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Although the Great Basin of North America has produced some of the most robust and ancient fiber artifact assemblages in the world, many were recovered with poor chronological controls. Consequently, this class of artifacts has seldom been effectively incorporated into general discussions of early chronological and cultural patterns. In recent years, the Great Basin Textile Dating Project has accumulated direct AMS dates on textiles (bags, sandals, mats, cordage, and basketry) from dry caves in the Great Basin, particularly in the northern and western areas. We focus here on the terminal Pleistocene/early Holocene, to identify chronological patterns in this class of artifacts and to evaluate Adovasio's characterization of the region's earliest basketry as simple and undecorated. New AMS dates now suggest that the region's earliest people had sophisticated textile traditions that incorporated numerous decorative elaborations. Some distinctive structures, including Fort Rock sandals and weft-faced plaited textiles, have limited early temporal ranges and may serve as diagnostic indicators for terminal Pleistocene/early Holocene times. Other basketry forms and structures that appear by about 9000 cal B.P. persist into the historic period, suggesting a stronger thread of continuity (especially in the north) from this time than is apparent in lithic traditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Coiled basketry dates to more than 8,000 years ago in the Eastern Great Basin and is found in the Western Basin by 4,500 years ago. In the Northern Great Basin, archaeological basketry is dominated by twineware; fewer than 20 fragments of coiled basketry have been reported. Coiling has long been thought to have appeared very late in the Northern Basin, and the perceived late presence of coiling in the north has been considered by some to be an indicator of a late Numic incursion from the south. Recent direct radiocarbon dating of fiber samples from the coiled specimens from the Northern Great Basin undermines the previous assumptions of a uniformly late age. Though rare, coiling has a consistent presence in the region for more than 2,500 years. Further, its distribution suggests that this technological influence may have derived primarily from eastern, rather than southern, sources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Paisley Caves in Oregon record the oldest directly dated human remains (DNA) in the Western Hemisphere. More than 100 high-precision radiocarbon dates show that deposits containing artifacts and coprolites ranging in age from 12,450 to 2295 (14)C years ago are well stratified. Western Stemmed projectile points were recovered in deposits dated to 11,070 to 11,340 (14)C years ago, a time contemporaneous with or preceding the Clovis technology. There is no evidence of diagnostic Clovis technology at the site. These two distinct technologies were parallel developments, not the product of a unilinear technological evolution. "Blind testing" analysis of coprolites by an independent laboratory confirms the presence of human DNA in specimens of pre-Clovis age. The colonization of the Americas involved multiple technologically divergent, and possibly genetically divergent, founding groups.