Methods: Taphonomy

A claim is being made, in a recent issue of Nature Magazine, that humans were active in the vicinity of San Diego well over 100,000 years before archaeologists think humans were even in the New World. Most commentary on this claim dismisses it out of hand, but out of hand rejections are no better than foundationless assertions. Let's take a closer look at the Cerutti Mastodon Site. But first, some important context. The Near Consensus on North American Prehistory The Clovis Culture is a Native American phenomenon that occurred between about 12 and 10 thousand years ago (most likely between…
A bit of documentary on the Donner Party: Donner Party Archaeology and Forensic Science Donald L Hardesty discusses the archaeology and forensic science used at the Donner Party camp sites in the Sierra Nevada mountains. This is a good video, but I can't embed it, but go have a look.