Identifying Stone Tool Cut Marks and the Pre-Clovis Occupation of the Paisley Caves

Abstract

Analysis of taphonomic processes observable in undoubtedly cultural Younger Dryas-age faunal collections at the Paisley Caves establishes what cultural bone modification looks like in post-Clovis deposits at the site. Clearly stating the criteria by which these bones have been identified as culturally modified by stone tools, we apply the same criteria to bones found at the noncultural paleontological site of Mineral Hill Cave, Nevada, and find no cases of stone-tool-cut-marked bones. Applying these same criteria to bones recovered from pre-Clovis stratigraphie contexts at the Paisley Caves resulted in the identification of two cut-marked specimens, a mountain sheep (Ovis canadensis) mandible and a small artiodactyl rib that were both found in close proximity to human coprolites and artifacts. Directly radiocarbon dated prior to the beginning of the Clovis era (ca. > 13,100 cal B.P.), these specimens increase the number of culturally modified items recovered from pre-Clovis contexts and support previous DNA studies indicating that the northern Great Basin was occupied at least a millennium before Clovis points became widespread throughout North America.