Clovis people: Narrow window of tool-making

[wnylib]

1. Climate change might have been

a factor in the Clovis Point development and demise. Just speculating here, but the extinction of mastodons and mammoths coincided with the the start of the breakup of the Laurentide Ice Sheet in North Ametica. It didn't happen all at once, but occurred over a long period of warming, melting, then cooling before the warming cycle started again.

Perhaps people, mastodons, and mammoths moved northward during warming periods - humans to expand their hunting into newer territory and taking their Clovis points with them across the land, following herds of other animals as well. This would account for the widespread locations of the Clovis spearheads.

But as temperatures changed, ecosystems changed, too, causing more of the large mammals to go extinct when their traditional food sources became extinct. They had evolved for cooler, glacial climate conditions and plants. Repeated warming and cooling took a toll on the animals.

Clovis points are detailed and sophisticated - worth the time and care to make them for the reward of a big mammal kill to provide meat, hides, and bone tools for a group of people.

But Folsom points, which followed after Clovis, are easier and quicker to make, plus being sufficient for different types of game than the larger mastodons and mammoths.

So, as the mammoths and mastodons were dying out from changed ecosystems, Folsom points replaced Clovis points for hunting.

We can see the changes occurring today in ecosystems with global warming and climate change, causing some species to become more endangered. Perhaps something like this was happening in the time period of the transition from Clovis technology to Folsom.

I find it hard to believe that there were enough human hunters around who were so highly skilled at taking down animals 2 and 3 times their size that they could have caused the simultaneous extinction of several species of mammals. More likely climate change caused the extinctions, and then humans adapted by changing their weapons and tool technology.