The association demonstrated not just that humans had been in North America during the Pleistocene, but that they had been hunting its largest animals.

Radiocarbon dating, as it developed from the late 1940s onward, placed Clovis consistently in the range of approximately 11,000 to 13,000 radiocarbon years before present — which calibrated to approximately 13,000 to 14,000 calendar years.

Clovis points were found across a vast geographic range: from the southeastern United States to the Pacific coast, from Alaska to Central America.

Their distribution suggested rapid spread — the archaeological signature of a founding population moving quickly through an uninhabited continent with abundant game and no human competitors.