Earlier Than You Think - A Personal View of Man in America

374 Pages·1980·5.16 MB·English

by  George Francis Carter

Earlier Than
You Think
A Personal View of Man in America
!
By GEORGE F. CARTER
Digitized by the Internet Archive
in 2015
https://archive.org/details/earlierthanyouthOOgeor
EARLIER THAN YOU THINK
Earlier than You Think
A PERSONAL VIEW OF
MAN IN AMERICA
BY
George F. Carter
TEXAS A&M UNIVERSITY PRESS
College Station
Copyright © 1980 by George F. Carter
All rights reserved
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Carter, George Francis, 191 2—
Earlier than you think.
Bibliography: p.
Includes index.
1. Paleo-Indians. 2. America—Antiquities.
3. Dating in archaeology. I. Title.
E61.C34 970.01 79-5280
ISBN 0-89096-091-7
Manufactured in the United States of America
FIRST EDITION
Contents
List of Illustrations vii
Preface ix
CHAPTER
1 . Introduction 3
2. Feet of Clay 14
3. Groping toward a Time Scale 67
4. Mankind on the Rock Pile 87
5. Early Sites: I. The American Middle Paleolithic 133
6. Early Sites: II. The American Lower Paleolithic 172
7. The Bridge 244
8. Who Were They? 281
9. Past and Present 316
Glossary 325
Bibliography 327
Index 341
Illustrations
FIGURES
1. Stages of lithic work in America 10
2. Estimates of the antiquity of man in America 15
3. M. Rogers 17
J.
4. Ruth DeEtte Simpson 37
5. Probable lithic sequence at Lake Lahontan 43
6. La Jollan tools at Lake Lahontan 45
7. Expedition to Santa Rosa Island 48
8. Sea cliffs on Santa Rosa Island 50
9. Morlin Childers 53
10. M. Rogers excavating Del Mar skull 57
J.
11. Blade and core technology 62
12. Changing views of past time 70
13. Tasmanian tool kit 90
14. Early lithic industry at Buchanan Canyon 92
15. Texas Street tools 93
16. Rounding of a cube 98
17. Effects of natural wear on artifacts 100
18. Weathering breakage compared with percussion breakage 110
19. Flakes showing percussive blows 116
20. Blade section from Calico site 117
21. Experimental blade making 118
22. La Jolla and Torrey Pines Mesa sites 139
23. Underwater archeology at La Jolla 148
24. La Jolla Shores, 1936 150
25. Archeology under difficulties 156
26. Cliff north of Scripps pier 158
27. Bay bar in La Jolla Shores valley 162
28. Cross section of La Jolla Shores bay bar 1 65
29. Crown Point 167
30. San Diego River Valley, 1930 174
31. Texas Street site, circa 1950 176
32. Ovate-biface piece from Sweetwater River valley fill 178