Old Crow Basin pre-Clovis research

Record summary

Archaeological and paleontological work in the Old Crow Basin investigated claims that humans occupied the region before the generally accepted Clovis period. Donald Irving and collaborators examined worked-bone assertions, lithic finds, and associations with extinct fauna. The area is valuable for comparison because glacial history, river reworking, and permafrost complicate both migration models and artifact attribution. Some early reports proposed great antiquity, while later evaluations questioned whether alleged tools were manufactured or naturally fractured and whether finds were securely stratified.