BRUCE BRADLEY, PhD
 Archaeologist-Academic
Flintknapper

Research Associate Texas Archaeological Research Lab (TARL), Austin

Research Associate Carnegie Museum of Natural History, Pittsburgh
Research Associate National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian
New Appointment Associate Professor, University of Exeter, United Kingdom
Adjunct Professor, Augustana College, Sioux Falls

Knapping videos now available as indexed dvds- see below

Thank you for coming to this site.  I apologize that the page has been missing for over a year. I am now working to get it restored and updated. I know there are missing links and will keep fixing them as I can. Thanks for your patience.

This is a photo of me with a large flint nodule from adjacent to the Les Maitreaux Solutrean site in France.  Note the quality of this honey-coloured flint.  This is the material that was being used to make laurel leaf bifaces at the Last Glacial Maximum.  I am collaborating on experiments into the technologies of the various artefacts that have been recovered from this amazing manufacturing site (check out http://lesmaitreaux.free.fr/ for information on the site. This is mostly in French but there is an article on laurel leaf manufacture in English, and some nice images. Last fall I gave a presentation at the European Archaeological Association meetings in Krakow, Poland on the experimental work we are doing and there has recently been an article in World Archaeology.  We hold an annual workshop in France each spring to continue our investigations and next fall will hold a Congress on Solutrean as a 40th anniversary of the publication of Philip Smith's Solutrean dissertation; still the most comprehensive work on the Solutrean.  Let me know if you might be interested in attending or presenting.

My position is Associate Professor in the Department of Archaeology at the University of Exeter.  I am teaching various courses including lithic technology and analysis, archaeological materials and have been appointed Director of the Experimental Archaeology Masters Programme. It is unique and extremely well designed.  It is a one-year (full time or two years part-time) Masters in Experimental Archaeology.   Although students have a set number of courses, labs, etc., there is ample opportunity to explore their own interests.  For more information check out the department  web page. If you have a particular 'primitive' technology skill and are interested in applying it to an archaeological experiment (not to mention obtaining a postgraduate degree) our programme is ideally suited.  We have new lab facilities and an outdoor experimental area, and can accommodate virtually any interest.  We are especially interested in recruiting people who already have expertise in a technology as it is usually the case that this expertise is needed before an experiment can be designed that is applicable to an archaeological situation.  Although we offer the MA as a step toward academic advancement, the programme is designed to allow different pathways.  For example, if you work in an outdoor interpretive centre and wish to gain broader technological experience to apply to interpretations, we can design some of your work to enhance this interest.  Our entry requirements are flexible (you are evaluated on a case by case basis and we are able to consider applicants who may have been out of university for a long time, or even want to use extensive experience as an alternative).  Please contact me directly before you apply if you are a 'non-traditional' student.  If experimental archaeology is your interest there are many different internet resources, in North America and around the world. If you would like to know more visit the extensive Dutch Page (in English) with numerous references and links.

I am also continuing my various research projects and plan to get some of the results added to this page, especially an interactive, image-driven report on Stix and Leaves Pueblo.  I have now completed my field research with my colleague Sandra Olsen in northern Kazakhstan and am looking to wrap up the writing on this for a major monograph in 2009. 

NEW WORLD ORIGINS

My continued work with Dennis Stanford on the issue of New World peopling and the theory that some people may have come from southwestern Europe at the last glacial maximum (LGM) around 20,000-17,000 years ago has ratcheted up.  We have our long-awaited book in press with a projected publication date of 2009.  In the mean time we have roiled the waters by publishing an article in WORLD ARCHAEOLOGY in December 2004, followed by a rebuttal by Straus, Meltzer and Goebel in December 2005 and finally our reply to them in December 2006.  There have also been several documentaries and docudramas made about this topic that air occasionally on Discovery, PBS and History channels. This is a hot topic and the debate is vigorous (finally). 

CLOVIS, CLOVIS, CLOVIS

I am continuing to work closely with Mike Collins and the Texas Archaeological Research Lab (TARL) and have recently been appointed Research Associate.  We have had a long association and this is currently being strengthened.  I am writing a book on Clovis technology with Mike, Andy Hemmings, John Lohse and Marilyn Shoberg for the International Monograph Series in Prehistory edited by Robert Whallon (planned for spring 2009).

The Gault Site was purchased by Dr. Collins and subsequently donated to the Archaeological Conservancy ensuring its long-term conservation. There is also a not-for-profit organization called the Gault School, that is active in support of continued education and research at the Gault Site.

In March/April 2007 I took 4 Exeter students (Funded by the University Exploration Fund) to Gault to prepare the site for the upcoming SAA field trip.  In spite of the wet weather (we had snow the day before Easter!) we opened up two of the old excavation areas and continued one of the areas below the documented Clovis level.  We encountered a series of clearly flaked artifacts, below the Clovis layer, that were clearly not Clovis technology.  We were only able to work in a small area and were thwarted from going deeper by the water table.  Never the less, it was an exciting time!

I am planning to continue to take groups of Exeter archaeology students to work at the Gault Site in the coming years and to continue our collaborative research.

 In 2003 I organized a group of people to assist with an interesting lab-based project on the Gault collection, which  was a success, but not in the way we expected. Our groups helped with analysis of a sample of the Clovis artifacts from the site. Check out the Gault page for background information. Also Mike Collins has published a very interesting article about Gault in the Athena Review . He, and colleagues, had the materials processed, catalogued and organized when we arrived, the most time consuming and intensive part of any archaeological research program.

Our assigned task was to examine collections of artifacts from various excavation units and to systematically conjoin broken pieces and refit flaking sequences. Through refitting, Mike has recently discovered a very curious and unexpected flaking process with Clovis blade cores at another nearby site. Refitting may give new insights into flaked stone technology, but it also has great potential for helping us understand how people moved around and used an area, and how natural processes may have altered the record. Refitting can be fun, satisfying, and frequently, frustrating. It is especially challenging in collections where there is little variation in stone colour or texture, like at Gault. On the other hand, with a little intensive training and a well-designed process, everybody can make a significant contribution to this analysis.

We started with the collection of blades and blade cores from an area designated Bobcat 15. We laid all of these pieces out on tables and tried fitting every blade to every core blade scar and to every blade scar on the dorsal surfaces of blades (blades to blades). The result was a whopping no refits! We did manage to get a couple broken pieces conjoined and one flake onto a core. This lack of refits was an extreme surprise. Because of the distinctive nature of blades and blade cars, refitting should be relatively straight forward.

We put the blades away and laid out the biface products including all bifaces (broken and intact), finished points, debitage larger than about 2cm, overshot flakes, and channel flakes. Many bifaces exhibited overshot flake scars and channel flake scars and we had lots of overshot flakes and channel flakes. All of these types are distinctive and once again refitting should be fairly straight forward. We found two biface conjoins and two flakes that refit, and that was all. Unbelievable! I must say that I greatly admire the diligence and perseverance of the participants. They did a marvelous job. We also did the same refitting with Bobcat 16 and Bobcat 18, with the same results.

Although we can't say that we found all possible refits, it is clear that if they exist in these areas, they are extremely rare. The archaeological site formation process indicates that geological mixing and erosion were minimal and cannot account for this lack of refitting. Because of this, we have to completely reassess our interpretation of how the artifacts came to be where they were found. Mike has been saying for a long time that the Gault Site was more then just a place occasionally visited by Clovis people to replenish their flint tools, based on the presence of many different types of tools and tool use. Our analysis supports this contention. If depositional processes can be ruled out as the artifact mixing agent, it must have been the product of human activities at the site. A lot more thinking needs to go into this.

The process of carefully examining all types of Clovis flaked stone artifacts was very rewarding in other ways. We all got a good sense of Clovis flaking technology, especially blade and biface production. We also caught minor errors on labels and helped greatly with the identification of tools and reclassification of tools that had only been through preliminary analysis. I think my favourite find was a fantastic flaked adze made on a large blade-like flake.

I also took the opportunity to record technological attributes of 75 Clovis bifaces in all stages of manufacture. This information is rarely reported and rarely available from Clovis sites.

While engaged in the technological and refitting studies, we also helped with recording other attributes of the assemblage, specifically whether or not flint artifacts were burned. We did this for area Bobcat 18 where a cobble pavement might represent a Clovis feature floor. No hearths were found in the area, but there was quite a bit of burned flint. After we completed our recording, the burned pieces of flint were plotted on the area map, and the pattern in relation to the cobble pavement turned out to be quite interesting. But this is Mike's story, and you will have to wait for his analysis and interpretation.

All in all, the project was very rewarding even though it didn't find what we expected. One might say it was more important because we didn't find what we expected. How often can a two week analysis produce information that significantly changes one's entire interpretation of what a site was? Although Mike has been arguing that the Clovis occupation at Gault was significant, intensive and long-term; I think our results greatly support this interpretation. I arrived with the standard notion that Gault was probably a location where small Clovis bands came to acquire flint, do a little hunting and move on. It seems that all of the data points to a different story. Archaeology can't get much more exciting than this!

THE FENN CACHE is a lavishly illustrated book by George Frison and Bruce Bradley discussing and illustrating this amazing Clovis cache. 58 Full-scale color plates (3 views of each piece) by Pete Bostrom (see his amazing page Lithic Casting Lab) and adjacent full-size drawings by Sarah Moore. Text written for a general interest audience. New books are now no longer available but used copies may be found at Amazon.com

FLINTKNAPPING by Dr. Bruce Bradley Now Available in DVD

"I watched your video with a couple friends this week. I haven't seen it for a long time and when I first watched it several years ago it seemed like magic. I've done a couple of demos lately and have tried to figure out ways to keep them more interesting during the relatively long thinning and shaping stage without switching midway through to a prepared piece. That's what really struck me about your demo -- when you are ready to start making the point you are already halfway there and the audience was kept interested all the way along. AND they learn the difference between uniface/biface and cutting/scraping without even switching tools. Amazing to watch. I have lots to learn." Tim Rast

See his great page Knappers Anonymous

This video is a great addition to any flintknapping library and is being shown in most beginning archaeology courses in universities and colleges across North America. It has also been well received in primary and secondary classrooms and works well with grades 4 and above. Flintknapping has also been acclaimed by beginning and intermediate knappers as a great instructional tool. This tape is 45 minutes long and works well in a 1 hour class.  The DVD is indexed with chapters so that it will be easier to view specific areas of interest. 

Another dvd is now available on Clovis biface knapping demonstrating what I think was a standard production process of Clovis bifaces and points.

ALSO AVAILABLE

A third DVD is now available showing the production of a large Solutrean Laurel Leaf, filmed in Bossay-sur-Claise, France in April 2006. We have also started on a fourth, which will have a 5 minute segment on English gun flint manufacture (filmed in the 1950s in Brandon, England), large flake production techniques and levallois.

Order them from http://www.petroglyphtrail.com or call 800-687-5967

SOUTHWESTERN ARCHAEOLOGY

I have been away from my Southwestern archaeology interests for too long now, but have plans to get back into it.  In the summer of 2005 I spent a couple of weeks in Cortez, Colorado and at the Anasazi Heritage Center in Dolores collecting information about my work at Sand Canyon Pueblo.  I hope to schedule time to write a book about my personal ideas and theories, especially in relation to a possible revitalization movement that inspired the mid-thirteenth century reorganization of Mesa Verde Region Pueblo societies and eventually their collapse and out-migration.  I rely heavily on the work of Anthony Wallace for my theoretical framework, and will include extensive illustrations and reconstructions.  Although I plan this to be in a 'popular' style, it will also be scholarly in its content. 

NEW With volunteer help I excavated another room at Wallace Ruin this summer. It turned out to be exceptional in that it has added a previously unknown building phase (probably in the mid-1100s) and produced the only male human effigy vessel from the region. Of particular importance is that it was in an interpretable archaeological context. It was deposited in a room with ‘ritual refuse’ during the Mesa Verde Phase (AD 1200-1280). Check out the REPORT of this work.

For early reports see Wallace Ruin, a Chaco Outlier near Cortez, Colorado. WALLACE RUIN SUMMARY, WALLACE RUIN INTERIM REPORT 1988

Research into Pueblo archaeology in the Four Corners area in the 1970s involved me in the great Chaco debate, and I have been there ever since. For almost everything you ever wanted to know about Chaco archaeology visit the Chaco Portal . This is a web page designed and hosted by Fort Lewis College Anthropology Department. An excellent resource with a searchable bibliography, short biographies of Chaco scholars, etc. Check it out.

For some really interesting information on Chaco Culture and Pueblo II visit John Kantner's page .

Stix and Leaves Pueblo (5MT11555) in Montezuma County, Colorado is an Early Pueblo II Village where I excavated a roomblock and associated kivas and pithouses. I am working on an interactive web-based report and will post it when finished. In the mean time you can see the results of tree-ring dating for all of the excavations and check out an article on projectile points from the site.  It was poublished in Indian Artifact Magazine, Vol. 20, No. 1. ANASAZI  PROJECTILE POINTS

There are also color images and text from a published Chips article Vol. 13, #1 2001 Southwest Projectile Points

Along with standard archaeology, I have also done many experimental projects including a replica kiva construction. Check out the many images of the complete process.

One outcome of the experimental kiva is that there are some amazing, accidental, solar alignments. These should serve as cautionary tales for budding archaeo-astronomers who see "significant" alignments everywhere. Check them out!

The kiva has now been unmaintained for 5 years but I have been documenting it as it deteriorates. There are some interesting and unexpected results.

PALEO-AMERICAN ARCHAEOLOGY

SLOAN DALTON SITE

Check out good photos of the points, awls, burins, and scrapers (made on points) from the Sloan Site, a Dalton Cemetary in NE Arkansas. These images are posted here to supplement the poor illustrations in the otherwise excellent book by Dan Morse (Sloan a Paleoindian Dalton Cemetary in Arkansas, 1997, Smithsonian Institution Press, ISBN 1-56098-712-X.Sloan Dalton Artifacts

PEOPLING OF THE AMERICAS

If you are interested in looking at a now outdated dialog about the origins of people in the New World, start by going to Tony Baker's page on this subject. From there you can get to my responses, and back to Tony's ideas. This hasn't been updated in several years and our ideas have altered somewhat. Never the less, this is a stimulating discussion. On the other hand, Tony has some fantastic pages on all sorts of subjects- see his main page.

Dennis Stanford (Smithsonian) and I have published our theory and summarized the supporting data in the scholarly journal World Archaeology in December 2004, and we are close to submitting the final draft of our long-awaited book to the University of California Press.  We also gave the keynote address at the Southeastern Clovis Conference (abstract).  There is of course strong opposition to this theory, especially by Dr. Laurence Strauss of the University of New Mexico, a leading scholar in northern Spanish Upper Palaeolithic archaeology (see World Archaeology 2005 for a rebuttal and 2006 for our response).

The "Clovis First" and "Beringia Only" theories have been crumbling for years, but for many of us are now totally collapsed.  There is now overwhelming direct evidence for pre-Clovis occupation of the American continents, and virtually no direct evidence that all of these early people must have come through Siberia.  For some examples see:

Click here for a recent BBC Radio program about Meadowcroft Rock Shelter

View an article on Clovis ivory bone and antler artifacts

There are many links to this topic and all you have to do is start searching the internet to see how emotional and engaging the issue is.

KAZAKH ARCHAEOLOGY

In 1995 I spent two weeks in northern Kazakhstan on an excavation at the Eneolithic (Copper Age) site of Botai with my colleague Sandra Olsen, of the Carnegie Museum in Pittsburgh. Her special interest is the domestication of the horse, and the central Asian steppe is a likely place to find evidence. It is known that horses were domesticated by the Bronze Age, so it must have happened earlier. I found many intriguing problems related to this subject and Sandi and I decided to collaborate on a new research project. We applied for and obtained a three year grant from the U.S. National Science Foundation and began field work in the summer of 2000. I will be posting articles and images here as we finish them. Kazakhstan is a fascinating country and the people are very friendly. There was an article on our work in DISCOVER Magazine in the March 2002 issue. Their photographer got some great pictures this summer of traditional Kazakh horse nomads. The text has some weird bits, such as Sandi being afraid of horses- this is baloney. Can't control what the press does.  However, the best media story about our work was on the radio-

5 November 2002 BBC Radio 4 Programme of Vasilkovka Research 2002

In the summer of 2001 we found and recorded a prehistoric flaking stone quarry site, we believe the first to be documented with quarry pits in Kazakhstan. Here is a preliminary report of the Zhartas Quarry.

The summer of 2001 was unusually wet and cool in northern Kazakhstan. Rather then continue excavations at the Eneolithic site of Krasnyi Yar, we investigated a nearby Neolithic site that we named Zhusahn (the Kazakh word for sage). I was especially interested in this site because I wanted to see if there was a significant change in the stone flaking technology. I was also curious to see if the same stone sources were in use during these consecutive time periods. Here is a report on our excavations and analyses at Zhusahn. I have intentionally kept the illustrations at a relatively high resolution, so those with slow computers and internet connections, like me, should be patient when viewing the images.

The field season of 2002 took us to another Eneolithic, Botai Culture site near Kokshetau. Vasilkovka IV turned out to be an interesting excavation. This year, summer came on a Tuesday. Although the winter had been quite mild, it didn't seem to want to give way to summer; and then it reasserted itself after just a short respite.

Never the less, we managed to complete magnetometer and resistivity surveys, and excavated a pithouse and associated features. A report on this work is currently in preparation. Stay tuned.

RUSSIAN ARCHAEOLOGY

In the summer of 2003 I was privileged  to participate in another archaeological research project in Russia, Zhokhov. I was invited by the project director Dr. Vladimir Pitulko and sposor Dr. Edmund (Ted) Carpenter..  The Zhokhov site is Mesolithic in age (circa 8,500 years old) and is located in one of the farthest north places people ever lived in the Stone Age. It is on the small island of Zhokhova northeast of the main group of the New Siberian Islands, off of the north shore of Siberia (Yakutia). Check out an abstract of an article by Ted.

In the summer of 2005 I took 13 Exeter archaeology students to the excavations at Zaraysk (see below) directed by Dr. Hizri Amirkhanov and Dr. Segey Lev. This is one of my favourite places, digs, and groups of people and we had an incredible time and learning experience.

The first international conference to be held in the Russian town of Zaraysk was an interesting experience. I have worked in Zaraysk three summers and really enjoy it. Twice, I have lead groups of amateur archaeologists to help with the excavations. Learn about the conference and see some images of the Eastern Gravettian Conference in Zaraysk, Russia, 1997

We think that we have old bifacial projectile points in North America, but they don't hold a candle to some I have studied from European Russia. Read an article about Streletskayan Points of the Russian Upper Paleolithic

Here is a brief description of the Russian Upper Paleolithic site of Kostenki. I worked at this site for several years and lead a group of amateurs there to help with the excavations. It is a fantastic place and I hope to return some day soon. The archaeology is tremendous, the people are great, and the setting on the Middle Don River is nearly idylic.