Following the discovery in Europe in the late 1850s that humanity had roots predating known history and reaching deep into the Pleistocene era, scientists wondered whether North American prehistory might be just as ancient. And why not? The geological strata seemed exactly analogous between America and Europe, which would lead one to believe that North American humanity ought to be as old as the European variety. This idea set off an eager race for evidence of the people who might have occupied North America during the Ice Age—a long, and, as it turned out, bitter and controversial search.
In The Great Paleolithic War, David J. Meltzer tells the story of a scientific quest that set off one of the longest-running feuds in the history of American anthropology, one so vicious at times that anthropologists were deliberately frightened away from investigating potential sites. Through his book, we come to understand how and why this controversy developed and stubbornly persisted for as long as it did; and how, in the process, it revolutionized American archaeology.
Author(s): David J. Meltzer
Year: 2015
Language: English
Pages: 691
Contents
......Page 8
Roster of Individuals......Page 14
Chapter One - A Study in Controversy......Page 22
1.1 - Beginning and ending......Page 24
1.2 - A powerful lens......Page 30
1.3 - Approaching the inquiry......Page 35
1.4 - The data of history......Page 37
1.5 - The scope and structure of controversy......Page 39
Chapter Two - Setting the Stage......Page 44
2.1 - Establishing the parameters......Page 46
2.2 - Bringing the Paleolithic to America......Page 53
2.3 - Rude Americans?......Page 56
2.4 - Looking anew......Page 58
2.5 - Where to next?......Page 61
Chapter Three - Establishing the American Paleolithic, 1872– 1881......Page 62
3.1 - Charles Abbott builds the foundation......Page 64
3.2 - Frederic Ward Putnam comes aboard......Page 69
3.3 - Firming up the structure......Page 71
3.4 - The Trenton paleoliths go public......Page 75
3.5 - Subdividing the glacial epoch......Page 77
3.6 - Abbott’s Primitive Industry......Page 79
3.7 - The sound of the applause......Page 82
3.8 - The creed of George Frederick Wright......Page 85
3.9 - Seeking his just reward......Page 89
Chapter Four - The American Paleolithic Comes of Age, 1882– 1889......Page 92
4.1 - The Paleolithic comes in quartz......Page 93
4.2 - Lest Trenton be forgotten......Page 97
4.3 - The American Paleolithic comes together......Page 99
4.4 - Abbott takes center stage......Page 105
4.5 - Pushing the antiquity envelope......Page 107
4.6 - Thomas Chamberlin and the question of glacial history......Page 108
4.7 - The Kettle Moraine moves east......Page 111
4.8 - Mapping the Pennsylvania moraine......Page 115
4.9 - An uneasy association......Page 118
4.10 - Hard times for the USGS......Page 120
4.11 - Wrangling over the glacial boundary......Page 124
4.12 - Synthesis and antithesis......Page 128
4.13 - Wright’s Ice Age in North America......Page 130
4.14 - The bandwagon rolls......Page 135
4.15 - Looking to the future of the past......Page 140
Chapter Five - The Great Paleolithic War, 1890– 1897......Page 145
5.1 - The Bureau of Ethnology takes the field......Page 146
5.2 - William Henry Holmes and the lessons of Piney Branch......Page 150
5.3 - Abbott returns fire......Page 157
5.4 - The gathering storm......Page 159
5.5 - The preliminary skirmish......Page 161
5.6 - The Great Paleolithic War......Page 163
5.7 - The “Betinseled Charlatan” affair......Page 172
5.8 - Mounting a defense......Page 177
5.9 - Collateral damage......Page 181
5.10 - Holmes’s march through the American Paleolithic......Page 184
5.11 - Point/counterpoint......Page 188
5.12 - On the unity or diversity of the glacial period......Page 194
5.13 - Showdown in Madison......Page 199
5.14 - Interregnum......Page 202
5.15 - Returning to the field of battle......Page 205
5.16 - An end and a beginning......Page 208
Chapter Six - Cro- Magnons in Kansas, Neanderthals in Nebraska, 1899– 1914......Page 213
6.1 - Human skeletal remains emerge from the Trenton Gravel......Page 214
6.2 - Aleš HrdliĊka......Page 216
6.3 - The Trenton femur: A preliminary look......Page 218
6.4 - HrdliĊka finds his method......Page 220
6.5 - Holmes gets his man......Page 223
6.6 - Cro- Magnons in Kansas?......Page 224
6.7 - On the origin and age of loess......Page 230
6.8 - Loess and the Lansing man......Page 234
6.9 - Remedial lessons......Page 240
6.10 - Dressed for battle, no one to fight......Page 244
6.11 - Neanderthals in Nebraska?......Page 250
6.12 - HrdliĊka’s Skeletal Remains Suggesting or Attributed to Early Man in North America......Page 255
6.13 - Over before it began......Page 258
6.14 - Lansing to Long’s Hill: Loess to dust......Page 261
6.15 - Trenton redux?......Page 265
Chapter Seven - Dangerous to the Cause of Science, 1915– 1925......Page 274
7.1 - Oliver Hay offers a faunal solution......Page 276
7.2 - Men and mammoth at Vero......Page 278
7.3 - A nonharmonic convergence......Page 282
7.4 - Spinning the message......Page 285
7.5 - Turf wars......Page 294
7.6 - Finding Vero’s place on the human family tree......Page 299
7.7 - Violating the sacred confines......Page 301
7.8 - Eras’ ends......Page 305
7.9 - Dangerous to the cause of science......Page 308
7.10 - With friends like these......Page 311
7.11 - Speaking of old evidence......Page 313
Chapter Eight - In the Belly of the Beast, 1921– 1928......Page 316
8.1 - Harold Cook and Jesse Figgins— willful revolutionaries......Page 318
8.2 - Anthropoid apes in America?......Page 322
8.3 - Another head of the Hydra......Page 325
8.4 - When it rains . . .......Page 332
8.5 - Bearding the lion......Page 335
8.6 - What’s in a name?......Page 338
8.7 - Mammoths and metates......Page 340
8.8 - Baiting the trap......Page 342
8.9 - From the lion’s den . . .......Page 345
8.10 - . . . to the belly of the beast......Page 347
8.11 - Seeking a new identity......Page 350
8.12 - Hedging bets......Page 353
8.13 - Will the rising tide lift all boats?......Page 355
8.14 - Whereas, Folsom......Page 358
8.15 - Coming apart at the (mu)seams......Page 360
8.16 - Once more, with feeling......Page 362
8.17 - Dead men walking......Page 366
8.18 - The sound of victory, the silence of defeat......Page 373
Chapter Nine - Fast Forward, 1930– 1941......Page 378
9.1 - Lining up the shot......Page 380
9.2 - “Scattered around like a dog buries bones”......Page 386
9.3 - Still fighting the last war......Page 392
9.4 - Not just another old site......Page 394
9.5 - Refining the Pleistocene......Page 397
9.6 - Converging on a chronology......Page 403
9.7 - The peopling process......Page 404
9.8 - Recognizing variation and change......Page 408
9.9 - A Philadelphia story......Page 413
9.10 - What have the bones to say?......Page 415
9.11 - Profiling......Page 420
9.12 - Finding the time......Page 423
9.13 - Fast forward......Page 425
Chapter Ten - Controversy and Its Resolution......Page 430
10.1 - The medium is not the message......Page 432
10.2 - Challenging context......Page 437
10.3 - Ascertaining antiquity......Page 439
10.4 - Numbers going nowhere......Page 443
10.5 - Flattening the past......Page 444
10.6 - “Savaging” the present......Page 448
10.7 - HrdliĊka’s lament......Page 451
10.8 - When disciplines collide......Page 455
10.9 - Last days of the tyro......Page 458
10.10 - All scientists are equal, but some are more equal than others......Page 465
10.11 - “Be sure to mention Kidder”......Page 477
10.12 - Victims of the Matthew Effect......Page 479
10.13 - Prehistory repeats itself......Page 481
10.14 - Living in an old New World......Page 484
10.15 - Controversy and its resolution......Page 487
Appendix: Whatever became of . . . ?......Page 490
Notes......Page 496
A. Manuscript sources......Page 598
B. Printed sources: Primary......Page 601
C. Printed sources: Secondary......Page 634
Acknowledgments......Page 648
Index......Page 652
