Ancient site · Other
Blackwater Draw (Clovis type site)
Also known as Blackwater Locality No. 1
A dry stream channel near Clovis, New Mexico, where in 1929 a local man, Ridgley Whiteman, recognised stone tools lying with the bones of mammoths. Excavations from 1932 showed that hunters had killed or butchered mammoths and other big game here at the end of the Ice Age.
The fluted spear points found here gave their name to the Clovis culture, for decades thought to be the first people in the Americas. Later layers hold Folsom points and remains of other periods.
- Dates
- Clovis level c. 11,100–10,800 BCE
- Still standing
- No, or only traces
- Location
- 34.28° N, 103.32° W
How we know
No writing existed; the Clovis layer is dated by radiocarbon and by its distinctive stone spear points.
Nearby sites
- Watson Brake c. 3500–3000 BCE
- Poverty Point c. 1700–1100 BCE
- Teotihuacan c. 100 BCE – 550 CE (centre burned); declined to c. 650 CE
- Cuicuilco c. 1000 BCE – c. 300 CE
- Great Serpent Mound built c. 300 BCE (Adena) or c. 1000 CE (Fort Ancient) — disputed
- Hopewell Ceremonial Earthworks (Newark) c. 1–400 CE
Related
- Clovis culture archaeological culture