On a Passionate Mission to Track the First Americans

THE FIRST AMERICANS

In Pursuit of Archaeology’s Greatest Mystery

By J.M. Adovasio with Jake Page

Random House

332 Pages, $26.95

Powerful intrigue. Name-calling and blackballing. Treachery, collusion among archeologists on an all-out hunt for a holy grail. An Indiana Jones movie? No. The actual search to identify the first humans to inhabit North America. In 1974, archeologist J.M. Adovasio was a young authority on perishable artifacts--baskets, cloth, sandals, etc.--looking forward to a life in “a tiny pond in the mostly stone-filled archaeological landscape,” when fate intervened. Overseeing an excavation designed to teach field techniques to student archeologists at the Meadowcroft Rockshelter, 35 miles southwest of Pittsburgh, Adovasio and his team unearthed what turned out to be the earliest dated archeological site in North America.

The remnants of two hearths in the shelter, when radiocarbon-dated by the Smithsonian Institution, showed that humans had been using the hearths in about 13,000 BC, predating by thousands of years the earliest identified evidence on the continent. “That meant that people had been here in western Pennsylvania some four thousand years before any human being was supposed to have set foot anywhere in this hemisphere,” he explains.

Before the discovery, common archeological wisdom held that the earliest Americans were the Ice Age humans termed “Clovis Man”--so named for the spear points found in the New Mexico region of Clovis in the 1930s--said to have lived from 9250 BC to 8850 BC. According to Adovasio, “no one could find any evidence that people had lived in North America earlier than Clovis Man,” thus, the so-called Clovis Bar was erected, delineating the point before which no human was thought to have inhabited these lands, a designation staunchly held in place by the archeological community for decades. When Adovasio’s discovery threatened the bar, all hell broke loose. His life and career--and North American archeology itself--would never be the same.

Adovasio, who became an internationally known archeologist and academic, has created in “The First Americans” a book that pulses with plot-drive. The compelling narrative is filled with passionate writing and fiercely held arguments. Co-written with Jake Page, who has been an editor at Smithsonian and Natural History magazines, “The First Americans” illuminates the powerful pull archeology has had on Adovasio’s life and shows how happenstance thrust him into the fiery fray.

“In the field of North American archaeology--almost never a realm of courteous and collegial discussions over a bit of brandy before a toasty fire--it would be putting it mildly to say that hackles have been raised,” he writes of his discovery. “The work of lifetimes has been put at risk, reputations have been damaged, an astounding amount of silliness and even profound stupidity has been taken as serious thought.”

Adovasio’s tale is well structured, highlighting in brief terms first his discovery and then giving great detail on the background of scientific thought until that point. He explains how glaciers work, the previous and current theories that have been developed as to how humans arrived here--remember learning about the Bering Strait and the first humans to trek from Asia through Siberia to North America?--and the revolution brought to bear on that thinking by his data.

Having established the framework, Adovasio goes on to narrate his team’s findings in full detail, showing readers how painstaking the process of excavation can be, how fraught with potential misinterpretation each uncovered artifact is, how diligent he and his team were in doing their work, as well as their shock at what they’d inadvertently found.

The final section of the book recounts the brawls his discovery set off in chapters with spirited titles like “Fireworks and the Paleo-Police,” in which he describes antagonistic colleagues in biting terms--one peer is the “grinch of North American archaeology”--while showing how tightly most scientists hold to their pet theories even when confronted with overwhelming evidence to the contrary. Throughout, Adovasio’s pull-no-punches approach peppers the narrative with vigor.

Ultimately, Adovasio acknowledges that he, like other archeologists, has been unable to seize the holy grail--to answer definitively key questions about the first Americans. In fact, he tells us, “thanks to developments over the past couple of decades, the number of things we don’t know for sure about the initial peopling of this hemisphere exceeds what we do know.” In this lively telling, the journey to learn all the things we don’t know has seldom been more fascinatingly rendered.