Editing Clovis culture (section)

==Lifestyle==
Clovis hunter-gatherers are characterized as "high-technology foragers" who utilized sophisticated technology to maintain access to resources under conditions of high mobility.<ref name=":7">{{Cite journal |last1=Kelly |first1=Robert L. |last2=Todd |first2=Lawrence C. |date=April 1988 |title=Coming into the Country: Early Paleoindian Hunting and Mobility |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/american-antiquity/article/abs/coming-into-the-country-early-paleoindian-hunting-and-mobility/371A52B30CAC0303787CD7A98E08F11C |journal=American Antiquity |volume=53 |issue=2 |pages=231–244 |doi=10.2307/281017 |issn=0002-7316 |jstor=281017|url-access=subscription }}</ref> In many Clovis localities, the stone tools found at a site were hundreds of kilometers away from the source stone outcrop, in one case over {{Convert|900|km|mi}} away.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Wernick |first=Christopher D. |date=August 2015 |title=Clovis points on flakes: A technological variation seen in long distance lithic transport |url=http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1179/2052546X15Y.0000000004 |journal=Plains Anthropologist |volume=60 |issue=235 |pages=246–265 |doi=10.1179/2052546X15Y.0000000004 |issn=0032-0447|url-access=subscription }}</ref> The people who produced the Clovis culture probably had a low population density but with geographically extensive cultural networks.<ref name=":5" /> The Clovis culture is suggested to have heavily utilized hides, wood, and natural fibres, though no direct evidence of this has been preserved.<ref name=":0" /> Bone needles, likely used to stitch clothes from fur, have been found at the Clovis-associated [[La Prele Mammoth Site|La Prele site]] in Wyoming. They were made of [[Hare|jackrabbit]], [[red fox]], and feline (suggested to be either [[bobcat]], [[Canada lynx]], [[cougar]], or [[American cheetah]]) bone, suggesting that these species were likely exploited for their pelts.<ref name=":24">{{Cite journal |last1=Pelton |first1=Spencer R. |last2=Litynski |first2=McKenna |last3=Allaun |first3=Sarah A. |last4=Buckley |first4=Michael |last5=Govaerts |first5=Jack |last6=Schoborg |first6=Todd |last7=O’Brien |first7=Matthew |last8=Hill |first8=Matthew G. |last9=Sanders |first9=Paul |last10=Mackie |first10=Madeline E. |last11=Kelly |first11=Robert L. |last12=Surovell |first12=Todd A. |date=November 27, 2024 |editor-last=Buchanan |editor-first=Briggs |title=Early Paleoindian use of canids, felids, and hares for bone needle production at the La Prele site, Wyoming, USA |journal=PLOS ONE |volume=19 |issue=11 |pages=e0313610 |doi=10.1371/journal.pone.0313610 |doi-access=free |issn=1932-6203 |pmc=11602046 |pmid=39602430}}</ref> Clovis artifacts have often been found associated with big game, including [[proboscidea]]ns ([[Columbian mammoth]], [[mastodon]],<ref name=":2" /> and the [[gomphothere]] ''[[Cuvieronius]]<ref name=":25">{{Cite journal |last1=Sanchez |first1=Guadalupe |last2=Holliday |first2=Vance T. |last3=Gaines |first3=Edmund P. |last4=Arroyo-Cabrales |first4=Joaquín |last5=Martínez-Tagüeña |first5=Natalia |last6=Kowler |first6=Andrew |last7=Lange |first7=Todd |last8=Hodgins |first8=Gregory W. L. |last9=Mentzer |first9=Susan M. |date=July 29, 2014 |title=Human (Clovis)–gomphothere (Cuvieronius sp.) association ~13,390 calibrated yBP in Sonora, Mexico |journal=Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences |volume=111 |issue=30 |pages=10972–10977 |bibcode=2014PNAS..11110972S |doi=10.1073/pnas.1404546111 |issn=0027-8424 |pmc=4121807 |pmid=25024193 |doi-access=free}}</ref>'') bison,<ref name=":2" /> and equines of the genus ''[[Equus (genus)|Equus]].''<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Kooyman |first1=Brian |last2=Newman |first2=Margaret E. |last3=Cluney |first3=Christine |last4=Lobb |first4=Murray |last5=Tolman |first5=Shayne |last6=McNeil |first6=Paul |last7=Hills |first7=L. V. |date=October 2001 |title=Identification of Horse Exploitation by Clovis Hunters Based on Protein Analysis |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/product/identifier/S0002731600042025/type/journal_article |journal=American Antiquity |volume=66 |issue=4 |pages=686–691 |doi=10.2307/2694181 |jstor=2694181 |issn=0002-7316|url-access=subscription }}</ref> A handful of sites possibly suggest the hunting of [[Caribou|caribou/reindeer]], [[Peccary|peccaries]] (''[[Platygonus]]'', ''[[Mylohyus]]''), [[ground sloths]] (''[[Paramylodon]]''), [[glyptodonts]] (''[[Glyptotherium]]''), [[tapir]]s, the camel ''[[Camelops]]'', and the llama ''[[Hemiauchenia]]''.<ref name=":2" /><ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Haynes |first1=Gary |last2=Stanford |first2=Dennis |date=September 1984 |title=On the Possible Utilization of Camelops by Early Man in North America |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/product/identifier/S0033589400016835/type/journal_article |journal=Quaternary Research |language=en |volume=22 |issue=2 |pages=216–230 |bibcode=1984QuRes..22..216H |doi=10.1016/0033-5894(84)90041-3 |issn=0033-5894|url-access=subscription }}</ref><ref name=":18">{{Citation |last=Haynes |first=Gary |title=Estimates of Clovis-Era Megafaunal Populations and Their Extinction Risks |date=2009 |work=American Megafaunal Extinctions at the End of the Pleistocene |pages=39–53 |editor-last=Haynes |editor-first=Gary |url=http://link.springer.com/10.1007/978-1-4020-8793-6_3 |access-date=May 2, 2024 |series=Vertebrate Paleobiology and Paleoanthropology |place=Dordrecht |publisher=Springer Netherlands |doi=10.1007/978-1-4020-8793-6_3 |isbn=978-1-4020-8792-9|url-access=subscription }}</ref> Proboscideans (predominantly mammoths) are the most common recorded species found in Clovis sites, followed by bison. However, the Clovis culture is not exclusively associated with large animals, with several sites showing the exploitation of small game like tortoises,<ref name=":2" /> with lagomorphs, predominantly jackrabbits, being found at around 31% of all Clovis sites.<ref name=":24" /> It is generally agreed that the people who produced the Clovis culture were reliant on big game for a significant portion of their diet, while also consuming smaller animals and plants,<ref name=":16" /> though some authors have argued for a generalist hunter-gatherer lifestyle that also involved the occasional targeting of megafauna.<ref name=":2" /><ref name=":15">{{Cite book |last1=Smallwood |first1=Ashley M. |url=https://muse.jhu.edu/pub/174/edited_volume/book/38207 |title=Clovis: On the Edge of a New Understanding |last2=Jennings |first2=Thomas A. |date=2014 |publisher=Texas A&M University Press |isbn=978-1-62349-228-1 |location=College Station |chapter=From Mammoth to Bison: Changing Clovis Prey Availability at the End of the Pleistocene}}</ref> Plant remains at Clovis sites (which are almost exclusively from eastern North America) primarily consist of food that can be easily gathered, such as fruit that required little processing, with little evidence of plant processing tools being found.<ref>J. A. M. Gingerich, N. R. Kitchel, "[https://www.researchgate.net/publication/293078326_Early_Paleoindian_subsistence_strategies_in_Eastern_North_America_A_Continuation_of_the_Clovis_tradition_or_evidence_of_regional_adaptations Early Paleoindian subsistence strategies in eastern North America: A continuation of the Clovis tradition? Or evidence of regional adaptations]" in ''Clovis: On the Edge of a New Understanding'', A. M. Smallwood, T. A. Jennings, Eds. (Texas A&M Press, 2015), pp. 297–318.</ref> The effectiveness of Clovis tools for hunting proboscideans has been contested by some authors, though others have asserted that Clovis points were likely capable of killing proboscideans, noting that replica Clovis points have been able to penetrate elephant hide in experimental tests, and that groups of hunter-gatherers in Africa have been [[Elephant meat#Hunting of elephants by African hunter gatherers|observed killing elephants using spears]].<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Kilby |first1=J. David |last2=Surovell |first2=Todd A. |last3=Huckell |first3=Bruce B. |last4=Ringstaff |first4=Christopher W. |last5=Hamilton |first5=Marcus J. |last6=Haynes |first6=C. Vance |date=October 2022 |title=Evidence supports the efficacy of Clovis points for hunting proboscideans |url=https://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S2352409X22002632 |journal=Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports |volume=45 |pages=103600 |doi=10.1016/j.jasrep.2022.103600|bibcode=2022JArSR..45j3600K |url-access=subscription }}</ref> Isotopic analysis of the only known Clovis burial, the young child [[Anzick-1]] from Montana, suggests that mammoths made up a large proportion (~35–40%) of the total diet of his group, with major contributions also coming from [[elk]] and probably bison, with small animals only making up a small proportion (~4%) of the diet.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Chatters |first1=James C. |last2=Potter |first2=Ben A. |last3=Fiedel |first3=Stuart J. |last4=Morrow |first4=Juliet E. |last5=Jass |first5=Christopher N. |last6=Wooller |first6=Matthew J. |date=December 6, 2024 |title=Mammoth featured heavily in Western Clovis diet |journal=Science Advances |volume=10 |issue=49 |pages=eadr3814 |doi=10.1126/sciadv.adr3814 |pmid=39630905 |issn=2375-2548|pmc=11616702 }}</ref>

[[File:Paleontological landscape painting, White Sands National Park, United States.jpg|thumb|250px|Environment of what is now [[White Sands National Park]] in New Mexico, with [[Columbian mammoth]]s, a [[Paramylodon|ground sloth]], [[Dire wolf|dire wolves]], [[American lion|lions]], [[Camelops|camels]], and [[Smilodon|saber-toothed cats]].]]

In the [[Great Plains|Southern Plains]], Clovis people created campsites of considerable size, which are often on the periphery of the region near sources of workable stone, from which they are suggested to have seasonally migrated into the plains to hunt megafauna. In the southeast, Clovis peoples created large camps that may have served as "staging areas", which may have been seasonally occupied, where a number of bands may have gathered for social occasions.<ref name=":16" /> At Jake Bluff in northern Oklahoma, Clovis points are associated with numerous butchered ''Bison antiquus'' bones, which represented a bison herd of at least 22 individuals. At the time of deposition, the site was a steep-sided [[Arroyo (watercourse)|arroyo]] (dry watercourse) that formed a dead end, suggesting that hunters trapped the bison herd within the arroyo before killing them.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Bement |first1=Leland C. |last2=Carter |first2=Brian J. |date=October 2010 |title=Jake Bluff: Clovis Bison Hunting on the Southern Plains of North America |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.7183/0002-7316.75.4.907 |journal=American Antiquity |volume=75 |issue=4 |pages=907–933 |doi=10.7183/0002-7316.75.4.907 |issn=0002-7316|url-access=subscription }}</ref>

===Megafauna extinction===
Beginning in the 1950s, [[Paul Schultz Martin|Paul S. Martin]] proposed the "overkill hypothesis", suggesting that the [[Late Pleistocene megafauna extinctions]] in North America were driven by human hunting, including by Clovis peoples, with the hunting and extinction of large herbivores having a knock-on effect causing the extinction of large carnivores. This suggestion has been the subject of controversy.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Grayson |first1=Donald K. |last2=Meltzer |first2=David J. |date=May 2003 |title=A requiem for North American overkill |url=https://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S0305440302002054 |journal=Journal of Archaeological Science |volume=30 |issue=5 |pages=585–593 |doi=10.1016/S0305-4403(02)00205-4|bibcode=2003JArSc..30..585G }}</ref> The timing of megafauna extinction in North America also coincides with major climatic changes, making it difficult to disentangle the effects of various factors.<ref name=":9">{{Cite journal |last=Fiedel |first=Stuart J |date=August 2022 |title=Initial Human Colonization of the Americas, Redux |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/product/identifier/S003382222100103X/type/journal_article |journal=Radiocarbon |volume=64 |issue=4 |pages=845–897 |bibcode=2022Radcb..64..845F |doi=10.1017/RDC.2021.103 |issn=0033-8222|url-access=subscription }}</ref> In a 2012 survey of archaeologists in ''The [[Society for American Archaeology|SAA]] Archaeological Record'', 63% of respondents said that megafauna extinctions were likely the result of a "combination of factors".<ref name=":10">Amber D. Wheat  "[https://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/document?repid=rep1&type=pdf&doi=c9049dfa37174fcd182e09bb54f1274850ce5473#page=12 Survey of professional opionions regarding the peopling of the Americas]." ''The SAA Archaeological Record'' Volume 12, No. March 2, 2012</ref>