2019/07/03 by Mark Q. Sutton · 1 citation
Social Sciences · Earth and Planetary Sciences · #Pleistocene-Era Hominins and Archaeology #Archaeology and ancient environmental studies #Geology and Paleoclimatology Research
paper · doi:10.1080/20555563.2019.1625259
openalex publication_date 2019/07/03 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/06/30
In the late 1960s, a portion of a private artifact collection obtained from the “Witt site,” located along the southwestern shoreline of Tulare Lake in California, was described. Included were fluted “Clovis-like” points, stemmed points, and crescents believed to reflect Paleoindian occupation(s). Subsequently, the Witt site has been seen as being one of three “major Clovis localities” known in California. Since the late 1980s, other private collections from the Witt Archaeological Locality (WAL), have been described and some limited excavations have been conducted at a number of the sites and loci. The work at the WAL and analysis of the fluted points now suggest that any Clovis presence was probably less than believed, and that most of the early material from the site indicates an occupation by Western Stemmed Tradition groups. Here, the extant data on the Paleoindian materials from the locality are summarized, reviewed, and reassessed.