ABSTRACT: Who were the earliest Albertans?

CGRG Bibliography of Canadian Geomorphology
Search Results

Author :

Date :

Title :

Publication :

Issue :

Page(s) :

Abstract

The prevailing model of the peopling of the Americas, which holds that Clovis people were the first to occupy North America, is based on the assumption that the first Americans made bifacially flaked stone projectile points. Archaeologists, especially those with some experience in South America, are beginning to reconsider their old assumptions. Most Alberta archaeologists retain the old model because several of the very distinctive Clovis points have been found in the province, although not in dateable contexts. However, a date of at least 11,000 years is easily assumed from dated sites farther south. If it weren't for the fact that earlier sites lacking Clovis points have been found both east and west of the Great Plains, the old model would probably still prevail everywhere. However, only sites yielding bifacial points have generally been accepted because the old assumption persists that the earliest people must have made bifacial points. Many sites are thereby dismissed as just quarries, or for some other reason did not contain bifacial stone projectile points. As this mindset also prevails in Alberta, many localities lacking bifacial points are simply recorded as quarries or places where people flaked a few cobbles and went elsewhere to finish their points. As many are evidently simply surface sites, no attempt is made to try to date them. My paper will outline two carefully excavated sites in southern Alberta - Eagle Cave in Crowsnest Pass, which is radiocarbon dated ca. 23,000 years, and the chronometrically undated Varsity Estates site in Calgary, both of which lack bifacial points in critical early deposits. My conclusion is that people occupied southern Alberta long before the arrival of Clovis.

Bibliography of Canadian Geomorphology