see a temporal overlap. Here, we test these hypotheses using high-quality radiocarbon dates and Bayesian statistics to infer the temporal boundaries of the complexes. We show that the Folsom complex initially appears between 12,900 and 12,740 cal BP, whereas Clovis disappears between 12,720 and12,490 cal BP. Therefore, Folsom may have appeared about 200 years before Clovis disappeared, and so the two complexes likely co-occurred in the West for nearly eight generations. This finding suggests that Folsom was a successful adaptive innovation that diffused through the western Clovis population, eventually going to fixation over multiple generations.
American Antiquity, 2021
Recent excavations by the Ancient Southwest Texas Project of Texas State University sampled a pre... more Recent excavations by the Ancient Southwest Texas Project of Texas State University sampled a previously undocumented Younger Dryas component from Eagle Cave in the Lower Pecos Canyonlands of Texas. This stratified assemblage consists of bison (Bison antiquus) bones in association with lithic artifacts and a hearth. Bayesian modeling yields an age of 12,660-12,480 cal BP, and analyses indicate behaviors associated with the processing of a juvenile bison and the manufacture and maintenance of lithic tools. This article presents spatial, faunal, macrobotanical, chronometric, geoarchaeological, and lithic analyses relating to the Younger Dryas component within Eagle Cave. The identification of the Younger Dryas occupation in Eagle Cave should encourage archaeologists to revisit previously excavated rockshelter sites in the Lower Pecos and beyond to evaluate deposits for unrecognized, older occupations.
PaleoAmerica, 2021
Various chronologies of the earliest Native American occupations have been proposed with varying ... more Various chronologies of the earliest Native American occupations have been proposed with varying levels of empirical support and conceptual rigor, yet none is widely accepted. A recent survey of pre-Clovis dated sites (Becerra-Valdivia and Higham 2020) concludes a pre-Last Glacial Maximum (>26,500-19,000 cal yr BP) entry of humans in the Americas, in part based on recent work at Chiquihuite Cave, Mexico. We evaluate the evidence used to develop this inference. To provide clarity, we present three explicit dispersal models for the earliest human dispersals to the Americas: Strict Clovis-First (13,050 cal yr BP), Paleoindian (<16,000 cal yr BP), and Pre-Paleoindian (>16,000 cal yr BP, encompassing pre-LGM, preferred by Becerra-Valdivia and Higham (2020)), and we summarize the current genetic and archaeological evidence bearing on each. We regard all purported Pre-Paleoindian sites as equivocal and the Strict Clovis-First model to be equally unsupported at present. We conclude that current data strongly support the Paleoindian Dispersal model, with Native American ancestors expanding into the Americas sometime after 16,000 cal yr BP (and perhaps after 14,800 cal yr BP), consistent with well-dated archaeological sites and with genetic data throughout the western hemisphere. Models of the Americas' peopling that incorporate Chiquihuite or other claimed Pre-Paleoindian sites remain unsubstantiated.
PaleoAmerica, 2021
Archaeologists working in Mexico recently claimed evidence for pre-Last Glacial Maximum human occ... more Archaeologists working in Mexico recently claimed evidence for pre-Last Glacial Maximum human occupation in the Americas, based on lithic items excavated from Chiquihuite Cave, Zacatecas. Although they provide extensive array of ancillary studies of the cave's chronostratigraphic and paleoenvironmental record, the data they present do not support their central argument, that these lithic items are anthropogenic and represent a unique lithic industry produced by early human occupants. They give limited consideration to the most plausible alternative explanation: that the assemblage is a product of natural processes of disintegration, roof fall, and mass movement of the cave fill, and thus the lithic materials are best explained as geofacts. We assess the evidence by considering the alternative hypotheses (1) that the observed phenomena are artifacts or (2) that they result from natural processes. We conclude that hypothesis 2 is more strongly supported and that Chiquihuite Cave does not represent evidence for the earliest Americans.
Various chronologies of the earliest Native American occupations have been proposed with varying ... more Various chronologies of the earliest Native American occupations have been proposed with varying levels of empirical support and conceptual rigor, yet none is widely accepted. A recent survey of pre-Clovis dated sites (Becerra-Valdivia and Higham 2020) concludes a pre-Last Glacial Maximum (>26,500-19,000 cal yr BP) entry of humans in the Americas, in part based on recent work at Chiquihuite Cave, Mexico. We evaluate the evidence used to develop this inference. To provide clarity, we present three explicit dispersal models for the earliest human dispersals to the Americas: Strict Clovis-First (13,050 cal yr BP), Paleoindian (<16,000 cal yr BP), and Pre-Paleoindian (>16,000 cal yr BP, encompassing pre-LGM, preferred by Becerra-Valdivia and Higham (2020)), and we summarize the current genetic and archaeological evidence bearing on each. We regard all purported Pre-Paleoindian sites as equivocal and the Strict Clovis-First model to be equally unsupported at present. We conclude that current data strongly support the Paleoindian Dispersal model, with Native American ancestors expanding into the Americas sometime after 16,000 cal yr BP (and perhaps after 14,800 cal yr BP), consistent with well-dated archaeological sites and with genetic data throughout the western hemisphere. Models of the Americas' peopling that incorporate Chiquihuite or other claimed Pre-Paleoindian sites remain unsubstantiated.
PaleoAmerica, 2021
Various chronologies of the earliest Native American occupations have been proposed with varying ... more Various chronologies of the earliest Native American occupations have been proposed with varying levels of empirical support and conceptual rigor, yet none is widely accepted. A recent survey of pre-Clovis dated sites (Becerra-Valdivia and Higham 2020) concludes a pre-Last Glacial Maximum (>26,500-19,000 cal yr BP) entry of humans in the Americas, in part based on recent work at Chiquihuite Cave, Mexico. We evaluate the evidence used to develop this inference. To provide clarity, we present three explicit dispersal models for the earliest human dispersals to the Americas: Strict Clovis-First (13,050 cal yr BP), Paleoindian (<16,000 cal yr BP), and Pre-Paleoindian (>16,000 cal yr BP, encompassing pre-LGM, preferred by Becerra-Valdivia and Higham (2020)), and we summarize the current genetic and archaeological evidence bearing on each. We regard all purported Pre-Paleoindian sites as equivocal and the Strict Clovis-First model to be equally unsupported at present. We conclude that current data strongly support the Paleoindian Dispersal model, with Native American ancestors expanding into the Americas sometime after 16,000 cal yr BP (and perhaps after 14,800 cal yr BP), consistent with well-dated archaeological sites and with genetic data throughout the western hemisphere. Models of the Americas' peopling that incorporate Chiquihuite or other claimed Pre-Paleoindian sites remain unsubstantiated.
PaleoAmerica, 2021
Archaeologists working in Mexico recently claimed evidence for pre-Last Glacial Maximum human occ... more Archaeologists working in Mexico recently claimed evidence for pre-Last Glacial Maximum human occupation in the Americas, based on lithic items excavated from Chiquihuite Cave, Zacatecas. Although they provide extensive array of ancillary studies of the cave's chronostratigraphic and paleoenvironmental record, the data they present do not support their central argument, that these lithic items are anthropogenic and represent a unique lithic industry produced by early human occupants. They give limited consideration to the most plausible alternative explanation: that the assemblage is a product of natural processes of disintegration, roof fall, and mass movement of the cave fill, and thus the lithic materials are best explained as geofacts. We assess the evidence by considering the alternative hypotheses (1) that the observed phenomena are artifacts or (2) that they result from natural processes. We conclude that hypothesis 2 is more strongly supported and that Chiquihuite Cave does not represent evidence for the earliest Americans.
Journal of Archaeological Science, 2021
The Nelson stone tool cache was discovered in 2008 in Mount Vernon, Ohio. The cache does not incl... more The Nelson stone tool cache was discovered in 2008 in Mount Vernon, Ohio. The cache does not include any diagnostic materials, and independent age control is unavailable. Although aspects of its 164 bifaces are suggestive of a Clovis affiliationincluding the occasional occurrence of unmistakable flute scarsnearly all are in the early-to mid-stages of production, there are no definitive finished Clovis fluted points that would make it possible to assign the cache to that time period. To ascertain its cultural affiliation, we undertook a detailed qualitative and quantitative comparison of the Nelson cache bifaces with ones known to be both Clovis and post-Clovis in age. We also conducted geochemical sourcing, ochre analyses, and microwear analysis to understand the context of the cache, regardless of its age and cultural affinity. By some key measures it is consistent with Clovis caches in this region and elsewhere, but the case remains unproven. Nonetheless, if the Nelson cache is from the Clovis period, it is significant that most of its bifaces appear to be made on large flakes, in keeping with Clovis technology in the Lower Great Lakes, and an economically conservative, risk-mitigating strategy that conforms to predictions of human foragers colonizing the area in late Pleistocene times.
PaleoAmerica, 2021
Folsom is an early Paleoindian archaeological tradition found in the North American West. Here we... more Folsom is an early Paleoindian archaeological tradition found in the North American West. Here we report new AMS radiocarbon dates for the Barger Gulch and Lindenmeier sites in Colorado along with unsuccessful dating attempts for Blackwater Draw, the Mitchell Locality, Shifting Sands, and Lipscomb on the Southern Plains. We applied Bayesian modeling using IntCal20 to our updated set of Folsom dates and estimate that the Folsom tradition lasted for a period spanning between 355-510 years at the 68 per cent credible interval or 325-650 years at the 95 per cent credible interval, starting sometime between 12,845-12,770 calendar years ago (cal yr BP) and ending sometime between 12,400-12,255 cal yr BP. Additionally, we model the spans of the start and end boundaries and find that both the adoption and abandonment of Folsom technology occurred over relatively short periods, less than 100 years and likely less than 50 years.
Plains Anthropologist, 2020
Bonfire Shelter (41VV218) is a nationally significant site in the Lower Pecos region of the West ... more Bonfire Shelter (41VV218) is a nationally significant site in the Lower Pecos region of the West Texas borderlands that contains a record of episodic use by hunter-gatherers spanning at least twelve millennia. At least two major bison hunting episodes are evident at Bonfire Shelter, one associated with Paleoindian Plainview and Folsom projectile points (Bone Bed 2), and another associated with Late Archaic Castroville and Montell points (Bone Bed 3). The approximately 12,000-year-old layers comprising Bone Bed 2 may represent the oldest and southernmost bison jump in North America, but this interpretation is the subject of recent debate. In addition, older deposits containing Rancholabrean fauna but lacking stone tools (Bone Bed 1) date to approximately 14,000 years ago and are proposed by previous researchers to be at least partially the result of human activity. This article reviews the issues surrounding Bone Bed 2 and Bone Bed 1 and presents new radiocarbon dates, artifacts, features, along with some initial observations and ongoing plans for renewed field investigations at Bonfire Shelter carried out by the Ancient Southwest Texas Project at Texas State University.
Journal of Texas Archeology and History, 2020
Locality X is a diffuse scatter which consists primarily of more than 1,000 tiny lithic artifacts... more Locality X is a diffuse scatter which consists primarily of more than 1,000 tiny lithic artifacts distributed throughout a massive stratum of eolian sand adjacent to a lunette southeast of Blackwater Draw Locality 1. The discovery of a single side-notched projectile point along with radiocarbon dates indicate that this newly discovered locality may represent a Late Prehistoric camp associated with the prehistoric springs that characterize the site. As such, it would represent the first discrete Late Prehistoric locality identified at the Blackwater Draw site; however, questions arose regarding the assemblage's validity as a primary site of human activity. The unusually small artifact sizes and their location on the landscape raised the possibility that Locality X represents a secondary accumulation of size-sorted artifacts originating from the multiple archaeological localities lying upwind along the margins of the pond, redeposited in an aggrading lunette feature. Particle size analysis and wind tunnel experiments were carried out to test this hypothesis. Results indicate that, while the site has clearly been reworked by wind, eolian processes alone do not account for the accumulation of the artifacts, and the site appears to represent a primary location of cultural activity. The study generated new information relevant to understanding wind transport of small artifacts as well as confirming the existence of a new locality at the Blackwater Draw site.
48th supplement to the Revue Archéologique de l'Est, 2019
Chapter VI, summary chapter of the volume "Les silex solutréens de Volgu (Rigny-sur-Arroux, Saône... more Chapter VI, summary chapter of the volume "Les silex solutréens de Volgu (Rigny-sur-Arroux, Saône-et-Loire, France)," a memoir focused on the iconic Solutrean Volgu biface cache. English translation follows in Epilogue; front material and plates included.
Jean-Paul THEVENOT dir. avec la coll. de Jehanne AFFOLTER, Miguel ALMEIDA, Thierry AUBRY, J. David KILBY, Jacques PELEGRIN, Jean-Baptiste PEYROUSE, Hugues PLISSON, Gabriel TEURQUETY, Les silex solutréens de Volgu (Rigny-sur-Arroux, Saône-et-Loire, France) : un sommet dans l’art de la « pierre taillée »
Paper presented at the 84th Annual Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology Albuquerque, NM., 2019
In attempting to work out the chronological relationship between newly discovered mammoth kills a... more In attempting to work out the chronological relationship between newly discovered mammoth kills and plant processing sites in southern Arizona in the 1950s, Emil Haury succinctly concluded, “the hunters were here first.” In the ensuing decades, it became clear that underlying the relatively conspicuous archaeological record of the agricultural Southwest is an abundant record of Paleoindian occupations, with a correspondingly abundant history of significant discoveries and insights regarding late Pleistocene hunter-gatherers in western North America. This presentation reviews the role of the Greater Southwest in past and present Paleoindian research, and serves as an introduction and context for the papers that follow in The Paleoindian Southwest symposium.
Journal of Archaeological and Anthropological Science, 2019
North America was first settled in the late Pleistocene by Paleoindian peoples, Clovis is the bes... more North America was first settled in the late Pleistocene by Paleoindian peoples, Clovis is the best documented archeological complex associated with this settlement. Undoubtedly, Clovis groups faced adaptive challenges in the novel environments of a sparsely populated New World. In this paper, we ask whether Clovis had small-world networks to help them create and maintain connections across the vast landscape of western North America. Small worlds are properties of many real networks and are characterized by high clustering and short path lengths. To investigate this, we examined the topology of Clovis lithic networks in western North America. We employed two commonly used measures of network topology in our analyses of regional Clovis lithic networks and show that stone raw material was transported and exchanged with the characteristics of a small world. We also show that caching and the long-distance movement of stone was an important part of creating small worlds. Clovis small-world lithic networks may have mapped onto Clovis social networks or may have been independent of other networks, but either way, lithic exchange networks were far from random and served an important role in connecting local populations.
Journal of Texas Archeology and History Special Volume No. 6, 2024
The 28 research papers in this special edited edition of the Journal of Texas Archeology and Hist... more The 28 research papers in this special edited edition of the Journal of Texas Archeology and History summarize ten years of archaeological investigations in the Lower Pecos Canyonlands of southwestern Texas by Texas State University's Ancient Southwest Texas project (ASWT). It honors landowners and supporters, Jack and Wilmuth Skiles, their love of the land, and its rich human history. The extensively illustrated volume highlights state-of-the-art research at Eagle Cave and Bonfire Shelter, the best-known of the canyon’s well-preserved rockshelters, as well as seven other sites representing an archaeological record spanning over 13,000 years. While some papers focus on individual sites, others address canyon-wide or regional aspects of the archaeological record, ranging from rock art research, to specialized studies (e.g., zooarchaeology, paleobotany, radiocarbon dating), to collections-based research spanning from early prehistory through the historic railroad record. An introductory paper memorializes the Skiles and their stewardship of Eagle Nest Canyon.
The Paleoindian Clovis culture is known for distinctive stone and bone tools often associated wit... more The Paleoindian Clovis culture is known for distinctive stone and bone tools often associated with mammoth and bison remains, dating back some 13,500 years. While the term Clovis is known to every archaeology student, few books have detailed the specifics of Clovis archaeology. This collection of essays investigates caches of Clovis tools, many of which have only recently come to light. These caches are time capsules that allow archaeologists to examine Clovis tools at earlier stages of manufacture than the broken and discarded artifacts typically recovered from other sites. The studies comprising this volume treat methodological and theoretical issues including the recognition of Clovis caches, Clovis lithic technology, mobility, and land use.
86th Meeting of the Society for American Anthropology, 2021
Bonfire Shelter is a well-known but imperfectly understood multicomponent rockshelter site locate... more Bonfire Shelter is a well-known but imperfectly understood multicomponent rockshelter site located in a short tributary canyon of the Rio Grande in West Texas. The site is particularly known for three “bone beds” deposited between about 14,000 BP and 2,500 BP, two of which appear to represent mass bison kills. Three years of renewed investigation by Texas State University’s Ancient Southwest Texas Project has resulted in new observations on the complex shelter stratigraphy including additional radiocarbon dates. This paper combines new and previous dates with stratigraphic observations in an attempt to generate a chronostratigraphic model that goes beyond the bone beds to include lesser known occupations and deposits in the rockshelter, and to provide a more comprehensive overview of depositional history and site formation at this classic site.
Informal Presentation, 2019
Bonfire Shelter is located in the Lower Pecos Canyonlands of Southwest Texas and contains deep de... more Bonfire Shelter is located in the Lower Pecos Canyonlands of Southwest Texas and contains deep deposits reaching back into the last Ice Age. The site is compelling for two primary reasons. First, it may preserve evidence of the oldest and southernmost “bison jump” in North America; however, there is disagreement as to whether a 12,000-year-old layer of bones represents one or as many as three hunting events, and whether or not they truly represent bison jumps. If they do, it is an unprecedented adaptive strategy for North American Paleoindians. Second, a lower layer includes remains of mammoth and other Pleistocene megafauna of ambiguous origin. Previous researchers have argued that these 14,600 year old remains also reflect human activity, but this has never been verified. In an effort to generate more definitive answers to the uncertainties surrounding the interpretation of Bonfire Shelter, the Ancient Southwest Texas Project (ASWT) at Texas State University initiated new fieldwork at the site in 2017.
Blackwater Draw Locality 1, a.k.a. the Clovis site, is widely recognized as one of the most signi... more Blackwater Draw Locality 1, a.k.a. the Clovis site, is widely recognized as one of the most significant archaeological sites in North America. BWD is actually a series of sites representing a hunting and camp area used throughout the Late Pleistocene and much of the Holocene. Archaeological investigations at BWD over the last 85 years have revealed an extensive stratigraphic record that established a sequence of archaeological cultures for the Southern Plains and the Southwest, including Clovis, Folsom, Agate Basin, Plainview, Angostura, and Cody as well as Archaic and later prehistoric cultures. This poster describes four avenues of current research by ENMU at BWD that build upon this history and investigate new discoveries: (1) renewed excavations of a Late Paleoindian bison kill in “Isequilla’s Pit,” (2) investigations into the age and cultural affiliation of the newly discovered Locality X, (3) laboratory excavation of a block of Folsom-age sediment and bone salvaged in the 1960’s, and (4) intensive paleoenvironmental research on BWD and a newly discovered Pleistocene locality to the north. This poster serves as an introduction to the other posters in this symposium, which present aspects of these projects in more detail.
For nearly as long as researchers have been trying to piece together the initial human colonizati... more For nearly as long as researchers have been trying to piece together the initial human colonization of the New World, it has been recognized that doing so not only requires describing past peoples and their cultures, but also reconstructing the past environments that they occupied. The Southern High Plains of North America in general, and Blackwater Draw Locality 1 (the Clovis site) in particular, have played a crucial role in the history of both of these avenues of research. New research at four localities from this important region is providing a more detailed record of the changing physical environment occupied by Late Pleistocene and Holocene human populations. This poster summarizes new data on pollen, phyotiliths, diatoms, ostracods, stable carbon isotopes, and sediments along with new dates on both classic and newly discovered stratigraphy. The results provide a series of detailed snapshots of the prehistoric environment as encountered by the first people to occupy the region and their descendants.
In 2012 ENMU received an NSF NM EPSCoR Seed Grant to provide for undergraduates the kind of resea... more In 2012 ENMU received an NSF NM EPSCoR Seed Grant to provide for undergraduates the kind of research opportunities that are typically afforded only to graduate students (Kilby 2011). Research goals included reconstructing past environmental conditions from biological, geological, and archaeological data collected and analyzed primarily by the students themselves. Together, the courses consisted of four components – research design, data collection, analysis, and presentation of results – that exemplify the process of scientific investigation. Students compiled and synthesized these results and presented them in a public research symposium sponsored by the ENMU Department of Anthropology. The classes provided experience for over 20 undergraduate Anthropology, Biology, and Geology majors, and generated meaningful results about past and future climate change. A contingent of these students is currently relating the results to ethnohistoric data on contemporary climate change adaptation in local ranching and industry. This model for undergraduate education through research proved successful with regard to both educational goals and research productivity, and may provide a useful framework for programs in other disciplines.
Debate over the antiquity of humans in North America has resulted in polemic positions known as P... more Debate over the antiquity of humans in North America has resulted in polemic positions known as Pre-Clovis and Clovis-first. Review of the debate reveals that the Clovis-first position often has been generalized as a one-dimensional caricature to be used as both straw man and baseline. A deconstruction of this generalization indicates that it is composed of several independent issues often treated as interdependent. Specifically, we argue that issues of timing, colonization routes, subsistence specialization, and landscape familiarity should be individually addressed outside the context of supporting or refuting a particular perspective on the peopling of the New World.
In this edition of the Seven Ages Audio Journal, we lead off the discussion with news from around... more In this edition of the Seven Ages Audio Journal, we lead off the discussion with news from around the world of archaeology, highlighting a 9,000-year-old shrine in Jordan and a new article from the Mammoth Trumpet Journal discussing perishable technologies with former SAAJ guests J.M. Advasio and Tom Dillehay.
We then feature an in-depth interview with David Kilby of Texas State University and the Ancient Southwest Texas Project to discuss the Bonfire Shelter bison jump. David Kilby has a long history of archaeological work at famous sites such as Blackwater Draw, Murray Springs, Mockingbird Gap, Folsom, and the Rio Rancho Folsom site.
Texas Monthly, 2022
At least 2,500 years ago, hunters in West Texas drove hundreds of bison off a cliff. Now archaeol... more At least 2,500 years ago, hunters in West Texas drove hundreds of bison off a cliff. Now archaeologists are uncovering new clues at the world’s southernmost—and possibly oldest—bison jump site.
By Pam LeBlanc
Texas Archeology Month Virtual Symposium, 2020
A public overview of Bonfire Shelter's archaeology, history of investigations, and a summary of n... more A public overview of Bonfire Shelter's archaeology, history of investigations, and a summary of new research presented as part of Texas Archeology Month. Recorded and edited by Drew Sitters of the Texas Historical Commission. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vFcVf7ImPbY
At the Bonfire Shelter archaeological site in West Texas, people were butchering bison more than ... more At the Bonfire Shelter archaeological site in West Texas, people were butchering bison more than 11,000 years ago. Today, Texas State students and faculty uncover and preserve clues about ancient life. - Joshua Matthews, Video Producer.
The Archaeology Show, Episode 50, 2018
The people known to archaeologists as "Clovis" were widely thought to be the first people to migr... more The people known to archaeologists as "Clovis" were widely thought to be the first people to migrate to North America. Where did they come from and how did they get here? Also, when did they get here? These questions remain unanswered in North American Prehistory but we're getting a lot closer. Dr. David Kilby joins us to talk theories and some of the latest evidence. - Chris Webster
Link: https://www.archaeologypodcastnetwork.com/archaeology/50
Nature Notes, Marfa Public Radio, 2017
The canyonlands surrounding the confluence of the Pecos River and the Rio Grande are the boundary... more The canyonlands surrounding the confluence of the Pecos River and the Rio Grande are the boundary of West Texas – and they’re famed in Texas archeology. Natural shelters here preserve stunning rock art, and one of the best records of North American hunter-gatherer life. One of these rock shelters tells a particularly dramatic story. Bonfire Shelter is the southernmost, and perhaps the earliest, evidence of an ancient hunting technique. Here, hunters successfully steered bison into a fatal fall. Now, Bonfire Shelter is the focus of new research. - Drew Stuart, Link:
http://marfapublicradio.org/blog/nature-notes/bonfire-shelter-a-window-into-the-daring-hunts-of-texas-prehistory/
American Archaeology Magazine Vol. 18, No. 1., 2014
Blackwater Draw is one of the most significant sites in the New World. Archaeologists have been w... more Blackwater Draw is one of the most significant sites in the New World. Archaeologists have been working there for decades to uncover the details of life thousands of years ago.
Mammoth Trumpet, Center for the Study of the First Americans Vol. 27, No. 2, 2012
KENW / PBS, 2004
Ever since unusually ancient and deadly spear points were found near Clovis, New Mexico in the 19... more Ever since unusually ancient and deadly spear points were found near Clovis, New Mexico in the 1930s, many archeologists have believed that this type of weapon originated with the first settlers of the New World, who supposedly migrated from Asia at the end of the last ice age. In "America's Stone Age Explorers," NOVA reports new evidence that challenges this widely held view.
Journal of Anthropological Research, 2019
Now is a good time for a volume like Strangers in a New Land—a time in which the specific details... more Now is a good time for a volume like Strangers in a New Land—a time in which the specific details of the much-maligned “Clovis-first” model appear to fit less satisfactorily with emerging archaeological information, and yet no specific model has taken hold as an adequately detailed and agreed-upon alternative. This book does not attempt to provide a specific model so much as to present a collection of sites that such a model should incorporate. Although it has its flaws, it mostly succeeds in this regard.
Lithic Technology, 2019
BOOK REVIEW The great Paleolithic war: how science forged an understanding of America’s ice age p... more BOOK REVIEW
The great Paleolithic war: how science forged an
understanding of America’s ice age past, by David J.
Meltzer, Chicago, IL, The University of Chicago Press,
2015, 670 pp., $55 (hardbound).
Society for Archaeological Sciences Bulletin, 2017
