The Clovis culture is a prehistoric North American culture known for finely made stone spear points with a distinctive flute, or groove, running up from the base. It is named after the town of Clovis, New Mexico, where such points were found in association with mammoth bones in the 1930s. For decades the Clovis people were thought to be the first inhabitants of the Americas, who crossed from Asia by land and spread quickly across the continent. This Clovis-first idea has since been challenged by earlier sites such as Monte Verde in Chile and by other evidence, and Clovis is now seen as one of several early cultures. The Anzick burial in Montana provided ancient DNA linking Clovis people to modern Native Americans.
Before and after
- from about 12,000 years ago to 7th millennium BCEConstruction of Göbekli Tepe
- c. 9,750s BCEQuaternary extinction event
- 10th millennium BCEThe Holocene begins
- c. 9,501 BCEBuilders raise the first monumental temple at Gobekli Tepe
- from c. 9,050s BCE to 8,850s BCEClovis culture
- from 10th millennium BCE to 3rd millennium BCENeolithic revolution
- from 10th millennium BCE to 3rd millennium BCENeolithic
- from 10th millennium BCE to 6th millennium BCEMesolithic
- c. 8,750 BCEEruption of Ulleungdo
More in Evolution & life
- about 41,000 years agoNeanderthals disappear from Europe
- from about 40,000 years ago to 31,000 years agoAurignacian
- about 23,100 years agoPeople are already in North America
- about 15,100 years agoDogs are domesticated
- about 13,000 years agoThe megafauna of the Americas die out
- from c. 3,300 BCE to 2,600 BCEYamnaya culture
The era
This moment belongs to the Human prehistory (300,000 years ago to 3,200 BCE), the human story before writing.