Customer Reviews

The First Americans: In Pursuit of Archaeology's Greatest Mystery

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I am of two minds about "The First Americans." On the one hand, it is a well-written and interesting history about what scientists know (or think they know) about how and when the Americas were populated. Based on his own extensive work at the Meadowcroft rock shelter in Pennsvlvania and on the work of Tom Dillehay at Monte Verde in South America, Professor Adovasio argues passionately that the Americas were populated much earlier than 11,000 years ago, which is the approximate date usually given for the appearance of Clovis culture.

But Professor Adovasio's passion is what gives me pause. Although I suspect that he is probably right in rejecting the "Clovis bar," I have the definite feeling that I am only getting one side of a complex story.

I also found the book's numerous ad hominem attacks to be off putting--while complaining about the personal invective that has been directed at him and other advocates of pre-Clovis populations in the Americas, Professor Adovasio repeatedly slams his bete noir Vance Haynes and his allies. At one point, the author announces that "the sad fact is that the evidence is not going to make any difference to Vance, a man who, as one of his colleagues said, is now an example of someone whose mind has snapped shut, never to open again" (p. 262).

That sort of statement makes Adovasio sound somewhat hypocritical, although I suppose he would argue that his opponents have given him plenty of reasons to retaliate in kind. In any event the condition of Vance Haynes' mind is of little interest to me--Professor Adovasio and his supporters either win on the merits or they don't, and the book would have been more convincing if it had stuck to the facts without trying to make the reader dislike the "other side" as much as the authors obviously do.

"The First Americans" is worth reading, and I generally enjoyed it. But I'm still looking for a more balanced discussion of this fascinating subject.

As a young science, archaeology is necessarily dynamic. New discoveries, fresh insights, novel concepts emerge with almost dizzying frequency. Science is supposed to work on hypothesis testing - evidence confirms or refutes ideas. To discover that entrenched dogmas have been established, battlelines drawn and still contested, careers launched and destroyed is disheartening. To realise that the issue centres on a few stone tools renders the situation almost ludicrous - until we remember archaeology is the study of humanity. And humans, as Adovisio points out vividly, can cling tenaciously to favoured ideas - particularly those concerning humanity.

Adovasio briefly relates the African origins and distribution of humanity across the globe. However, this story truly starts with the 1937 discovery of some finely crafted stone spearpoints in New Mexico. Debate over Indians as "noble savage" or "barbarous native" was sharply interrupted by this find. The workmanship and novel design of the "Clovis Points" demanded reconsideration of Native Americans - particularly of their origins and dispersal in the Western Hemisphere. Knowledge of the extent of the massive glaciers covering North American many millennia ago left but a small time window for Asian peoples to cross the Bering land bridge exposed during the glacial period. Who were these people? Adovasio asks. When did they arrive? How long did it take them to inhabit the hemisphere? What was their environmental impact?

All these questions have been asked for many years. Adovasio's own research made a significant contribution when he excavated a rockshelter at Meadowcroft, Pennsylvania. Artefacts there were dated to a time far earlier than the Last Glacial Maximum [LGM] of just over eleven thousand years ago. Other sites, most notably the Monte Verde site in Chile have added data positing an earlier emigration from the Old World to the New. All this new information has challenged the dogma of "Clovis" being the "earliest Americans". It's not just an academic debate, Adovasio points out. Questions of site selection, investigation, testing procedures, retention of artefacts and human remains have all be raised. Indeed, with the Native American Graves Protection and Preservation Act [NAGPRA] some of these issues have been enshrined in law. He examines all the issues in exquisite detail, readily dismissing the more bizarre, such as the contention that the Western Hemisphere is the cradle of all humanity. Data must not only support or demolish dogma, it must support or demolish poorly conceived law.

Adovasio's narrative becomes vigorously polemical at times. His stridency is forgiven when you recall he's spent three decades of defenders of the Clovis Bar shutting their minds to evidence - his and that of others. Although this is hardly an academic study, his assemblage of evidence and logic underpinning his assertions is a standard that any researcher would do well to review. He gives Paul Martin's "Pleistocene blitzkrieg" of the new human arrivals a thorough airing, but rejects it. In Adovasio's view, it was the climate or disease that drove the large fauna extinct, not human hunting. He examines a wide variety of emigration scenarios, including the "coastal enclave" idea, in explaining how this Hemisphere was populated. He admits defeat in selecting any one, but declares the first humans arrived here before the LGM. Only from that basis, he argues, can we establish not only when humans occupied this region, but how.

This book is both a scholarly and entertaining read. Adovasio builds his case well, even adding cartoons to his collection of photographs and diagrams. Instead of footnotes, he provides per-chapter references, a nuisance to the novice in this topic. [stephen a. haines - Ottawa, Canada]

Adovasio's book can be summarized in three bullet points:

1. Until recently, there has been a general consensus in archaeology that the first human arrivals in the Americas were the Clovis culture, around 10,500 BP (before present). Several older sites were proposed before 1970 or so but all turned out to be wrong dates.

2. However, Adavasio at Meadowcroft, Pennsylvannia and Tom Dillehay at Monte Verde in South America have really good archaeological sites which are definitely much older. This new evidence demands that the entire Clovis-first idea should be replaced.

3. And archaeologists who say otherwise are just plain mean. At great length, and naming names. They should be compared to religious fanatics and Mafia hit men and "Star Trek" scriptwriters in their meanness-based refusal to face facts. There's no point in talking to those people.

The meanness theme crowds out several points I would have liked to have read more about. Adovasio mentions in passing that he has recovered Meadowcroft-like artifacts from other sites near the Meadowcroft rock shelter, but never goes into detail. He also mentions a site called Fell's Cave at the south end of South America which is apparently post-Clovis, but so barely post-Clovis that humans getting so far so fast after the start of the Clovis period beggars the imagination. Again, no more details. I also wish I could have read more about the linguistic evidence for earlier and more widespread human arrival in the new world.

About two-thirds of this book is a pretty well-written first-hand review of a very interesting area of archaeology. The other third is like going out to dinner with friends and having them not only launch into a loud family argument in the middle of a restaurant, but try to drag you into taking sides.

This is a well written book that held my interest. It gives the story of Meadowcroft from the archeologist responsible for its excavation, and places it in the context of American archeological history and the author's own biography. While I wonder what the "other side" would have to say about it, the author makes a compelling case for the truth of his perspective, at the expense of his detractors. I recommend it.

I'll grudgingly agree that Dr. A's uncensored impatience with his critics can be distracting (not that I blame him) but it's such an overwhelmingly thorough and well-written report on an exciting topic I think the book transcends that small flaw. I'm a bit biased -- I was a student of Dr. A during the 70's at the University of Pittsburgh. He was the most rigorous archeologist I've ever met and quite a personality as well. As one of the book jacket reviewers noted, the book is "vintage Adovasio." He's a brilliant and interesting guy and the first reviewer here would miss a treat by not inviting him to dinner. As for the complaint about the "gratuitous" references to debauchery, there was only one comment I recall (send me the page numbers if I missed any others...) and that one contributed to clarifying the mind-boggling psychological and physical rigors of fieldwork. Indiana Jones would likely strangle himself with his own bullwhip if he were forced to work on a real site, lying on his belly scraping a 2 meter square down to bedrock with a toothbrush and a butter knife.
Read the book and enjoy the real story of archeology, warts and all!

Humans are a curious lot. Here that curiosity is directed toward the prehistory of humans in the Americas. When did people get to North America? Where did they come from? What were they like? This book by a guy who has been involved in these questions all his professional life. And he knows many of the other professionals engaged in the same quest. He knows their work, and their prejudices. And most important, how they view his own work.

This makes for a lively read indeed. This is a no-holds barred, Watson's Double Helix, view of the current archaeological scene. There are some pretty colorful characters here, and Adovasio has clearly had a good time getting his licks in.

The history of the key digs, and the arguments with the Clovis first guys are vividly presented, and I enjoyed every bit of it. It amazes me, though, that after a century or so of the pursuit of answers, how little data has actually turned up. There seems to be only a couple of handfuls of informative sites, with only a few bones, some broken rocks, and not much else. Everything is questioned, at least somewhat plausibly, by someone. Confusion and chaos, lots of conjecture, and not enough money.

The book has a reasonably good index, a terrific bibliography, no footnotes, and lots of pictures (hooray!).

This investigation is clearly only its earliest stages of development, with an awful lot to be discovered yet. New techniques for going after the data will yet be developed, no doubt, and the coming decades will see more revolutions yet. I can't wait to see what comes next. I hope Adovasio is around to write about it.

"The First Americans" is an excellent read despite being somewhat misnamed. It is primarily the story of the overturning of the archaeological orthodoxy that the first humans in the New World arrived no earlier than about 12 to 11 thousand years ago in the form of the 'Clovis' culture. It mixes up good science with a story of conflicts among scientists.

While not skimping at all on the details of archaeology, the author structures the book to explain how Clovis-first orthodoxy was established, and how it was overturned. It gets downright personal at times, as the author describes how particular members of the archaeological 'establishment' stopped at almost nothing to deride him and a few other archaeologists, whose excavations were instrumental in overturning the Clovis-first orthodoxy.

The author does conclusively convince that the first Americans arrived at least 17 to 16 thousand years ago and probably much earlier. But only toward the end of the book does he seriously speculate as to exactly who they were and exactly when they arrived.

"The First Americans" is a very good introduction to the problems and latest theories relating to the peopling of the Americas. James Adovasio was the principal archaeologist at Meadowcroft Rockshelter, in Pennsylvania, for many years, and it was there that he conducted some of the most careful excavations since the beginning of scientific archaeology. Unfortunately the world was not ready to accept his findings, which were first expounded in the 1970s and stated that people arrived in the Americas much earlier than previously thought - long before the existence of Clovis spear points and before people could have emigrated across the Bering Land Bridge. However, something interesting happened in the closing years of the 20th century: the growing acceptance that the Monte Verde site in South America did indeed predate North American Clovis sites caused a crisis within the archaeological community. While this crisis is not completely settled, it is now generally accepted that maritime peoples travelling the coasts of the Americas arrived at some period before 10,000 BC - well before the start of Clovis culture. This book recounts this controversy from its beginnings in the 19th century right up until the start of the 21st century, and is a wonderful resource for both the general reader, and archaeologists whose specialities are in other time periods. Although it is extremely didactic at times, such as in its explanation of the usefulness of the Carbon 14 dating method, it is still extremely informative and a great book. As a professional archaeologist not trained in the Pre-Clovis/Paleoindian time period, I have not only found this book to be useful in my own forays into this era of prehistory, I literally could not put the book down. I enjoyed every minute of it, and recommend it to anyone wanting to learn about the earliest Americans!

Adovasio's bitterness is understandable, since the Kennewick Man controversy made clear that the liberal, white-guilt, politically correct crowd WANTED whites to not be the first Americans, to NOT be native Americans, and to be cruel invaders of the land of the gentle Red Man. Clinton had the Army Corps of Engineers dump tons of gravel on the Kennewick Man site! By denying the Solutrean hypothesis, about which Dr. Dennis Stanford of the Smithsonian is writing a major book, whites of today are supposed to continue feeling guilty for "stealing the Indians' land" since 1492. Thor Heyerdahl's last two books -- such as "The Hunt for Odin, " and never even translated into English, although he was world-famous -- were also full of bitterness over the p.c. academic crowd ignoring his life's work, which proved that whites explored the Pacific on rafts in ancient times. When you make a solid case for 30 years, and are ignored, anyone would get polemical.

This book will leave you checking the bibliography for other works to read. Adovasio comes tantalizingly close to writing an excellent book but for two huge weaknesses. First, he insists on crudity that is unnecessary. While it may be "the truth as it happened", individual's drinking binges or sexual expoloits are simply unneccessary. One wonders why he felt compelled to include such things. Second, he falls prey to the need for revenge against those who have doubted his work. He goes WAY over the edge in gloating about his subsequent vindication. Ultimately I felt that Adovasio could be a leading expert on site excavation and American paleo history, but I wouldn't invite him to dinner.