The Seagull Bay site—Clovis technology from American Falls on the Eastern Snake River Plain

Abstract

The Snake River Plain may have served as a corridor for the earliest colonists spreading throughout the New World. It has been observed that the distribution of Clovis period sites and raw material used to produce diagnostic points reflects a detailed understanding of the environment. During the Terminal Pleistocene, there is little evidence of Clovis hunter-gatherers interacting with mega-fauna in the Snake River Plain, despite finding both in the same locations but nonassociated. An example of this appears at the Seagull Bay Clovis site (10PR89) where several Clovis projectile points made of locally available obsidian have been found, while adjacent areas have produced significant examples of Pleistocene megafauna. This article discusses Clovis projectile points from the Seagull Bay site, obsidian sources used to make the points, and regional megafauna.