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Topper (archaeological site)


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*Topper* is an archaeological site located along the Savannah River in
Allendale County, South Carolina in the United States . It is noted as the
location of controversial artifacts believed by some archaeologists to
indicate human habitation of the New World as far back as 50,000 BP.

Since the 1930s, the prevailing theory concerning the peopling of the New
World is that the first human inhabitants were the Clovis people , who are
thought to have appeared approximately 13,500 years ago. Artifacts of the
Clovis people are found throughout most of the United States and as far
south as Panama . The standard theory has been challenged in recent
decades with the emergence of pre-Clovis sites such as Monte Verde and
other possible pre-Clovis candidates such as Cactus Hill . To date, no
consistent pre-Clovis cultural patterns have been established and the
accuracy of these claims has been disputed.

In 2004, Albert Goodyear of the University of South Carolina Institute of
Archaeology and Anthropology announced that a bit of charcoal found in the
Topper Site had been radiocarbon dated to approximately 50,000 years ago,
or approximately 37,000 years before the Clovis people. Goodyear, who
began excavating the Topper site in the 1980s, believes that the artifacts
are stone tools, although other archaeologists dispute this conclusion,
suggesting that the artifacts may be natural and not human-made. Other
archaeologists have challenged the radiocarbon dating procedure of the
Topper artifacts. Goodyear discovered the artifacts by digging 4 m deeper
than the Clovis artifacts. Before discovering the oldest artifacts, he had
discovered other artifacts that he claimed were tools dating around 16,000
years old, or about 3,000 years before Clovis. Until the recent challenges
to the Clovis theory, it was unusual for archaeologists to dig deeper than
the layer of the Clovis culture, on the grounds that no human artifacts
would be found older than Clovis.


[edit ] External links

* Topper Site layers photo

Stratigraphic layers photo of the Topper Site and the Pre-Clovis layers. *
Topper Site: Beyond Clovis at Allendale

* South Carolina Institute of Archaeology and Anthropology

* Another Perspective on the Topper pre-Clovis Material

* CNN: Man In Americas Earlier Than Thought

The University of South Carolina announces radiocarbon tests that dated
the first human settlement in North America to 50,000 years ago

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Topper_(archaeological_site)"
Categories : Archaeological sites in South Carolina | Allendale County,
South Carolina