Subsequent refinements to the calibration curve could produce slightly different calibrated ages for the same radiocarbon measurements, though the magnitude of any such changes for dates in the 24,000-year range is unlikely to be large enough to materially affect the interpretation.

The Clovis Technology and What It Was

Any discussion of the evidence for pre-Clovis human presence in the Americas benefits from a clearer description of what Clovis technology actually was and why it generated such a distinctive and widespread archaeological signature.

The Clovis culture — named for the town of Clovis, New Mexico, where its distinctive stone point type was first described in the 1930s — is defined archaeologically primarily by the fluted biface: a stone projectile point that is bifacially worked (reduced on both faces by the removal of flakes) and that has a distinctive “fluting” — a long, thinning flake removed from the base of each face by a specific and technically demanding process.

The result is a point with a concave, grooved base that is thought to have facilitated the attachment of the point to a wooden or bone foreshaft.