What wiped out the Clovis People?
Posted on 30. Jan, 2009 by Big Ed in Archeological Excavations
Clovis. It’s a word that brings a smile to even the most hardened relic hunter’s face. The Clovis People represent some of North America’s oldest inhabitants, living more than 13,000 years ago during the waning moments of Earth’s last great Ice Age. They brought us some of the most ancient, beautiful and valuable points ever recovered… and then one day, they were gone, leaving behind a legacy of relics that keeps them very much alive in our community of arrowheadologists today.
But, what happened to them? Where did they go? The reigning theory has the Clovis People dying a quick death at the hands of Mother Earth as dramatic climate changes impacted the environment. But a new theory — with new evidence — points to something more celestial. Something… Not Of This World. A comet.
According to a recent Washington Post article, a passing comet, captured by earth’s gravity slammed into the upper atmosphere of North America over 12,000 years ago, creating the most spectacular display of fireworks ever witnessed. Unfortunately, the Clovis People may have been a part of that audience, literally burning up with the comet on impact. The evidence? Micro-diamonds, possibly formed by intense heat when the comet tore apart in the cool air above the American Southwest on that allegedly fateful night.
“Imagine these fireballs exploding in the air. A Clovis hunter standing and looking at these things would have seen a canopy of fire as these things came in and exploded,” said Allen West, a geophysicist and one of the paper’s co-authors. “There would have been no sound. There would have been massive explosions. Brilliant light, brighter than the sun. There would have been radiant heat — it would have been capable, at the very least, of giving him serious burns and, at the maximum, of incinerating him.”
Of course, the new evidence is only a small part of a larger puzzle.
“It’s a hypothesis. . . . Basically, there’s a suite of data that suggest that something like this occurred, but it still needs to be tested.”
To read the full article, click HERE.
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2 Responses to “What wiped out the Clovis People?”
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Taylor
07. Oct, 2010
My Science Class Is Studying This Stuff. There Is Like Nothing Here That Can Help An 8th Grade Science Student.
marg
04. Aug, 2011
i am just a junior taking an AP US History class trying to find the damn definition! urghh,,.