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The Clovis culture is a prehistoric Paleo-Indian culture, named after distinct stone tools found at sites near Clovis, New Mexico, in the 1920s and 1930s. The Clovis culture appears around 11,500–11,000 uncal RCYBP〔"Clovis Culture" entry in the ''Concise Oxford Dictionary of Archaeology'': "9,500–9,000 BC".〕 (uncalibrated radiocarbon years before present), at the end of the last glacial period, and is characterized by the manufacture of "Clovis points" and distinctive bone and ivory tools. Archaeologists' most precise determinations at present suggest that this radiocarbon age is equal to roughly 13,200 to 12,900 calendar years ago. Clovis people are considered to be the ancestors of most of the indigenous cultures of the Americas.〔〔David R. Starbuck, ''The Archeology of New Hampshire: Exploring 10,000 Years in the Granite State'', UPNE, 2006, p. 25.〕〔(Sharon Bigley, "Ancient native boy's genome reignites debate over first Americans" ), Reuters, 12 February 2014〕 The only human burial that has been directly associated with tools from the Clovis culture included the remains of an infant boy named Anzick-1.〔New Rdiocarbon Dates for the Anzick Clovis Burial by Juliet E. Morrow and Stuart J.Fiedel. In Paleoindian Archaeology, edited by J.E.Morrow and C.G.Gnecco. University Press of Florida, Gainesville.〕 Researchers from the United States and Europe conducted paleogenetic research on Anzick-1's ancient nuclear, mitochondrial, and Y-chromosome DNA.〔 The results of these analyses reveal that Anzick-1 is closely related to modern Native American populations, which lends support to the Beringia hypothesis for the peopling of the Americas.〔 The Clovis culture was replaced by several more localized regional cultures from the time of the Younger Dryas cold climate period onward, about 12,000 years ago. Post-Clovis cultures include the Folsom tradition, Gainey, Suwannee-Simpson, Plainview-Goshen, Cumberland, and Redstone. Each of these is commonly thought to derive directly from Clovis, in some cases apparently differing only in the length of the fluting on their projectile points. Although this is generally held to be the result of normal cultural change through time, numerous other reasons have been suggested to be the driving force for the observed changes in the archaeological record, such as the Younger Dryas impact event or post-glacial climate change with numerous faunal extinctions. After the discovery of several Clovis sites in eastern North America in the 1930s, the Clovis people came to be regarded as the first human inhabitants who created a widespread culture in the New World. However, this theory has been challenged, in the opinion of many archaeologists, by several archaeological discoveries, including sites such as Cactus Hill in Virginia, Paisley Caves in the Summer Lake Basin of Oregon, the Topper site in Allendale County, South Carolina, Meadowcroft Rockshelter in Pennsylvania, the Friedkin site in Texas, Cueva Fell in Chile and, especially, Monte Verde, also in Chile. The claim to the oldest human archaeological site known in the Americas belongs to the Pedra Furada human remains and hearths, a site in Brazil that precedes the Clovis culture and the other sites already mentioned by 19,000 to 30,000 years. This discovery has become an issue of contention between North American archaeologists and their South American and European counterparts, who disagree on whether it is conclusively proven to be older.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Pedra Furada, Brazil: Paleoindians, Paintings, and Paradoxes: An interview with Drs. Niède Guidon, Anne-Marie Pessis, Fabio Parenti, Claude Guérin, Evelyne Peyre, and Guaciara M. dos Santos )〕〔(【引用サイトリンク】title="Brazilian Findings Spark Archeological Debate" by Alex Bellos )〕 Adding to this debate are findings from Wally's Beach, an archaeological site discovered in 1996 by an Alberta school teacher, at St. Mary's Reservoir, near Cardston, Alberta, close to the Canadian boundary with the state of Montana. Recent preliminary carbon dating shows a culture from around or prior to 13,000 years ago, along with horse, camel, and other key findings.〔http://www.msn.com/en-ca/travel/news/alberta-camel-hunting-site-points-to-mysterious-prehistoric-people/ar-AAa3AVj?ocid=iehp〕 ==Description== A hallmark of the toolkit associated with the Clovis culture is the distinctively shaped, fluted stone spear point, known as the Clovis point. The Clovis point is bifacial and typically fluted on both sides. Archaeologists do not agree on whether the widespread presence of these artifacts indicates the proliferation of a single people, or the adoption of a superior technology by diverse population groups. The culture was originally named for a small number of artifacts found between 1936 and 1938 at Blackwater Locality No. 1, an archaeological site near the town of Clovis, New Mexico. People began collecting artifacts at this site in the late 1920s but artifacts and animal remains that had not moved since the Pleistocene were not recovered until 1936. The ''in situ'' finds of 1936 and 1937 included most of four stone Clovis points, two long bone points with impact damage, stone blades, a portion of a Clovis blade core, and several cutting tools made on stone flakes.〔 Clovis sites have since been identified throughout much, but not all, of the contiguous United States, as well as Mexico and Central America, and even into northern South America. It is generally accepted that Clovis people hunted mammoths, as Clovis points have repeatedly been found in sites containing mammoth remains. Mammoth was only a small part of the Clovis diet; extinct bison, mastodon, gomphotheres, sloths, tapir, palaeolama, horse and a host of smaller animals have also been found in Clovis sites where they were killed and eaten. In total, more than 125 species of plants and animals are known to have been used by Clovis people in the portion of the Western Hemisphere they inhabited. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Clovis culture」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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