Archaeology

Paleo-Indian Period, 12,000 – 8,000 B.C.E. (Janzen)

     Archaeologists believe that the first groups of people to inhabit the Americas were nomadic tribes who migrated by land and sea around 20 thousand years ago in search of mastodonts, mammoths, and other ice age mammals.  Some of these groups arrived at the Falls, possibly as early as 13 thousand years ago.  It is believed that they hunted in and around lakes, which formed in front of the ice sheets of the Wisconsin glacial advance.  One of these lakes was located in southern Indiana and ran along Silver Creek ending 1 ½ miles northwest of the Falls.  Another lake may have stretched from southern Louisville to the Green River, 60 miles to the south. (The Louisville International Airport is on an old lake bed, which is why the area is so flat.)

     The early hunters stalked solitary animals and used spears as thrusting weapons to kill their prey of mastodon and mammoth.  They developed a highly specialized leaf-shaped flint point for this purpose.  Its concave base and lower edges were ground smooth to avoid cutting the material used to bind the point to the spear shaft.  A narrow flake was removed from one or both faces of the blade.  The depression left by the removal of the flake gave the point the name “fluted.” (See photo of the reworked Cumberland Point below.) The material used for these stone tools, called chert, was abundant at the Falls. 

     During the end of the last ice age, the climate was beginning to change and different vegetation and animals spread into the Falls region and provided different food sources.  At this time, the population density was low so competition over resources was non-existent.  Paleo-Indians were nomadic but made camps close to different types of resources, such as clay, chert, mussels, and fish that were easily harvested along large streams.  Although the Paleo-Indians were mainly big game hunters they probably gathered fruit, leaves, roots, and nuts as they became available. 

Text written by Gwen Corder, edited by Bett Etenohan

To explore other cultural periods, click Archaic, Woodland, or Mississippian.

Information about Clarksville Archaeological Sites

Reworked Cumberland Point

Note the flute running down the center.

From the Charles F. Cox Collection

     Possible Scottsbluff, Type 1                  Blade and Projectile Points

        Late PaleoIndian Culture            From the Guernsey Collection, Glenn Black Lab

                Wyandotte flint                                          Wyandotte flint

From the Charles F. Cox Collection

Updated July 26, 2011