Editing Clovis culture (section)

==Distribution and chronology==
[[File:Peopling of America through Beringia.png|thumb|Approximate location of the [[Peopling of the Americas|ice-free corridor]] and specific [[Paleo-Indians|Paleoindian]] sites]]

Some authors have suggested that the Clovis culture lasted for a relatively short period of a few centuries, with a 2020 study suggesting a temporal range, based on ten securely [[Radiocarbon dating|radiocarbon-dated]] Clovis sites, of 13,050 to 12,750 [[Radiocarbon calibration|calibrated]] years BP, ending subsequent to the onset of the [[Younger Dryas]],<ref name=":1" /> consistent with the results obtained in a 2007 study by the same authors.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Waters |first1=Michael R. |last2=Stafford |first2=Thomas W. |date=February 23, 2007 |title=Redefining the Age of Clovis: Implications for the Peopling of the Americas |url=https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.1137166 |journal=Science |volume=315 |issue=5815 |pages=1122–1126 |bibcode=2007Sci...315.1122W |doi=10.1126/science.1137166 |pmid=17322060 |issn=0036-8075|url-access=subscription }}</ref> Other authors have argued that some sites extend the range of the Clovis culture back to 13,500 years BP, though the dating for these earlier sites is not secure.<ref name=":9" /> Some scholars have supported a long chronology for Clovis of around 1,500 years.<ref name=":5" />

Historically, many authors argued for a "Clovis first" paradigm, where Clovis, which represents the earliest recognisable archaeological culture in North America,<ref name=":5" /> were suggested to represent the earliest inhabitants of the Americas south of the [[Laurentide Ice Sheet]]. However, since the beginning of the 21st century, this hypothesis has been abandoned by most researchers,<ref name=":10" /> as several widely accepted sites, notably [[Monte Verde|Monte Verde II]] in Chile (c. 14,500 years BP)<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Pino |first1=Mario |last2=Dillehay |first2=Tom D. |date=June 2023 |title=Monte Verde II: an assessment of new radiocarbon dates and their sedimentological context |journal=Antiquity |volume=97 |issue=393 |pages=524–540 |doi=10.15184/aqy.2023.32 |issn=0003-598X|doi-access=free }}</ref> as well as [[Paisley Caves]] in Oregon (c. 14,200 years BP)<ref name=":19">{{Cite journal |last1=Smith |first1=Geoffrey M. |last2=Duke |first2=Daron |last3=Jenkins |first3=Dennis L. |last4=Goebel |first4=Ted |last5=Davis |first5=Loren G. |last6=O'Grady |first6=Patrick |last7=Stueber |first7=Dan |last8=Pratt |first8=Jordan E. |last9=Smith |first9=Heather L. |date=January 2, 2020 |title=The Western Stemmed Tradition: Problems and Prospects in Paleoindian Archaeology in the Intermountain West |url=https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/20555563.2019.1653153 |journal=PaleoAmerica |volume=6 |issue=1 |pages=23–42 |doi=10.1080/20555563.2019.1653153 |issn=2055-5563|url-access=subscription }}</ref> and [[Cooper's Ferry site|Cooper's Ferry]] in Idaho (c. 15,800 years BP)<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Davis |first1=Loren G. |last2=Madsen |first2=David B. |last3=Sisson |first3=David A. |last4=Becerra-Valdivia |first4=Lorena |last5=Higham |first5=Thomas |last6=Stueber |first6=Daniel |last7=Bean |first7=Daniel W. |last8=Nyers |first8=Alexander J. |last9=Carroll |first9=Amanda |last10=Ryder |first10=Christina |last11=Sponheimer |first11=Matt |last12=Izuho |first12=Masami |last13=Iizuka |first13=Fumie |last14=Li |first14=Guoqiang |last15=Epps |first15=Clinton W. |date=December 23, 2022 |title=Dating of a large tool assemblage at the Cooper's Ferry site (Idaho, USA) to ~15,785 cal yr B.P. extends the age of stemmed points in the Americas |journal=Science Advances |volume=8 |issue=51 |pages=eade1248 |bibcode=2022SciA....8E1248D |doi=10.1126/sciadv.ade1248 |issn=2375-2548 |pmc=9788777 |pmid=36563150}}</ref> are suggested to be considerably older than the oldest Clovis sites. Historically, it was suggested that the ancestors of the people who produced the Clovis culture migrated into North America along the "[[Peopling of the Americas#Interior route|ice-free corridor]]", but many later scholars have suggested that a [[Coastal migration (Americas)|migration along the Pacific coast]] is more likely.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Braje |first1=Todd J. |last2=Erlandson |first2=Jon M. |last3=Rick |first3=Torben C. |last4=Davis |first4=Loren |last5=Dillehay |first5=Tom |last6=Fedje |first6=Daryl W. |last7=Froese |first7=Duane |last8=Gusick |first8=Amy |last9=Mackie |first9=Quentin |last10=McLaren |first10=Duncan |last11=Pitblado |first11=Bonnie |last12=Raff |first12=Jennifer |last13=Reeder-Myers |first13=Leslie |last14=Waters |first14=Michael R. |date=January 2020 |title=Fladmark + 40: What Have We Learned about a Potential Pacific Coast Peopling of the Americas? |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/product/identifier/S0002731619000805/type/journal_article |journal=American Antiquity |volume=85 |issue=1 |pages=1–21 |doi=10.1017/aaq.2019.80 |issn=0002-7316|url-access=subscription }}</ref>

The Clovis culture is known from localities across North America, from southern Canada<ref name=":13">{{Cite journal |last1=Kooyman |first1=Brian |last2=Hills |first2=L.V. |last3=Tolman |first3=Shayne |last4=McNeil |first4=Paul |date=January 2012 |title=Late Pleistocene Western Camel (Camelops Hesternus) Hunting in Southwestern Canada |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/product/identifier/S000273160000007X/type/journal_article |journal=American Antiquity |volume=77 |issue=1 |pages=115–124 |doi=10.7183/0002-7316.77.1.115 |issn=0002-7316|url-access=subscription }}</ref> to northern Mexico and across the east and west of the continent.<ref name=":1" /> The area of its origin remains unclear, though the development of fluted Clovis points appears to have occurred in North America south of  the Laurentide Ice Sheet and not in [[Beringia]]. The Clovis culture may have originated from the [[Dyuktai Cave|Dyuktai]] lithic style widespread in Beringia. While some authors have suggested that the Clovis culture resulted from diffusion of traditions through an already pre-existing Paleoindian population, others have asserted that the culture likely originated from the expansion of a single population.<ref name=":11" /> In Western North America, the Clovis culture was contemporaneous with and perhaps preceded by the [[Western Stemmed Tradition]], which produced unfluted projectile points,<ref name=":19" /> with the Western Stemmed Tradition continuing in the region for several thousand years after the end of Clovis.<ref>Rosencrance, R. L., D. Duke, A. Hartman, and A. Hoskins. 2024. "Western Stemmed Tradition Projectile Point Chronology in the Intermountain West". In ''Current Perspectives of Stemmed and Fluted Technologies in the American Far West'', edited by K. N. McDonough, R. L. Rosencrance, and J. E. Pratt, 21–58. Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press.</ref>

The end of the Clovis culture may have been driven by the decline of the megafauna that the Clovis hunted, as well as decreasing mobility, resulting in local differentiation of lithic and cultural traditions across North America.<ref name="Haynes2002" /> This is generally considered to be the result of normal cultural change through time.<ref name="Haynes2002" /><ref name=":14" /> There is no evidence that the disappearance of the Clovis culture was the result of the onset of the Younger Dryas, or that there was a population decline of Paleoindians following the end of the Clovis culture.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Holliday |first1=Vance T. |last2=Daulton |first2=Tyrone L. |last3=Bartlein |first3=Patrick J. |last4=Boslough |first4=Mark B. |last5=Breslawski |first5=Ryan P. |last6=Fisher |first6=Abigail E. |last7=Jorgeson |first7=Ian A. |last8=Scott |first8=Andrew C. |last9=Koeberl |first9=Christian |last10=Marlon |first10=Jennifer R. |last11=Severinghaus |first11=Jeffrey |last12=Petaev |first12=Michail I. |last13=Claeys |first13=Philippe |date=December 2023 |title=Comprehensive refutation of the Younger Dryas Impact Hypothesis (YDIH) |url=https://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S0012825223001915 |journal=Earth-Science Reviews |volume=247 |page=104502 |doi=10.1016/j.earscirev.2023.104502|bibcode=2023ESRv..24704502H }}</ref>

The Clovis culture was succeeded by various regional point styles, such as the [[Folsom tradition]] in central North America,<ref name=":6" /> the [[Cumberland point]] in mid/southern North America,<ref name=":20">{{Cite journal |last=Tune |first=Jesse W. |date=July 2, 2016 |title=The Clovis–Cumberland–Dalton Succession: Settling into the Midsouth United States during the Pleistocene to Holocene Transition |url=https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/20555563.2016.1199193 |journal=PaleoAmerica|volume=2 |issue=3 |pages=261–273 |doi=10.1080/20555563.2016.1199193 |issn=2055-5563|url-access=subscription }}</ref> the [[Suwannee point|Suwannee]] and [[Simpson point|Simpson]] points in the southeast,<ref name=":21">{{Cite journal |last1=Faught |first1=Michael K. |last2=Pevny |first2=Charlotte Donald |date=January 2, 2019 |title=Pre-Clovis to the Early Archaic: Human Presence, Expansion, and Settlement in Florida over Four Millennia |url=https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/20555563.2019.1597608 |journal=PaleoAmerica |volume=5 |issue=1 |pages=73–87 |doi=10.1080/20555563.2019.1597608 |issn=2055-5563|url-access=subscription }}</ref> and the Gainey points in the northeast-Great Lakes region.<ref name=":22">{{Cite journal |last=Ellis |first=Christopher J. |date=July 3, 2019 |title=On the Reality of Gainey Points |url=https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/20555563.2019.1591141 |journal=PaleoAmerica |volume=5 |issue=3 |pages=211–217 |doi=10.1080/20555563.2019.1591141 |issn=2055-5563|url-access=subscription }}</ref> The Clovis and Folsom traditions may have overlapped, perhaps for around 80–400 years.<ref name=":14"/>

A number of authors have suggested that the Clovis culture is ancestral to other fluted point-producing cultures in Central and South America, like the widespread [[Fishtail projectile point|Fishtail or Fell point]] style.<ref name=":12" />