Malibu Archaeological Find Is a Point of
Contention
• Artifact Could Have Impact on North
American Migration Theory While Roiling Local Waters
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.”
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
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.
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.
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.
