On June 23, 2022 Dr. Clark Wernecke returned with a new presentation in which he reviewed the archaeological evidence that debunks the old “Clovis First” theory and discussed how this evidence is shifting the paradigm on how scholars perceive the early migrations into the Americas.

Over the years, a number of researchers have publicly doubted the mainstream idea that the Clovis culture represented the first peoples in the New World. Excavations at Monte Verde, Chile in the 1970’s changed the nature and tenor of these arguments. For the first time. a large number of archaeologists agreed that a site showed definitive evidence of human occupation in the Western Hemisphere prior to Clovis. As more evidence surfaced and older sites were reexamined, scholars were forced to revise the story of the peopling of the Americas. Paradigm shifts are messy and there are still just as many questions as answers, but its clear that scholars need to test new hypotheses.

Clark Wernecke served as the Project Director for the Prehistory Research Project at the University of Texas at Austin and Executive Director of the Gault School of Archaeological Research, a nonprofit dedicated to research and education regarding the earliest peoples in the Americas.

Dr. Wernecke started his academic career with a degree in history from SMU followed by an MBA from Northwestern University, an M.A. in Anthropology from Florida Atlantic, and finally his PhD from the University of Texas at Austin. He came back to archaeology after a career in business and has worked in the Middle East, Mesoamerica, the American Southeast and Southwest, and Texas. Dr. Wernecke’s primary specialty is that of archaeological project management, but he has also written extensively on architecture and Paleoindian art.

Watch Dr. Wernecke’s previous virtual lecture “The Gault Site and the Peopling of the Americas.”