Two Decades of Debate on Meadowcroft Rockshelter

Abstract

Since the publication of the first of more than fifty internally consistent radiocarbon dates from Meadowcroft Rockshelter (36WH297), intense and sometimes acrimonious controversy has swirled around the timing of the initial human occupation of this deeply stratified site. Critics of a late Pleistocene presence at this locality have questioned its stratigraphy, floral and faunal associations, the “character” of its earliest artifact assemblage, and—with particular vigor—the radiocarbon dates from the site's basal deposits. While most conservative assessments concede a 12,000-year initial occupancy (cf. Fagan, 1995), it nonetheless continues to be asserted that Meadow-croft's earlier dates have suffered particulate or non-particulate contamination. Data bearing on myriad aspects of this controversy have been published since 1975, and in the continuing debate many once-vocal critics have become silent, bored, or perhaps both. To provide background for this debate, the Meadowcroft radiocarbon chronology and related issues are reviewed and assertions of particulate and non-particulate contamination are reassessed and evaluated in light of current information. The weight of all available data continues to suggest that this site still represents the best and earliest evidence for the presence of human beings south of the glacial front in North America. More specifically, the evidence further suggests that Native Americans possessing a technologically sophisticated core- and blade-based lithic technology not at typological or chronological variance with possible Siberian prototypes were present in southwestern Pennsylvania by 10,600–12,000 B.P. at the very latest.