April 7, 2017

Pre-Clovis occupation 14,550 years ago at the Page-Ladson site, Florida, and the peopling of the Americas

Stone tools and mastodon bones at the Page-Ladson site in Florida have been dated to 14,550 years ago. People butchered or scavenged a mastodon in a bedrock sinkhole in the Aucilla River. The site has been studied since 1983 but the earlier evidence of a Pre-Clovis date were challenged. Excavations began anew in 2014. The new studies now confirm that the stone artifacts, which include a biface knife fragment made of coastal plain chert, have been dated at the Pre-Clovis date of 14,550 years ago. Tusk marks of the mastodon show stone tool made grooves as humans were extracting the tusk at that date.
Page-Ladson now joins Monte Verde, Chile and Paisley Cave, Oregon as Pre-Clovis sites that have shown evidence of Pre-Clovis human activity beyond just stone artifacts.

Science Advances has the entire research report here;
http://advances.sciencemag.org/content/2/5/e1600375

Mike Ruggeri’s Pre-Clovis World
http://preclovisworld.tumblr.com

Mike Ruggeri’s Pre-Clovis and Clovis World Magazine
http://bit.ly/1uAWdvk