In the late 19th and early 20th century the effort to determine when humans first came to North America defined the emerging discipline of American archaeology. It did so not just because some of the best and brightest of several generations of archaeologists, glacial geologists, physical anthropologists and vertebrate paleontologists were attracted to it, though they were. Nor because they thought this was a significant problem, though they did. Rather, this problem loomed so large because it cut so deep into American archaeology's conceptual core, forcing the nascent field to confront hazine ... More

In the late 19th and early 20th century the effort to determine when humans first came to North America defined the emerging discipline of American archaeology. It did so not just because some of the best and brightest of several generations of archaeologists, glacial geologists, physical anthropologists and vertebrate paleontologists were attracted to it, though they were. Nor because they thought this was a significant problem, though they did. Rather, this problem loomed so large because it cut so deep into American archaeology's conceptual core, forcing the nascent field to confront haziness in its theories, methods and evidence, all while past time and everything that flowed from it vital to understanding the prehistory of North America was held hostage. This book explores the more than four decades of often bitter controversy surrounding that effort, and its resolution. It provides a richly-detailed narrative of the controversy using extensive published and previously untapped archival materials. These make it possible to explore how and why this controversy emerged and why it stubbornly resisted resolution for decades, and reveal the broader currents that fueled this controversy: among them, the fracturing of the American scientific community in its efforts to establish a more professional class, deep institutional rivalries, and intra- and inter-disciplinary distrust. Ultimately, the straightforward question being asked was answered once critical conceptual and factual gaps were closed. The resolution of the controversy in the fall of 1927 not only ended decades of ambiguity and acrimony, it forever changed the discipline of American archaeology.