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LOCATION AND PROPERTY NAME
address: ADDRESS RESTRICTED historic name:(35-LK-3400) Paisley Five Mile Point Caves
Paisley vcty, Lake County current/other names:
assoc addresses:RESTRICTED
block/lot/tax lot:
location descr: twnshp/rng/sect/qtr sect:
PROPERTY CHARACTERISTICS
resource type:site height (stories): total elig resources:1 total inelig resources:
elig evaluation: eligible/significant NR Status: Individually Listed
prim constr date: second date: date indiv listed:09/24/2014
primary orig use: Camp orig use comments:
second orig use: Other
primary style: prim style comments:
secondary style: sec style comments:
primary siding: siding comments:
secondary siding:
plan type: architect:
builder:
comments/notes:
Portions of this file have been redacted to meet Oregon State law (ORS 192.501(11)). More information may be available upon request. Contact the Oregon State Archaeologist for details.
GROUPINGS / ASSOCIATIONS
Not associated with any surveys or groupings.
SHPO INFORMATION FOR THIS PROPERTY
NR date listed: 09/24/2014
ILS survey date:
RLS survey date:
106 Project(s): None
Special Assess Project(s): None
Federal Tax Project(s): None
ARCHITECTURAL / PROPERTY DESCRIPTION
(Includes expanded description of the building/property, setting, significant landscape features, outbuildings and alterations)
The oldest, directly-dated human coprolites (human feces) in the Americas are located in the Paisley Five Mile Point Caves REDACTED LOCATION, an archaeological site REDACTED LOCATION. Here, the discovery of 14,300-year-old human feces demonstrates the presence of an ancient human population in America’s Far West at the end of the last Ice Age. REDACTED SENTENCE. Contained within the management jurisdiction of the Lakeview District Bureau of Land Management, the site boundary was delineated to include seven west-facing grottos along the cliff face with evidence of human habitation (Figures 3 and 4; Photograph 2; caves 1-5 are visible in the photograph). The occupation of the caves during the late Pleistocene (ca. 14,300-10,000 years ago) pre-dates the appearance of Clovis sites in North America. The term “Clovis” refers to a diagnostic chipped stone tool with a distinctive flute-shaped flake removed from the base of the artifact. Clovis points are found in contexts dated to 13,000 - 12,800 years ago, and were crafted by people who have long been recognized as the first settlers of the Americas. No Clovis points were discovered at the Paisley Caves; instead, late Pleistocene cultural materials recovered during block excavations include Western Stemmed points, modified faunal bone (including extinct Pleistocene animal remains), hand-twisted plant fibers (cordage), and grinding stones (Photographs 3-6). Western Stemmed points are morphologically distinct from Clovis points and have been dated to between 13,000 and 8,200 years before present in other archaeological sites in North America. The presence of Western Stemmed points in deposits older than 13,000 years at the Paisley Caves suggests that the people responsible for the Clovis industry in North America were not the first people to colonize the continent. Although the Paisley Caves were occupied intermittently from 14,300 years ago until the time of EuroAmerican contact, the most important archaeological evidence at the Paisley Caves is the direct, highprecision radiocarbon dating of single identifiable elements from coprolites (desiccated human feces) in direct association with cultural artifacts predating the Clovis era (n=203). The authenticity of the human coprolites is well established by blind test replication of DNA results at multiple independent laboratories. The stratigraphic context and resolution of dated deposits at the Paisley Caves have solidified its position as a valid pre-Clovis archaeological site in the Americas.
HISTORY
(Chronological, descriptive history of the property from its construction through at least the historic period - preferably to the present)
The Paisley Five Mile Point Caves REDACTED LOCATION archaeological site is eligible for the National Register of Historic Places at the national level under Criterion D in the areas of Prehistoric Archaeology and Exploration/Settlement because it contains evidence of the oldest human presence in the Americas in the form of directly dated human coprolites and associated bone and stone artifacts. Located along the highest stand of pluvial REDACTED LOCATION Oregon, the Paisley Caves consist of seven grottos with a rich record of human occupations dated as early as 14,300 years ago (12,300 radiocarbon years before present) and evidence for discontinuous habitation throughout the prehistoric period. The site’s significance lies primarily in the context of its late Pleistocene archaeological assemblage, which can answer important questions about the timing and nature of Homo sapiens dispersals into the New World. Meticulous excavation and analysis techniques have conclusively demonstrated human interaction with now extinct Pleistocene megafaunal species. Additionally, a suite of more than 100 high-precision radiocarbon dates at the Paisley Caves reveals a Western Stemmed Tradition (WST) lithic technology in direct association with human coprolites, identified by ancient (a)DNA, during the late Pleistocene between 13,600 and 13,100 years ago (11,070 and 11,240 radiocarbon years before present).49 The extensive close interval radiocarbon dating from multiple columns confirms the stratigraphic integrity and great age of the site deposits. Archaeological data at the Paisley Caves contradicts the previously held belief that Clovis-aged artifacts (13,000 – 12,800 years ago, or 10,800 – 11,050 radiocarbon years before present)50 represent the initial wave of human colonization in North America and were the progenitor of all other Paleoindian cultural expressions. It now appears that WST technologies were temporally coeval with Clovis and probably have greater antiquity than the Clovis tradition in Western North America. Results of a 2012 survey of professional anthropologists demonstrate that the Paisley Caves site in Oregon is the most widely accepted pre-Clovis site in North America
RESEARCH INFORMATION
Title Records Census Records Property Tax Records Local Histories
Sanborn Maps Biographical Sources SHPO Files Interviews
Obituaries Newspapers State Archives Historic Photographs
City Directories Building Permits State Library
Local Library: University Library:University of Oregon
Historical Society: Other Respository:Federal Government
Bibliography:
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