Calico Early Man Site
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The Calico Early Man Site is an
archaeological site An archaeological site is a place (or group of physical sites) in which evidence of past activity is preserved (either prehistoric or recorded history, historic or contemporary), and which has been, or may be, investigated using the discipline ...
in an ancient
Pleistocene The Pleistocene ( ; referred to colloquially as the ''ice age, Ice Age'') is the geological epoch (geology), epoch that lasted from to 11,700 years ago, spanning the Earth's most recent period of repeated glaciations. Before a change was fin ...
lake located near Barstow in
San Bernardino County San Bernardino County ( ), officially the County of San Bernardino and sometimes abbreviated as S.B. County, 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 th ...
in the central
Mojave Desert The Mojave Desert (; ; ) is a desert in the rain shadow of the southern Sierra Nevada mountains and Transverse Ranges in the Southwestern United States. Named for the Indigenous peoples of the Americas, indigenous Mohave people, it is located pr ...
of
Southern California Southern California (commonly shortened to SoCal) is a geographic and Cultural area, cultural List of regions of California, region that generally comprises the southern portion of the U.S. state of California. Its densely populated coastal reg ...
. This site is on and in late middle-
Pleistocene The Pleistocene ( ; referred to colloquially as the ''ice age, Ice Age'') is the geological epoch (geology), epoch that lasted from to 11,700 years ago, spanning the Earth's most recent period of repeated glaciations. Before a change was fin ...
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 monoclinic ...
in freshwater
limestone Limestone is a type of carbonate rock, carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material Lime (material), lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different Polymorphism (materials science) ...
). 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 ( ; referred to colloquially as the ''ice age, Ice Age'') is the geological epoch (geology), epoch that lasted from to 11,700 years ago, spanning the Earth's most recent period of repeated glaciations. Before a change was fin ...
alluvial deposits 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 hea ...
(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 Prehistory, prehistoric stone tool with two faces that is the longest-used tool in human history. It is made from stone, usually flint or chert that has been "reduced" and shaped from a larger ...
, 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 (archaeology), 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 lithic flake, flakes fr ...
, 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 (archaeology), assemblage may include the different kinds of lithic fla ...
, 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 monoclinic ...
, 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 t ...
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 (; ; ) is a desert in the rain shadow of the southern Sierra Nevada mountains and Transverse Ranges in the Southwestern United States. Named for the Indigenous peoples of the Americas, indigenous Mohave people, it is located pr ...
. 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 to the ocean, in North America. It spans nearly all of Nevada, much of Utah, and portions of California, Idaho, Oregon, Wyoming, and Baja Californi ...
region,
Late Pleistocene The Late Pleistocene is an unofficial Age (geology), age in the international geologic timescale in chronostratigraphy, also known as the Upper Pleistocene from a Stratigraphy, stratigraphic perspective. It is intended to be the fourth division ...
and
Holocene The Holocene () is the current geologic time scale, geological epoch, beginning approximately 11,700 years ago. It follows the Last Glacial Period, which concluded with the Holocene glacial retreat. The Holocene and the preceding Pleistocene to ...
alluviation has effectively buried and sealed earlier
Pleistocene The Pleistocene ( ; referred to colloquially as the ''ice age, Ice Age'') is the geological epoch (geology), epoch that lasted from to 11,700 years ago, spanning the Earth's most recent period of repeated glaciations. Before a change was fin ...
sediment Sediment is a solid material that is transported to a new location where it is deposited. It occurs naturally and, through the processes of weathering and erosion, is broken down and subsequently sediment transport, transported by the action of ...
s and possible evidence of pre-
Clovis culture The Clovis culture is an archaeological culture from the Paleoindian period of North America, spanning around 13,050 to 12,750 years Before Present (BP). The type site is Blackwater Draw locality No. 1 near Clovis, New Mexico, where stone too ...
s. In the Manix Basin (Lower Mojave Valley) of
San Bernardino County, California San Bernardino County ( ), officially the County of San Bernardino and sometimes abbreviated as S.B. County, is a County (United States), county located in the Southern California, southern portion of the U.S. state of California, and is locat ...
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 Surface runoff, water flow or wind) that removes soil, Rock (geology), rock, or dissolved material from one location on the Earth's crust#Crust, Earth's crust and then sediment transport, tran ...
, 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 sedimentation, sediment accumulation. Lacustrine plains can be formed through one of three major mechanisms: glacial drainage, differentia ...
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), as well as the current and most recent of the twelve periods of the ...
history. The Manix Basin, a
structural basin A structural basin is a large-scale structural geology, structural formation of rock stratum, strata formed by tectonics, tectonic warping (Fold (geology), folding) of previously flat-lying strata into a syncline fold. They are geological dep ...
in the central
Mojave Desert The Mojave Desert (; ; ) is a desert in the rain shadow of the southern Sierra Nevada mountains and Transverse Ranges in the Southwestern United States. Named for the Indigenous peoples of the Americas, indigenous Mohave people, it is located pr ...
, 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 ti ...
, 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 ( ; referred to colloquially as the ''ice age, Ice Age'') is the geological epoch (geology), epoch that lasted from to 11,700 years ago, spanning the Earth's most recent period of repeated glaciations. Before a change was fin ...
. 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
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Fossils

The lacustrine, fluvial, and alluvial sediments of the Pleistocene Manix Formation contain remains of numerous
Rancholabrean The Rancholabrean North American Land Mammal Age on the geologic timescale is a North American faunal stage in the North American Land Mammal Ages chronology (NALMA),Sanders, A.E., R.E. Weems, and L.B. Albright III (2009) Formalization of the mid- ...
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 thermoluminescence 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 the Earth and other astronomical objects, the rocks of which they are composed, and the processes by which they change over time. Modern geology significantly overlaps all other Earth s ...
processes (i.e. geofacts). 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 in
London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...
, received a visit from Ruth DeEtte Simpson, an archaeologist from California. Simpson had acquired what looked like ancient scrapers from a site in the Calico Hills and showed it to Leakey. Leakey viewed it as important to study the Calico Hills 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, headquartered in Washington, D.C., United States, is one of the largest nonprofit scientific and educational organizations in the world. Founded in 1888, its interests include geography, archaeology, natural sc ...
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. 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 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, Fellow of the British Academy, FBA (née Nicol, 6 February 1913 – 9 December 1996) was a British paleoanthropologist who discovered the first fossilised ''Proconsul (mammal), Proconsul'' skull, an extinct ape which is now ...
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". 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 the
Bureau of Land Management The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is an agency within the United States Department of the Interior responsible for administering federal lands, U.S. federal lands. Headquartered in Washington, D.C., the BLM oversees more than of land, or one ...
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 - (Human remains) * Buhl woman - (Human remains) * Calico Ghost Town * Cerutti Mastodon site *
Cueva de las Manos Cueva de las Manos ( Spanish for Cave of the Hands or Cave of Hands) is a cave and complex of rock art sites in the province of Santa Cruz, Argentina, south of the town of Perito Moreno. It is named for the hundreds of paintings of hands s ...
- (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 the Paisley Caves. Fort Rock Cave featured numerous well-preserved sagebrush sandals, ranging from 9,000 to 13,000 years ...
- (Archeological site) *
Kennewick Man Kennewick Man or Ancient One was a Native American man who lived during the early Holocene, whose skeletal remains were found in 1996 washed out on a bank of the Columbia River near Kennewick, Washington. Radiocarbon tests show the man lived a ...
- (Human remains) * Kwäday Dän Ts’ìnchi - (Human remains) * Marmes Rockshelter - (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 L ...
- (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. * 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 discipline that builds and organises knowledge in the form of testable hypotheses and predictions about the universe. Modern science is typically divided into twoor threemajor branches: the natural sciences, which stu ...
'', 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 Protected areas of the Mojave Desert Protected areas of San Bernardino County, California Stone age sites