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Solutreanism

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2015

Michael J. O'Brien ,
Matthew T. Boulanger ,
Mark Collard ,
Briggs Buchanan ,
Lia Tarle ,
Lawrence G. Straus  and
Metin I. Eren
Michael J. O'Brien*
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, University of Missouri, Columbia, MO 65211, USA
Matthew T. Boulanger
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, University of Missouri, Columbia, MO 65211, USA
Mark Collard
Affiliation:
Human Evolutionary Studies Program & Department of Archaeology, Simon Fraser University, 8888 University Drive, Burnaby, BC V5A 1S6, Canada Department of Archaeology, University of Aberdeen, St Mary's, Elphinstone Road, Aberdeen AB24 3UF, UK
Briggs Buchanan
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, University of Tulsa, 800 South Tucker Drive, Tulsa, OK 74104, USA
Lia Tarle
Affiliation:
Human Evolutionary Studies Program & Department of Archaeology, Simon Fraser University, 8888 University Drive, Burnaby, BC V5A 1S6, Canada
Lawrence G. Straus
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM 87131, USA
Metin I. Eren*
Affiliation:
School of Anthropology and Conservation, Marlowe Building, University of Kent, Canterbury CT2 7NR, UK Department of Archaeology, Cleveland Museum of Natural History, 1 Wade Oval Drive, University Circle, Cleveland, OH 44106-1767, USA
*
*Authors for correspondence (Email: obrienm@missouri.edu; metin.i.eren@gmail.com)
*Authors for correspondence (Email: obrienm@missouri.edu; metin.i.eren@gmail.com)
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Extract

The comments of Stanford and Bradley (above) do not address our criticisms and obfuscate the topic at hand with irrelevant data (e.g. the south-to-north movement of fluted points through the Ice Free Corridor), nonexistent data (e.g. ‘under the water’ or ‘destroyed sites’), and questionable data (e.g. Meadowcroft and Cactus Hill are by no means widely accepted, nor are Stanford and Bradley's ‘eight LGM sites’ in the mid-Atlantic region). Before touching on some of these points, we direct the reader to several recent articles (e.g. Morrow 2014; Raff & Bolnick 2014) that provide new evidence or arguments inconsistent with a trans-Atlantic migration, including the fact that DNA from the Clovis Anzick child (Montana) shows no European ancestry (Rasmussen et al. 2014). Although Stanford and Bradley describe their Solutrean ‘solution’ (Stanford & Bradley 1999) to the Pleistocene colonisation of North America as ‘testable’, their position is that the idea is correct until falsified. They propose that their colleagues have yet to provide sufficient ‘critiques’ or ‘challenges’ to discount it (see also Collins 2012; Collins et al. 2013). Yet they are the ones proposing a hypothesis inconsistent with overwhelming multidisciplinary evidence, and they ignore results of tests that do not support their claims.

Type
Debate
Information
Antiquity , Volume 88 , Issue 340 , 01 June 2014 , pp. 622 - 624
Copyright
Copyright © Antiquity Publications Ltd. 2014 

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References

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