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'Chlachula J, 1994: Varsity Estates - A Palaeo-American Site in Southwestern Alberta, Canada (1990-1992 Investigations). Anthropologie (Brno) 32, 2: 101-127'. |
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| Abstract | | Recent investigations in the Bow River valley, southwestern Alberta, Canada, provided evidence of a Palaeo-American occupation significantly predating the earliest (final Pleistocene) Palaeoindian cultures in this part of North America. Two formally identical stone tool assemblages produced from local clastic rocks have been recorded in deeply buried Late Pleistocene geological contexts. The flaked lithics display apparent technological and typological similarities with Palaeolithic industries from northeastern Eurasia. At Site 1 (the Varsity Estates Site) discussed in this paper, stone artifacts occur partly redeposited in a Cordilleran (the Bow Valley) till derived by a Rocky Mountain glacier, but also in situ on a gravelly surface of the till buried by glaciolacustrine deposits, more than 20 m thick, which were accumulated during the maximum Laurentide ice advance into the Calgary area. Simple, direct, hard-percussion was the dominant flaking technique, although soft-hammer percussion blade technology is also present. The formal typology of core tools consists of a variety of crudely modified pebble tools, including choppers, chopping-tools, large scrapers on cobbles and exceptionally bifaces. Flake tools mostly occur as steeply retouched side scrapers; occasionally as end scrapers, including carinate forms, and simple dihedral and other burins. Utilized flakes and unmodified débitage are present. An early Late Wisconsinan age (ca. > 21,000 B.P.) is assumed for the artifact assemblage. Palynological data associated with the lithic record indicate a cool semiarid interstadial climate. The cultural evidence supports the concept of a pre-Clovis occupation of North America, and implies adaptation of the early prehistoric people to periglacial conditions. | | | | Keywords | | Southwestern Alberta - Calgary Site 1 - Palaeo-American occupation - Lithic industry - Mid- and Late Wisconsinan - Cordilleran and Laurentide glaciations | | |
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