The Paleoindian Period
(ca. 13,000 B.C.to 7,900 B.C.)

The current view of the Paleoindian period envisions bands of hunters entering the North American continent (circa 13,000 B.C.) by crossing a land bridge that connected eastern Siberia with Alaska. The land bridge was created during the Late Pleistocene by continent-sized glaciers, which, when created, drew water from the oceans' lowering sea levels by some 120 meters. It would appear that these same glaciers prevented these immigrants from expanding into the rest of the North American continent until about 12,000 B.C.

The best diagnostic archeological evidence for these early Paleoindian bands are long, fluted chipped stone projectile (likely spear) points. These early points are named "Clovis" after the Clovis, New Mexico archeological site where the point type was first recognized in association with Late Pleistocene fauna. Within only a few hundred years after 10,000 B.C., the Paleoindians appear to have occupied most of the North American continent and the Southeast.

Since 1960, archeological studies of the river basin projects, as well as statewide studies of Paleoindian point finds and site distributions in the Southeast, have led to refinements in the sequencing of point types and attempts to reconstruct Paleoindian cultural activities. Excavations at Paleoindian sites, better dating techniques, and study of the distribution of Paleoindian point types and the Late Pleistocene environment have led archeologists to develop new models for Paleoindian occupation in the Southeastnow broken down into three subperiods between 9500 and 7900 B.C