Writing in the October issue of Current Anthropology , archaeologists David Meltzer, Southern Methodist University, and Vance Holliday, University of Arizona, argue that there is nothing in the archaeological record to suggest an abrupt collapse of Clovis populations. The comet theory first emerged in when a team of scientists announced evidence of a large extraterrestrial impact that occurred about 12, years ago. The impact was said to have caused a sudden cooling of the North American climate, killing off mammoths and other megafauna.
It could also explain the apparent disappearance of the Clovis people, whose characteristic spear points vanish from the archaeological record shortly after the supposed impact. The findings are reported in the article " The As evidence for the rapid Clovis depopulation, comet theorists point out that very few Clovis archaeological sites show evidence of human occupation after the Clovis. At the few sites that do, Clovis and post-Clovis artifacts are separated by archaeologically sterile layers of sediments, indicating a time gap between the civilizations.
In fact, comet theorists argue, there seems to be a dead zone in the human archaeological record in North America beginning with the comet impact and lasting about years. They argue that a lack of later human occupation at Clovis sites is no reason to assume a population collapse. That's because many Paleoindian sites are hunting kill sites, and it would be highly unlikely for kills to be made repeatedly in the exact same spot.
In addition, Holliday and Meltzer compiled radiocarbon dates of 44 archaeological sites from across the U. Sterile layers separating occupation zones at some sites are easily explained by shifting settlement patterns and local geological processes, the researchers say.
The separation should not be taken as evidence of an actual time gap between Clovis and post-Clovis cultures. Holliday and Meltzer believe that the disappearance of Clovis spear points is more likely the result of a cultural choice rather than a population collapse.
