What Comes After Clovis and What Paisley Tells Us About It

The relationship between the Paisley Caves evidence and the post-Clovis archaeological record of the Great Basin and surrounding regions is an important part of the site’s significance, and one that is sometimes underemphasized in accounts focused on the pre-Clovis headline.

The Western Stemmed point tradition documented at Paisley did not simply appear and disappear.

It was part of a technological tradition that extended through the early Holocene and that contributed to the development of the diverse archaeological cultures of the western Great Basin in the subsequent millennia.

Understanding the Paisley evidence requires understanding it not just as a pre-Clovis episode but as the beginning of a long regional occupation history that connects to the archaeological record of the Great Basin through thousands of years of subsequent development.