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The Calico Early Man Site is an archaeological site in an ancient Pleistocene lake located near Barstow in
San Bernardino County San Bernardino County (), officially the County of San Bernardino, is a county located in the southern portion of the U.S. state of California, and is located within the Inland Empire area. As of the 2020 U.S. Census, the population was 2,181, ...
in the central
Mojave Desert The Mojave Desert ( ; mov, Hayikwiir Mat'aar; es, Desierto de Mojave) is a desert in the rain shadow of the Sierra Nevada mountains in the Southwestern United States. It is named for the indigenous Mojave people. It is located primarily ...
of
Southern California Southern California (commonly shortened to SoCal) is a geographic and cultural region that generally comprises the southern portion of the U.S. state of California. It includes the Los Angeles metropolitan area, the second most populous urban ...
. This site is on and in late middle-
Pleistocene The Pleistocene ( , often referred to as the ''Ice age'') is the geological Epoch (geology), epoch that lasted from about 2,580,000 to 11,700 years ago, spanning the Earth's most recent period of repeated glaciations. Before a change was fina ...
fanglomerates (now-cemented alluvial debris flow deposits) known variously as the Calico Hills, the Yermo Hills, or the Yermo formation. Holocene evidence includes petroglyphs and trail segments that are probably related to outcrops of local high-quality siliceous rock (primarily
chalcedony Chalcedony ( , or ) is a cryptocrystalline form of silica, composed of very fine intergrowths of quartz and moganite. These are both silica minerals, but they differ in that quartz has a trigonal crystal structure, while moganite is monocli ...
in freshwater
limestone Limestone ( calcium carbonate ) is a type of carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of . Limestone forms w ...
). The Calico Early Man Site includes: * Artifacts of the Lake Manix Lithic Industry (LMLI) found on and just below the surface at elevations greater than , the shoreline elevation of a freshwater Pleistocene lake which emptied approximately 18,000 years ago. * Material recovered from nested
Pleistocene The Pleistocene ( , often referred to as the ''Ice age'') is the geological Epoch (geology), epoch that lasted from about 2,580,000 to 11,700 years ago, spanning the Earth's most recent period of repeated glaciations. Before a change was fina ...
alluvial deposits Alluvium (from Latin ''alluvius'', from ''alluere'' 'to wash against') is loose clay, silt, sand, or gravel that has been deposited by running water in a stream bed, on a floodplain, in an alluvial fan or beach, or in similar settings. Alluv ...
stratigraphically beneath a 100,000-year-old soil profile: a 'rock ring' (not a fire hearth) dated to 135,000 years by
thermoluminescence Thermoluminescence is a form of luminescence that is exhibited by certain crystalline materials, such as some minerals, when previously absorbed energy from electromagnetic radiation or other ionizing radiation is re-emitted as light upon h ...
(TL), about 200,000 years by uranium-series analysis, and about 197,000+/- 20,000 years by surface beryllium-10 (10Be) dating. * The Rock Wren
Biface A hand axe (or handaxe or Acheulean hand axe) is a prehistoric stone tool with two faces that is the longest-used tool in human history, yet there is no academic consensus on what they were used for. It is made from stone, usually flint or ch ...
, a large well-formed biface tool recovered from a younger nested-inset alluvial deposit at Calico: dated by sediment thermoluminescence (sediment TL) to 14,400 ±2,200 years ago. A test pit located near the discovery location is currently being excavated and is yielding artifactual material. The tools and flakes of LMLI and those found in the nested inset known as the Rock Wren Locality were probably made by modern man (''Homo sapiens sapiens'').


Introduction

The stone tools of these industries, along with preforms,
lithic core In archaeology, a lithic core is a distinctive artifact that results from the practice of lithic reduction. In this sense, a core is the scarred nucleus resulting from the detachment of one or more flakes from a lump of source material or too ...
, technical flakes, and pieces of angular
debitage In archaeology, debitage is all the material produced during the process of lithic reduction – the production of stone tools and weapons by knapping stone. This assemblage may include the different kinds of lithic flakes and lithic blades, bu ...
, mainly of
chalcedony Chalcedony ( , or ) is a cryptocrystalline form of silica, composed of very fine intergrowths of quartz and moganite. These are both silica minerals, but they differ in that quartz has a trigonal crystal structure, while moganite is monocli ...
, are found on and in late middle Pleistocene-age fanglomerates and younger inset
alluvial terrace Fluvial terraces are elongated terraces that flank the sides of floodplains and fluvial valleys all over the world. They consist of a relatively level strip of land, called a "tread", separated from either an adjacent floodplain, other fluvial te ...
s in the Calico Hills (also known as the Yermo Hills) east of the Calico Peaks and the Calico Mountains. The location is in the central portion of southern California's
Mojave Desert The Mojave Desert ( ; mov, Hayikwiir Mat'aar; es, Desierto de Mojave) is a desert in the rain shadow of the Sierra Nevada mountains in the Southwestern United States. It is named for the indigenous Mojave people. It is located primarily ...
. Historically, this archaeological project has also been known as "The Calico Mountains Archaeological Site" and "The Calico Hills Archaeological Site". Today, it is called "The Calico Early Man Site".


Manix Basin

In most of the
Great Basin The Great Basin is the largest area of contiguous endorheic watersheds, those with no outlets, in North America. It spans nearly all of Nevada, much of Utah, and portions of California, Idaho, Oregon, Wyoming, and Baja California. It is noted fo ...
region,
Late Pleistocene The Late Pleistocene is an unofficial age in the international geologic timescale in chronostratigraphy, also known as Upper Pleistocene from a stratigraphic perspective. It is intended to be the fourth division of the Pleistocene Epoch withi ...
and
Holocene The Holocene ( ) is the current geological epoch. It began approximately 11,650 cal years Before Present (), after the Last Glacial Period, which concluded with the Holocene glacial retreat. The Holocene and the preceding Pleistocene togeth ...
alluviation has effectively buried and sealed earlier
Pleistocene The Pleistocene ( , often referred to as the ''Ice age'') is the geological Epoch (geology), epoch that lasted from about 2,580,000 to 11,700 years ago, spanning the Earth's most recent period of repeated glaciations. Before a change was fina ...
sediment Sediment is a naturally occurring material that is broken down by processes of weathering and erosion, and is subsequently transported by the action of wind, water, or ice or by the force of gravity acting on the particles. For example, sand ...
s and possible evidence of pre-
Clovis culture The Clovis culture is a prehistoric Paleoamerican culture, named for distinct stone and bone tools found in close association with Pleistocene fauna, particularly two mammoths, at Blackwater Locality No. 1 near Clovis, New Mexico, in 1936 a ...
s. In the Manix Basin (Lower Mojave Valley) of
San Bernardino County, California San Bernardino County (), officially the County of San Bernardino, is a county located in the southern portion of the U.S. state of California, and is located within the Inland Empire area. As of the 2020 U.S. Census, the population was 2,181, ...
a fortuitous ensemble of environmental factors relating to mountain building, climatically controlled conditions for lake formation, alluviation, and
erosion Erosion is the action of surface processes (such as water flow or wind) that removes soil, rock, or dissolved material from one location on the Earth's crust, and then transports it to another location where it is deposited. Erosion is d ...
, faulting and folding and significant erosion of ancient
lacustrine plain A lacustrine plain or lake plain is a plain formed due to the past existence of a lake and its accompanying sediment accumulation. Lacustrine plains can be formed through one of three major mechanisms: glacial drainage, differential uplift, and inla ...
sediments by the modern drainage have rendered relatively accessible for archaeological investigation a series of deposits that represent more than 350,000 years of
Quaternary The Quaternary ( ) is the current and most recent of the three periods of the Cenozoic Era in the geologic time scale of the International Commission on Stratigraphy (ICS). It follows the Neogene Period and spans from 2.58 million year ...
history. The Manix Basin, a
structural basin A structural basin is a large-scale structural formation of rock strata formed by tectonic warping of previously flat-lying strata. They are geological depressions, the inverse of domes. Elongated structural basins are also known as syncline ...
in the central
Mojave Desert The Mojave Desert ( ; mov, Hayikwiir Mat'aar; es, Desierto de Mojave) is a desert in the rain shadow of the Sierra Nevada mountains in the Southwestern United States. It is named for the indigenous Mojave people. It is located primarily ...
, is the third and lowest major valley of the
Mojave River The Mojave River is an intermittent river in the eastern San Bernardino Mountains and the Mojave Desert in San Bernardino County, California, United States. Most of its flow is underground, while its surface channels remain dry most of the time, ...
, presently an exotic stream with episodic flow, which has its source in the
San Bernardino Mountains The San Bernardino Mountains are a high and rugged mountain range in Southern California in the United States. Situated north and northeast of San Bernardino and spanning two California counties, the range tops out at at San Gorgonio Mountain ...
, some to the southeast. A freshwater lake developed in the basin about 400,000 – 500,000 years ago near the Calico Archaeological Site. The lake was present until the late
Pleistocene The Pleistocene ( , often referred to as the ''Ice age'') is the geological Epoch (geology), epoch that lasted from about 2,580,000 to 11,700 years ago, spanning the Earth's most recent period of repeated glaciations. Before a change was fina ...
. The last high stand of Lake Manix was at and had a surface area of approximately . This lake drained, probably catastrophically, approximately 18,100 years ago, probably as a result of a major increase in river inflow or tectonic movement on the Manix fault.Calico Early Man Site: The Setting
/ref>


Fossils

The lacustrine, fluvial, and alluvial sediments of the Pleistocene Manix Formation contain remains of numerous Rancholabrean animals ranging in age from approximately 20,000 years to well in excess of 350,000 years before present. Fossils recovered from the section include: camel, horse, mammoth, saber-tooth cat, dire wolf, short-faced bear, coyote, flamingo, pelican, eagle, swan, geese, mallard duck, ruddy duck, canvas backed duck, double-crested cormorant, grebe, crane, seagull and stork.


Prehistoric tools

Thousands of rocks that bear a strong resemblance to prehistoric tools have been found at the site, both on the surface, and up to below the surface. A stone from the Master Pit had been dated to over 200,000 BP. This date could have been the result of contamination from other elements in the soil, so currently there is an effort to date verified lithics through thermoluminesence dating. While the results are still pending, the styles suggest 20,000 to 30,000 BP. The debate centers on whether the "tools" were made by humans (i.e., artifacts), or through typical
geological Geology () is a branch of natural science concerned with Earth and other astronomical objects, the features or rocks of which it is composed, and the processes by which they change over time. Modern geology significantly overlaps all other E ...
processes (i.e.
geofact A geofact (a portmanteau of ''geology'' and ''artifact'') is a natural stone formation that is difficult to distinguish from a man-made artifact. Geofacts could be fluvially reworked and be misinterpreted as an artifact, especially when compared ...
s). The general scientific consensus is that the subsurface items are geofacts.


Artifacts or geofacts?

The artifactual character of the Calico lithic assemblage has been questioned (Haynes 1973; Payen 1982a, 1982b; Taylor and Payen 1979; Duvall and Venner 1979). Haynes (1973) postulated that rock fracturing by tectonic stresses, weather, rock-on-rock percussion in streams and mudflows, pressure retouch of buried cobbles, and successive generations of flake removal and separation from cores through cycles of erosion and redeposition could have occurred during deposition of the alluvial deposits at Calico and produced specimens indistinguishable from artifacts. Specimens collected from earlier excavations up to the present are under analysis by archaeologists volunteering at the Calico site. Many have been confirmed to be geofacts, but some are believed to be potential artifacts and have been cataloged and submitted for thermoluminescent dating. Currently work is being done on compiling and publishing the most recent finds at the site to be submitted to the local tribes, community and journals for peer review.


Flake scar angles

Payen (1982) studied flake scar angles as traits for distinguishing artifacts from geofacts. He tested a method developed by Barnes (1939) who had compared frequency of obtuse angles on eoliths, natural fractures, and artifacts. Barnes found obtuse angles on 72% of eoliths, 75% of natural fractures, and 18% of artifacts and concluded that “The flaked tools of an industry…may be considered to be of human origin if not more than 25% of the angles scar-platform are obtuse (90° and over)” (Barnes 1939:111). Payen measured all flake angles on each Calico specimen in his sample. It is conceivable that flake scars were confused for striking platforms. Flaking from one side of a specimen can often remove earlier platform areas on the other side. Angles between two flake scars are different from angles between platforms and derivative flake scars. Payen compared mean angle values for Calico specimens with those on specimens selected as representing controlled and uncontrolled fracture. He found that “Statistically, there is no significant difference between the sample of alleged tools and the uncontrolled fracture series.” (Payen 1982:200). Duvall and Venner (1979:462) examined a sample of Calico artifacts and concluded they were form-selected examples of naturally flaked rocks. Their assessment was based on variances in seven attributes (length, width, thickness, flake angle, medial axis angle, lateral edge angle, and distal edge angle) and comparison with comparable attributes on specimens in eight Paleoindian collections reported by Wilmsen (1970).


Current consensus

Both the Duvall/Venner and the Payen papers have been criticized on a number of levels, and analyses supporting the pro-artifact argument have been published. The present consensus is that there is no evidence of human activity at the Calico Early Man site. This consensus developed based on a number of factors, including: *The lack of other evidence of human activity (e.g. human or animal remains, or non-tool artifacts). *The deep antiquity of the site (the next oldest date for human artifacts in the Americas is 30,000 BP, and that date itself is controversial). *The sheer number of possible tools, up to 60,000 by one account. *The research by Duvall/Venner, Payen, and others providing possible natural explanations for the stone objects.


History of excavations

In 1959
Louis Leakey Louis Seymour Bazett Leakey (7 August 1903 – 1 October 1972) was a Kenyan-British palaeoanthropologist and archaeologist whose work was important in demonstrating that humans evolved in Africa, particularly through discoveries made at Olduvai ...
, while at the
British Museum of Natural History The Natural History Museum in London is a museum that exhibits a vast range of specimens from various segments of natural history. It is one of three major museums on Exhibition Road in South Kensington, the others being the Science Museum ...
in
London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...
, received a visit from Ruth DeEtte Simpson, an archaeologist from California. Simpson had acquired what looked like ancient
scraper Scrape, scraper or scraping may refer to: Biology and medicine * Abrasion (medical), a type of injury * Scraper (biology), grazer-scraper, a water animal that feeds on stones and other substrates by grazing algae, microorganism and other matter ...
s from a site in the Calico Hills and showed it to Leakey. Leakey viewed it as important to study the Calico Hill site,Morell, pp. 266-267. as he was convinced that the number and distribution of native languages in the Americas required more time than 12,000 years to evolve and acquire their current distribution. In 1963, Leakey obtained funds from the
National Geographic Society The National Geographic Society (NGS), headquartered in Washington, D.C., United States, is one of the largest non-profit scientific and educational organizations in the world. Founded in 1888, its interests include geography, archaeology, ...
and commenced
archaeological excavation In archaeology, excavation is the exposure, processing and recording of archaeological remains. An excavation site or "dig" is the area being studied. These locations range from one to several areas at a time during a project and can be condu ...
s with Simpson. Excavations in an area stratigraphically separate from a verified 10,000-year-old Paleoindian site were carried out by Leakey and Simpson, who believed that they had located stone artifacts that were dated 100,000 years or older, suggesting a human presence in North America much earlier than estimated. George F. Carter discusses this work and its background and context at length in Older Than You Think. The archaeologist Jeffrey Goodman who worked at the site with Leakey had also claimed the stone artifacts to be human made. Goodman has also made controversial statements that the artifacts found at Calico Hills may be as old as 500,000 years and if proven would be the oldest human artifacts in the world, which would place human origins in the Americas. However the majority of scientists have rejected these claims, according to Kenneth Feder "Goodman's claims were not backed up with even a shred of evidence." The geologist
Vance Haynes Caleb Vance Haynes Jr. (born February 29, 1928), known as Vance Haynes or C. Vance Haynes Jr., is an archaeologist, geologist and author who specializes in the archaeology of the Southwestern United States, American Southwest. Haynes "revolutioni ...
had made three visits to the site in 1973 and had claimed that the artifacts of Leakey were naturally formed geofacts. According to Haynes, the geofacts were formed by stones becoming fractured in an ancient river on the site. In her autobiography, Louis' wife
Mary Leakey Mary Douglas Leakey, FBA (née Nicol, 6 February 1913 – 9 December 1996) was a British paleoanthropologist who discovered the first fossilised ''Proconsul'' skull, an extinct ape which is now believed to be ancestral to humans. She also disc ...
wrote that because of his involvement with the Calico Hills site she had lost academic respect for him, and that the Calico excavations was "catastrophic to his professional career and was largely responsible for the parting of our ways".Mary Leakey ''Disclosing the past'' 1984 pp. 142-144 She did not share his visionary views about the Calico site. She regarded Louis as often slipping into incompetence and often publicized that opinion. Louis Leakey continued to visit the site several times a year and was connected with the project until his death in 1972. The site was taken over by California's Bureau of Land Management and was opened to the public.


See also

*
Archaeology of the Americas The archaeology of the Americas is the study of the archaeology of the Western Hemisphere, including North America (Mesoamerica), Central America, South America and the Caribbean. This includes the study of pre-historic/Pre-Columbian and historic ...
*
Arlington Springs Man The Arlington Springs man is a set of Late Pleistocene human remains discovered in 1959 on Santa Rosa Island, one of the Channel Islands located off the coast of Southern California. The Arlington Springs archeological site is protected within n ...
- (Human remains) *
Buhl woman Buhla is the name for a skeleton of a prehistoric ( Paleo-Indian) woman found in a quarry near Buhl, Idaho, United States, in January 1989. The skeleton's age has been estimated by radiocarbon dating at 10,675 ± 95 BP, which confirms this as one o ...
- (Human remains) *
Calico Ghost Town Calico is a ghost town and former mining town in San Bernardino County, California, United States. Located in the Calico Mountains of the Mojave Desert region of Southern California, it was founded in 1881 as a silver mining town, and was later ...
* Cerutti Mastodon site * Cueva de las Manos - (Cave paintings) *
Fort Rock Cave Fort Rock Cave was the site of the earliest evidence of human habitation in the US state of Oregon before the excavation of Paisley Caves. Fort Rock Cave featured numerous well-preserved sagebrush sandals, ranging from 9,000 to 13,000 years old ...
- (Archeological site) *
Kennewick Man Kennewick Man and Ancient One are the names generally given to the skeletal remains of a prehistoric Paleoamerican man found on a bank of the Columbia River in Kennewick, Washington, on July 28, 1996. It is one of the most complete ancient ske ...
- (Human remains) * Kwäday Dän Ts’ìnchi - (Human remains) *
Marmes Rockshelter The Marmes Rockshelter (also known as (45-FR-50)) is an archaeological site first excavated in 1962, near Lyons Ferry Park and the confluence of the Snake and Palouse Rivers, in Franklin County, southeastern Washington. This rockshelter is remar ...
- (Archeological site) *
Paisley Caves The Paisley Caves or the Paisley Five Mile Point Caves complex is a system of eight caves in an arid, desolate region of south-central Oregon, United States north of the present-day city of Paisley, Oregon. The caves are located in the Summer La ...
- (Archeological site)


References


Sources and further reading

* Bischoff, J.L., R.J. Shlemon, T.L. Ku, R.D. Simpson, R.J. Rosenbauer, & F.E. Budinger, Jr., "1981 Uranium-series and Soils-geomorphic Dating of the Calico Archaeological Site, California", ''Geology'' V9 (12), pp. 576–582. * Budinger Jr., Fred E., Oberlander, Theodor
Calicodig.org
"This web site describes and analyzes the Calico Archaeological Site and the Calico Lithic Industry". With many stone object photos. * Carter, George F., Older Than You Think, College Station, Texas, Texas A&M University Press, 1980. * Debenham, N., (1998) Thermoluminescence Dating of Sediment from the Calico Site (California) (CAL1), ''Quaternary TL Surveys'', Nottingham, United Kingdom, 1998. * Duvall, James G., and Venner, William Thomas, “A Statistical Analysis of the Lithics from the Calico Site (SBCM 1500A), California”, ''Journal of Field Archaeology'', Winter 1979: Vol. 6, No. 4, pp. 455–462. *Haynes, Vance (1973) "The Calico Site: Artifacts or Geofacts?", ''
Science Science is a systematic endeavor that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the universe. Science may be as old as the human species, and some of the earliest archeological evidence ...
'', vol. 181, no. 4097, July 27, 1973, pp. 305–310. *Morell, Virginia (1995) ''Ancestral Passions: The Leakey Family and the Quest for Humankind's Beginnings'', Simon & Schuster, pp. 266–267. * Payen, L., “Artifacts or geofacts at Calico: Application of the Barnes test,” in ''Peopling of the New World'', Ericson J., Taylor, R., and Berger, R., eds. Los Altos, California: Ballena Press, 1982, pp. 193–201. *Patterson, Leland W.; Hoffman, Louis V.; Higginbotham, Rose Marie; Simpson, Ruth D. (1987)
Analysis of Lithic Flakes at the Calico Site, California
, in ''Journal of Field Archaeology'', Vol. 14, No. 1 (Spring, 1987), pp. 91–106.

". . .over 60,000 tools and flakes have been collected". *Friends of Calico Early Man Site; 2024 Orange Tree Lane, Redlands, CA 93474. (''accessed 6/2010'') *Calico Mountains Archaeological Site. (2015).

...Current Consensus.


External links



from the Friends of Calico ---- {{authority control Archaeological museums in California Archaeological sites in California Archaeological sites on the National Register of Historic Places in California Bureau of Land Management areas in California Historic districts on the National Register of Historic Places in California History of San Bernardino County, California History of the Mojave Desert region Museums in San Bernardino County, California National Register of Historic Places in San Bernardino County, California Native American history of California Paleo-Indian archaeological sites in the United States Pre-Clovis archaeological sites in the Americas Pre-Columbian cultures Pre-statehood history of California Protected areas of the Mojave Desert Protected areas of San Bernardino County, California Stone age sites