Malibu Archaeological Find Is a Point of Contention

• Artifact Could Have Impact on North American Migration Theory While Roiling Local Waters

BY ANNE SOBLE

Malibu celebrity status can take many forms, but one of the more unusual recipients of local attention is a spearhead, or projectile point, that could have been used by hunters in the Clovis cultural era around 11,000 years ago to pursue a giant mammoth or buffalo in the vicinity of what is now Point Dume.

The so-called Clovis point even has its own media-savvy spokesperson, an archaeologist who consulted for the “Indiana Jones” film trilogy named Gary Stickel, who says the artifact is “a major discovery of national and international significance.” He also contends that the private property where the point was found, which has been designated Farpoint on the state archaeology rolls, should be the subject of additional research.

The point was found in September 2005 by Edgar Perez, a cultural resources specialist for the Tongva Tribe in Los Angeles, who was hired as the Native American monitor at a Point Dume residential construction site. Stickel said Perez was overseeing backhoe digging and spotted the spearhead in the bucket before it was crushed.

Dr. Stickel says that the crew’s elation at the find was not shared by the owner of the property, whose identity and address are not being disclosed to protect privacy as well as prevent vandalism of the site. He says the owner has questioned the authenticity of the artifact and prevents research from continuing at the site.

The archaeologist also contends that City of Malibu planning personnel have declined to cooperate with facilitating additional work at the location. He asserts that the city may have tried to block a press conference that Stickel scheduled last week on the grounds of the Page Museum with its backdrop of the La Brea Tar Pits, where examples of the animals that Clovis hunters stalked can be now seen.

Stickel says that a staffer at the museum told him that “the City of Malibu phoned,” then declined to elaborate further.

Malibu Surfside News calls to the municipal planning department for comment on Stickel’s assertions of what he calls “city censorship” were not returned.

Stickel says the purpose of the press conference was “to make the public aware of what we found and garner public support for more research.” He and colleagues stress the importance of the spearhead, the first example of Clovis culture found this far west, hence the site being named Farpoint. The significance of the discovery is reiterated in numerous communications from archaeologists and anthropologists at universities and museums.

The point itself has been authenticated by Dr. Dennis Stanford, the director of the Paleoindian/ Paleoecology Program at the Smithsonian Institution, who writes that he examined the point and “there is no question that the artifact was made using Clovis technology and thereby indicates that the site was occupied by Clovis people over 11,000 years ago.”

Stanford adds, “The discovery of a Clovis age occupation at the site is extremely important not only for the local archaeological record, but for understanding the earliest pre-history of the Americas. Hence the site is of national significance and requires an interdisciplinary research program and protection.”

The point and other site data are now housed at the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History.

Stickel says the residence on the property has been completed, stressing he “never tried to stop it,” but he is now concerned that trenches dug for sprinkler systems have impacted the grounds.

The archaeologist says, “There are eight No Trespassing signs” on the two-plus-acre property, “some probably there for my benefit.” Still, he said he is pleased that the property has extensive surveillance equipment, because otherwise “crazies might come out and try to vandalize the site.”

Interestingly, some descendants of the post-Clovis Chumash, traditionally considered Malibu’s earliest residents, are wary of Clovis findings. Their oral histories may vary but, in some form, they subscribe to the prevailing coastal migration route theory that the first “Americans” were Asians who crossed the Bering Strait from Siberia.

Dennis Stanford, however, has put forth the thesis, which Stickel thinks the Clovis finds support, that the earliest migrants came across the Atlantic from southwestern Europe on ice packs that bound all of the land masses closer together some 21,000 to 16,000 years ago.

This is not just ivory tower quibbling, but highly-charged debate that is closely interwoven with ethnic politics and beliefs. The Clovis point is not some esoteric curio, but a potential confirmation of who initially populated North America after the Ice Age.

The question of who got here first not only has tremendous implications for history, but also for the professional careers of individuals who ally themselves with one theory or another. That is assuming one is willing to discount any possibility that both migratory patterns could have taken place simultaneously.

Stickel stresses that the “Farpoint Site may well yield more data critically important to our understanding of how the New World was first inhabited by the earliest people. Any portion of the site may contain a Clovis human tooth, and DNA analysis of it would help scientists to identify the human genetic origins of the New World.

“There’s a fantastic panorama of human occupation here and we need to understand it.”

He contends that “cultural resources should be treated like some mineral rights and granted special status. We need to find ways to facilitate obtaining this material so it is available for the common good.”

Stickel says that because of his emphasis on the importance of accumulating this data, he has clashed with City of Malibu personnel who he says are more concerned with expediting Malibu private property development than adding to the knowledge of who were the community’s earliest residents.

Last November, one of the many scholars interested in the Farpoint Site sent a letter to then Mayor Ken Kearsley, in which he urged the city to “allow Stickel and his associates to put in a minimally intrusive, time-limited, final observation pit close to the house for the purposes of completing their mitigation work.

“I predict that the owner and other responsible citizens of Malibu will look back and be very proud to have done so.”


CAPTION 1
PRESS CONFERENCE—Archaeologist Gary Stickel points out excavated areas on the Point Dume property where the Clovis projectile point, or spearhead, was found. The location has been formally designated by the State of California as the Farpoint Site. The second map marked with red lines represents what Dr. Stickel calls “destroyed site areas.” He is critical of the City of Malibu, asserting that planning personnel “are very negative” about archaeological research in the community and may “have tried to stifle the press conference” that he and colleagues held last week outside the Page Museum, home of the La Brea Tar Pits. MSN Photos/Frank Lamonea

CAPTION 2.
FIND—Edgar Perez, the Native American monitor at the Point Dume residential construction site, retrieved the Clovis point from a backhoe bucket during excavation of a trench on Sept. 25, 2005. Everyone quickly gathered around him because there was a sense that the discovery was important, and this photograph was taken to commemorate the event. The site archaeologist asserts that the owner has tried to impede continued research at the location and has even accused him of “seeding” or placing the point at the site.

CAPTION 3.
DIVERGENCE—Two competing theories of migration are at stake as more information is derived from artifacts such as the Clovis point. One theory is that the Clovis people immigrated from Asia over the Bering Strait; the other is they were people from southwestern Europe who crossed a differently configured Atlantic Ocean 16,000 years ago or more.

CAPTION 4.
SCALE—Ray Corbett, the Anthropology Collection Manager at the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History, holds the actual Clovis point, which is also shown on this week’s cover. Replicas have been made for research and educational use.