Topper site facts for kids

The Topper site is an exciting archaeological place in Allendale County, South Carolina, United States. It's famous because some archaeologists believe they have found tools and other items here that show people lived in the New World (North and South America) much earlier than previously thought.

For a long time, the Clovis culture was believed to be the first group of people in North America. But the discoveries at Topper suggest that humans might have been here thousands of years before the Clovis people. Some of the finds at Topper could be as old as 50,000 years! However, not all archaeologists agree on these very old dates. The main dig at Topper has gone very deep, looking for signs of early human life. Before sites like Topper were found, archaeologists usually didn't dig deeper than the Clovis layer, as they thought nothing older would be there.

Where is the Topper Site Located?

The Topper site is found on the eastern side of the Savannah River. The land here is a bit hilly. The lowest part is near the river, about 80 to 90 feet high. The highest part, on the eastern side, goes up to over 130 feet. A small channel, like a natural slide, runs through the site down to the river.

The site is about 0.1 miles from east to west and a little more than half that distance from north to south. We don't know the full size of all the ancient things buried there yet.

Why Was Topper a Good Place for Early People?

Topper is special because it's a chert quarry. Chert is a type of rock that early humans used to make tools. This rock was easy to find here. Since good stone for tools was hard to find north and east of Topper, this site was a great spot for ancient hunter-gatherers to visit.

The site also sits on a flat area (a fluvial terrace) above the river. Scientists have dug up three main layers of earth on this terrace.

• The lowest layer is sand and clay, likely put there by a winding river over 55,000 years ago.
• Above that is a 1.5-meter (about 5-foot) thick layer of gravel, sand, and clay, probably left by braided streams before 15,000 years ago.
• Starting around 13,000 years ago, a 1-meter (about 3-foot) thick layer of sandy soil was added by wind and water flowing down the hillside.

Long ago, the Topper site was located where two different natural areas met. To the north, there was a cool, moist forest with trees that lose their leaves. To the south, there was a warmer forest with evergreen trees. This mix of environments would have provided many different plants and animals for early people.

The Topper site is known by its special code, 38AL23. It's part of a larger area called the Allendale Chert Quarries Archeological District, which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The land is owned by the Clariant company. In 2006, a special roof was built over the main dig area to protect the archaeologists from the sun and rain. The Clariant company also helped build a viewing deck so visitors could watch the excavations.

How Have Archaeologists Explored Topper?

Archaeologists first started digging at the Topper site in 1985 and 1986. They found tools and other items from different time periods, from the 15th-century Mississippian culture all the way back to the very early Paleoindian times.

In 1998, a team led by Albert Goodyear planned to work at a different site, but floods forced them to move to Topper. Previous digs hadn't found anything below about 100 centimeters (about 39 inches) from the surface. But Goodyear's team decided to dig deeper, hoping to find things older than the Clovis culture.

They found small pieces of chert, which they believed were tools made by humans, and bits of charcoal between 130 to 210 centimeters (about 51 to 83 inches) deep. This was much deeper than where the Clovis tools were found. They even found a group of about 20 rocks at 180 centimeters (about 71 inches) deep, which they thought might be a sign of human activity.

Since 1998, archaeologists have continued to dig at Topper every year. They focus on two main spots: a flat area called the "Pleistocene terrace" and a sloped area called "Hillside."

What Are the Clovis Finds at Topper?

The Topper site has given us many Clovis tools and items from two main areas: the "Pleistocene terrace" and the "hillside." As of 2005, Topper was one of only two Clovis sites on the Atlantic Coastal Plain that had been fully dug up.

Discoveries on the Hillside

The hillside area is a sloping layer of sand. About 210 square meters (about 2,260 square feet) have been dug up here. In one part, archaeologists dug down about 50 to 85 centimeters (about 20 to 33 inches) from 2005 to 2008. Even though the soil wasn't in clear layers, they found Clovis, Archaic, and Woodland period|Woodland]] tools in different levels. Woodland tools were at the top, Archaic in the middle, and Clovis at the bottom. This shows that the layers of tools were mostly undisturbed over time.

Understanding the Clovis Culture

Since the 1930s, many scientists believed that the first people to arrive in the New World were the Clovis people. They are thought to have appeared around 13,500 years ago. Their unique tools, especially their spear points, have been found across most of the United States and even as far south as Panama.

However, since the early 2000s, this idea has been challenged. New discoveries at sites like Monte Verde in Chile, Cactus Hill in Virginia, and Buttermilk Creek in Texas suggest that people were in the Americas before the Clovis culture.

The Debate About Pre-Clovis Finds

In 2004, Albert Goodyear from the University of South Carolina announced something very exciting. He found dark stains in the soil at the deepest part of the Topper site. These stains were from burned plants and were dated using radiocarbon to about 50,000 years ago. This would mean people were there about 37,000 years before the Clovis people!

Goodyear believes that the stone objects found at this deep level are simple tools made by humans. However, other archaeologists disagree. They think these objects might be natural rocks, not human-made tools. Some also question the 50,000-year date. They argue that the dark stain could be from a natural fire, and that 50,000 years is the very limit of what radiocarbon dating can reliably measure. This means the material might just be "radiocarbon dead," or too old to get an exact date.

Before finding these very old tools, Goodyear had found other objects he believed were tools dating back about 16,000 years. This would still be about 3,000 years before the Clovis culture.

According to archaeologist Dean Snow, finding evidence that people were here a few thousand years before Clovis is much more likely than 50,000 years. This idea is sometimes called the "pioneer" stage of Clovis culture. It suggests that the Clovis culture and their tools developed over time, with earlier, simpler tools being used first.

However, some researchers like Waters and his team point out that the supposed tools found below the Clovis layer at Topper look the same from 50,000 years ago until 15,000 years ago. This is different from how tools usually change and develop over time in later periods. This makes them wonder if the objects are truly human-made tools.

See also

In Spanish: Topper (yacimiento) para niños