Prehistoric Time: The Story of The Lithic Stage

The Lithic stage was the earliest stage that began with the first arrival of Asian hunters in the New World. Probably Mongoloids, the earliest arrivals began crossing the Bering Strait over an ice-age land bridge, possibly more than 30,000 years ago. Archaeological evidence suggests four waves of migration, although linguistic studies of modern tribes suggest three.

Archaeologists have been sharply divided over when these earliest people first arrived. Some maintain that there is no firm evidence of a human presence before 11,500 years ago, the age of spearpoints found near Clovis, N. Mex. Others consider that archaeological evidence from places such as the Meadowcroft Rockshelter in Pennsylvania and Monte Verde in Chile, which they date at 16,000 and 13,000 years ago respectively, establish a pre-Clovis presence and lends credence to even older dates attributed to other artifacts of a more fragmentary nature.

From spare, scattered finds, the tools of the Lithic stage show a general progression, over the course of some 20,000 years, from unifacial chipped stone and bone to bifacial leaf-shaped points and blades, to the fluted projectile points used by the Clovis people. Clovis points were used in killing mammoths and other big game until the close of the Pleistocene epoch, but in some places, such as Tierra del Fuego, the Lithic stage lasted into the Recent epoch, that is until historic times.

Thank you for visiting SurayBlog