Tankersley, Kenneth B. (Glenn A. Black Laboratory of Archaeology, Indiana University)
THE HISTORY OF EARLY PALEO-INDIAN RESEARCH IN INDIANA AND ITS
CONTEXT IN MIDWESTERN ARCHAEOLOGY
Since the earliest discoveries of unequivocal associations of chipped stone artifacts
and extinct Pleistocene animals in the Southwest, archaeologists have sought comparable
evidence in Indiana. Eli Lilly's 1937 The Prehistoric Antiquities of Indiana
was the first publication to recognize early Paleo-Indian cultural material
in the state and to offer an estimate of its age (between 10,000 and 15,000 B.P.).
In 1938, E. Y. Guernsey presented a paper to the Indiana Academy of Science entitled
"Relationships among Various Clark County Sites." In this paper, Guernsey reports
that "Folsomoid projectile points" were collected from three topographic settings:
"the now denuded islands below Ohio Falls [including the Raaf site, 12 Sp 2];
low rock shelves slightly above the normal pool stage of the Ohio; and on an extensively
low terrace upon a branch of Silver Creek in Monroe and Union Townships [the Schafer
site, 12 Cl 391]." Interestingly, Guernsey's observations present the tantalizing
suggestion that stratified early Paleo-Indian sites may be deeply buried in the
Ohio River floodplain deposits.
In 1966, John Dorwin published "Fluted Points and Late-Pleistocene Geochronology
in Indiana," a survey of public and private artifact collections in the state
of Indiana. The results of this survey suggested that early Paleo-Indian sites
in Indiana were more abundant in the southern part of the state, that Wyandotte
chert was frequently used in the manufacture of fluted points, and that early
Paleo-Indian occupations were possibly older than 14,000 B.P.
Archaeologists continue to document fluted projectile points and their findspots
in the state of Indiana. Edward Smith, Donald Cochran, and Kenneth Tankersley
have demonstrated that the distribution of fluted points and early Paleo-Indian
sites is much more extensive than that previously described in the literature.
These investigators argue that fluted points and sites are not randomly distributed,
but rather they appear to be associated with areas that attract and concentrate
game (riparian settings [especially marshes, lakes, ponds, confluence areas, and
shallow river crossings], mineral springs, sandy terraces, and karstic landscapes
with "barrens" vegetation), areas where game can be monitored (overlooks), or
areas that provide abundant quantities of large masses of high quality lithic
raw material. This settlement pattern is likely associated with a specialized
hunting economy. A current estimate of the antiquity of early Paleo-Indian occupation
is ca. 11,000 B.P. Moreover, these recent investigations reemphasize Guernsey's
suggestion that early Paleo-Indian sites have a high probability of occurring
in the floodplain deposits of Indiana. [return to 1988 abstracts menu][continue to next]