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Desert Diary
Archaeology/Clovis First

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In the sciences and related fields, it's often claimed that belief is set solely by the evidence. If the evidence shows you are wrong, then you admit it and go on. Sometimes that's the way it is; but more often, the old ego rears up. If you've built your career based on one hypothesis, it's not that easy to change. Indeed, major shifts in science often seem to depend on youth taking up the new paradigm while many of the elders resist to the death.

The Clovis Firsters appear to be a case in point. Ancient archaeological remains of the so-called Clovis Culture were first revealed at the fringes of our desert, near Clovis, New Mexico. Over the decades, the firm belief was established that Clovis represented the first peoples to reach the New World. Now, however, sites that seem to meet all the criteria for earlier inhabitants are known in the eastern U.S. and even in South America. Many archaeologists have made the transition gracefully; the die-hard Clovis Firsters will always just KNOW the evidence HAS to be wrong! pen and ink

 

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Contributor: Arthur H. Harris, Laboratory for Environmental Biology, Centennial Museum, University of Texas at El Paso.

Desert Diary is a joint production of the Centennial Museum and KTEP National Public Radio at the University of Texas at El Paso.

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References

Web Resources

Clovis Culture (Wikipedia)

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