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Science 23 February 2007:
Vol. 315. no. 5815, pp. 1122 - 1126
DOI: 10.1126/science.1137166
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Reports

Redefining the Age of Clovis: Implications for the Peopling of the Americas

Michael R. Waters1* and Thomas W. Stafford, Jr.2

The Clovis complex is considered to be the oldest unequivocal evidence of humans in the Americas, dating between 11,500 and 10,900 radiocarbon years before the present (14C yr B.P.). Adjusted 14C dates and a reevaluation of the existing Clovis date record revise the Clovis time range to 11,050 to 10,800 14C yr B.P. In as few as 200 calendar years, Clovis technology originated and spread throughout North America. The revised age range for Clovis overlaps non-Clovis sites in North and South America. This and other evidence imply that humans already lived in the Americas before Clovis.

1 Departments of Anthropology and Geography, Center for the Study of the First Americans, Texas A&M University, 4352 TAMU, College Station, TX 77843-4352, USA.
2 Stafford Research Laboratories, 200 Acadia Avenue, Lafayette, CO 80026, USA.

* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: mwaters{at}tamu.edu

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Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)