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An Outline of the Pre-Clovis Archeology of SV-2, Saltville, Virginia, with Special Attention to a
Bone Tool Dated 14,510 yr BP Jeffersoniana Series, Number
9, November 30, 2000 November 2000, 6x9", 60 pages |
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Saltville Valley is an important source of information about the environmental history of the Middle Appalachian region, especially for the past 15,000 years. The Saltville River coursed the valley until about 13,500-13,000 yrs BP, at which time it was diverted by headstream piracy and replaced , in Saltville Valley, by Lake Totten. At site SV-2 (=44SM37), three horizons dating from 14,510 +/- 80 yr BP to about 13,500-13,000 yr BP document the presence of pre-Clovis people in Saltville Valley and provide insight into their lifeways. At 14,510 yr BP, pre-Clovis people appear to have butchered and processed hide, meat, bones, and tusks of a mastodon (Mammut americanum) and to have utilized parts of the skeleton of a musk ox (Bootherium bombifrons). Five hundred years later, at 13,950 +/- 70 yr BP, human presence is suggested by unlikely arrangements, associations, and modifications of lithics, including flakes of chert that resemble bioface reduction flakes. A midden dating from about 13,500 to 13,000 yr BP constitutes the youngest of the three pre-Clovis horizons recognized to date at SV-2.
SV-2 is one of the few and most complex
pre-Clovis archeological sites in North America, and because it is a wet
site, it contains a relatively extensive amount of organic information.
Evidence suggests that the pre-Clovis people who visited Saltville Valley in
14,510 yr BP had a diversified ivory, bone, and lithic technology--possibly
including a biface technology. These people appear to have been mobile
hunters and gatherers who regularly visited and exploited the riparian and
littoral zones in Saltville Valley where they utilized diverse faunal
resources ranging from large mammals to small mammals, reptiles, amphibians,
fish, and mussels.
ABOUT THE
AUTHOR
Dr. Jerry N. McDonald is a biogeographer with degrees from
Muskingum College (BA), the University of Texas (MA), and the UCLA (PhD)
whose special interests include the identification, interpretation,
appreciation, and preservation of historical and cultural landscape
features. Recently, Dr. McDonald reported research describing the
14,500-year-old
Saltville, Virginia, pre-Clovis archeological site, one of the oldest
archeological sites in the Western Hemisphere. He currently is the publisher at McDonald and Woodward Publishing
Company.
Dr. McDonald is a member of the M &
W Speakers Bureau and is available for presentations and book signings.
Other related titles:
Indian Mounds of the Middle Ohio Valley
Fishweirs--A World Perspective with Emphasis on the Fishwiers of Mississippi