Simulating Clovis Technological Diffusion

Summary

Explanations for the rapid appearance of Clovis technology across the North American landscape as a population migration. Detractors from this hypothesis argue that the spread of Clovis more closely resembles the movement of a technology through a small, highly mobile population. Using a computer simulation approach this paper explores the conditions under which it would be possible for such a technological spread to occur. This simulation explores the requirements of population size, residential mobility and logistical mobility patterns in order to successfully spread Clovis technology throughout North America. The results of this simulation suggest that under most mobility schemes it would be highly possible that Clovis could have spread in such a manner.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 81st Annual Meeting, Orlando, FL (2016)

Keywords

Spatial Coverage