Raab wrote:

""hold on to Clovis"

This is not at all true. I have spent the last 25 years keeping
my eyes open for Pre-Clovis sites. In fact, at one time, as I
discussed before, I found what looked liked a Pre-Clovis hearth,
circa 24,000 BP, buried beneath 12 meters of Peoria loess. I
got another geologist quite mad at me because I stopped him
from trashing it for the charcoal to use in dating a pre-Peoria
paleosol. Then, I went to a great effort to located a sympathetic
archaeologist, who later investigated it in great detail.

As a Pleistocene geologist, having well defined Pre-Clovis
archaeology would be wonderful as it be would be helpful,
once the details were worked out, in dating Pleistocene
sediments. I am very envious of the Pleistocene geologists
in Europe, who have hand axes and other artifacts, with
which to date their Pleistocene sediments. Having Pre-Clovis
archaeology would certainly save me a lot of money on OSL
dating.

Of course, being human, I do have my "brain-farts" and get
different people and dates completely confused. I suspect
that also happens to many other people when they get lazy
and do not take the time to go back through their notes
and double check their memory before posting something.
When I do get my facts wrong, I apologize for such
screw-ups as in case of my major gaffe, which Chris
pointed out.

One of the nice things about peer-review, is that for me
and other geologists, it does catch the major "brain-farts"
before they become part of the public record and a person
belatedly realizes that he or she wrote something quite
stupid that is now forever and unchangely in print.

Raab also wrote:

"The initial reaction isn't promising."

The problem here is that you need to understand that it
is quite possible for people to sincerely and honestly
disagree with you and not be part of some sort mythical
conspiracy enforcing some an imaginary academic dogma.
Not everyone, who disagrees with you is part of some
sort of "Clovis First" or related cabal.

Paul H.


"The past is never dead. It's not even past."
William Faulkner, Act 1, Scene III, Requiem for a Nun (1951)



Edited 4 time(s). Last edit at 10/31/2006 01:55PM by Paul H..