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The timing of the first human migration into the Americas and its relation to the appearance of the Clovis technological complex in North America at about 11,000 to 10,800 radiocarbon years before the present (¹⁴C years B.P.) remains contentious. We establish that humans were present at Paisley 5 Mile Point Caves, in south-central Oregon, by 12,300 ¹⁴C years B.P., through the recovery of human mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) from coprolites, directly dated by accelerator mass spectrometry. The mtDNA corresponds to Native American founding haplogroups A2 and B2. The dates of the coprolites are >1000 ¹⁴C years earlier than currently accepted dates for the Clovis complex.

A bighorn sheep horned headdress discovered near the Green River, in eastern Utah within the United States is reviewed. Its history, discovery and subsequent analysis is described. It appears to have been a powerful headpiece employed in a symbolic context for religious expression, perhaps worn by a ritualist in association with the hunt for large game animals (bighorn sheep, antelope or deer). It was likely associated with the Fremont Cultural Tradition, as it was dated by radiocarbon assay to a calibrated, calendar age of 1020-1160 CE and was further adorned with six Olivella biplicata shell beads (split-punched type) originating from the California coast that apparently date to that same general time frame. Such headdresses are mentioned in the ethnographic literature for several Great Basin and American Southwestern indigenous cultures and appear to have been used in various religious rituals. Bighorn sheep horned headdresses can be fashioned directly from the horns of a bighorn sheep and can be functionally fashioned as a garment to be worn on the head without excessive weight and with little difficulty to the wearer. Ethnographic data testifies that the bighorn sheep was applied as a cultural symbol and was employed as a 'visual prayer' relating to the cosmic regeneration of life (e.g. good health, successful human reproduction, sufficient rain and water, and ample natural resource [i.e. animal and plant] fertility).

A bighorn sheep horned headdress discovered near the Green River, in eastern Utah within the United States is reviewed. Its history, discovery and subsequent analysis is described. It appears to have been a powerful headpiece employed in a symbolic context for religious expression, perhaps worn by a ritualist in association with the hunt for large game animals (bighorn sheep, antelope or deer). It was likely associated with the Fremont Cultural Tradition, as it was dated by radiocarbon assay to a calibrated, calendar age of 1020-1160 CE and was further adorned with six Olivella biplicata shell beads (split-punched type) originating from the California coast that apparently date to that same general time frame. Such headdresses are mentioned in the ethnographic literature for several Great Basin and American Southwestern indigenous cultures and appear to have been used in various religious rituals. Bighorn sheep horned headdresses can be fashioned directly from the horns of a bighorn sheep and can be functionally fashioned as a garment to be worn on the head without excessive weight and with little difficulty to the wearer. Ethnographic data testifies that the bighorn sheep was applied as a cultural symbol and was employed as a 'visual prayer' relating to the cosmic regeneration of life (e.g. good health, successful human reproduction, sufficient rain and water, and ample natural resource [i.e. animal and plant] fertility).

Waters and Stafford (Reports, 23 February 2007, p. 1122) provided useful information about the age of some Clovis sites but have not definitively established the temporal span of this cultural complex in the Americas. Only a continuing program of radiometric dating and careful stratigraphic correlations can address the lingering ambiguity about the emergence and spread of Clovis culture.

The arguments of Poinar et al . neither challenge our conclusions nor would contribute to the verification of our data. We counter their questions about the authenticity of our ancient DNA results and the reliability of the radiocarbon data and stand by the conclusion that our data provide strong evidence of pre-Clovis Native Americans.

Ethnographic accounts of animal pulverization using stone grinding implements have led archaeologists to believe that this same behavior took place in the past. This important subsistence activity can now be confirmed through the immunological analysis of archaeological materials. Small-mammal blood-protein residue has been identified immunologically for the first time on milling equipment from two archaeological sites in southern California. Immunoprotein trace analysis has the potential for a wide range of applications in the study of prehistory.

A review of previous data sets and recent research indicates that Humboldt Basal-notched biface forms are characterized by distinctive temporal spans within the prehistoric record of the southwestern Great Basin. Contrary to previous conclusions, we believe that the biface forms had two distinct periods of use, an early (4000 to 500 B.C.) and a late (500 B.C. to A.D. 800) manifestation. Humboldt Basal-notched bifaces from these two periods can be differentiated typologically and perhaps functionally.

CRM on CRM: One Person's Perspective on the Birth and Early Development of Cultural Resource Management by Charles R. McGimsey III is reviewed.

During the recent reanalysis of the flaked stone artifacts from the 1951-1961 excavations of the Rose Spring site (CA-INY-372; Fig. 1), an unusual bifacially worked artifact was noted in the collection. This specimen (1-186965), collected from the surface of the site by Francis Riddell in June of 1956, had been catalogued as a broken biface. However, upon closer scrutiny, the specimen proved to be a pressure-flaked, late-stage proximal fragment of an obsidian point with large channel flakes removed from each side of the artifact.