Holliday et al.'s Gish gallop: The end of Clovis
Section 5.7 of Holliday et al. deals with the evidence for the end of Clovis. Specifically, its timing. Was it synchronous with an ET impact, a megafaunal extinction and the onset of the YD cooling? In fact, the YDIH doesn't claim the YD impact ended Clovis culture instantly. It merely proposes it affected the Clovis culture significantly, i.e. it was the beginning of the end for Clovis. Throughout their paper, Holliday et al. continually state that radiocarbon dating evidence for Clovis sites is inconsistent with the YDIH. Let's see what they have to say in Section 5.7 where we find the key evidence. My comments are in italics as always. 5.7. Improved Dating of Clovis Sites and Clovis Archaeology Clovis is a term given to the oldest well-dated, widespread, and recognizable archaeological technocomplex in North America (Haynes, 2002; Smallwood and Jennings, 2015; Meltzer, 2021). Proponents of the YDIH use their perceived connection between the disappearance of the Clovis lithic