Brittany Smith

Reading Discussion Questions – Week 10, Day 1

Adovasio- Melee Over Meadowcroft

1. Adovasio provides a lot of evidence that Meadowcroft is older than the Clovis Culture.

However, what caught my attention was the dating of the soil. Adovasio states “the

deepest date from a stratum that contained no cultural associations was anywhere from

19,000 to 28,000 years old.” (Adovasio 159-160) Therefore this meant that the

occupation of Meadowcroft is older than Clovis. Adovasio believed this evidence and

these dates due to the professional and reliable archaeologists that did the radiocarbon

dating.

2. Adovasio faced critics from the Clovis Firsters about the Meadowcroft Rockshelter

beginning 16,000 years ago. They predicted that this area was a barren tundra instead of

the boreal/northern forest Adovasio claims it to be. He states that “since the evidence

from Meadowcroft did not accord with the maps the paleoecologists had drawn up”

(Adovasio 174) the radiocarbon dates had to be wrong. Adovasio responds to this by

saying the Clovis Firsters are ignorant of the glacial geology and other data that was

presented. Lastly, he claimed that they had a hard time reading the geological and reports

that came from Meadowcroft. (Adovasio 174)