In the second episode of Time Team America the team moved to the Topper site in South Carolina. This site is a controversial one due to possible evidence of human activity as far back as 50,000 years ago, which is far older than the earliest accepted habitation of North America. The most common theory is that humans first inhabited North America around 13,000 years ago. These earliest people are known as the Clovis people. The Topper site is a Clovis site, meaning Clovis points and related technology were documented in situ (in the ground as they were left), but it also appears that there may have been a much earlier occupation below the Clovis levels. Artifacts have been found well below what was the ground surface 13,000 years ago, which means that they were deposited more than 13,000 years ago. Not all archaeologists believe that these artifacts that were found are human made though and its possible they may just be natural rocks. More information about this site and the controversy can be found here and here.
This episode was of particular interest to me. While I am nowhere close to being an expert on the subject I do think it is quite possible that there were people in North America in pre-Clovis times, so learning about a site that holds evidence of earlier people is quite interesting. The problem with most of the evidence of pre-Clovis peoples is that the artifacts are hard to definitively say they were made by humans. In order for archaeologists to agree that people were in North America in pre-Clovis times something significant needs to be excavated. The site would have to contain indisputable artifacts, in an undisturbed context, and with unassailable radiometric dates older than 13,000 years BP in order to be considered evidence for the existence of Pre-Clovis people in North America.
Another thing of interest in this episode is the use of experimental archaeology. Experimental archaeology is the process of recreating past processes to produce artifacts or features in the same manner or form as they were by prehistoric people. Experimental archaeology serves as a method of learning more about the people, materials, and techniques used to produce prehistoric technology. Knowing how past people did things adds an extra level of information to help in better understanding life hundreds and thousands of years ago. In this episode they had a flintknapper making replicas of the tools that had been found at Topper. They also made and practiced throwing rabbit sticks to test a theory about wood working at large quarry sites and the effectiveness of the hunting system. The cool thing about experimental archaeology is that it gives good insight into how these ancient tools were made and how they may have been used. In some ways it also provides a direct connection with the past. You get to use technology that prehistoric people used and it gives you a much better picture of what life was like for them.
One more thing that caught my interest here was the context again. Depending on how an artifact is positioned in the ground can give clues as to how it got there. If it was simply dropped and forgotten it should be laying horizontally on the surface rather than vertical or in some other unnatural position. This bit of information at first might not seem incredibly important and it may not be in every case but it goes to show another aspect of how important it is to record of even the smallest details in an archaeological context.
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