Cactus Hill is an archaeological site in the U.S. state of Virginia. It lies in the southeastern part of the state on the Nottoway River roughly 45 miles south of Richmond. The site, owned by the International Paper Corporation, is situated on sand dunes above the river. Motto: (Out Of Many, One) (traditional) In God We Trust (1956 to date) Anthem: The Star-Spangled Banner Capital Washington D.C. Largest city New York City None at federal level (English de facto) Government Federal constitutional republic - President George Walker Bush (R) - Vice President Dick Cheney (R) Independence from... It has been suggested that Rest of Virginia be merged into this article or section. ... The Nottoway River is in Southern Virginia and North Carolina Cities and towns Cities and towns along the river include: Courtland, Virginia See Also List of rivers of the Americas List of Virginia rivers Cactus Hill Categories: | | | ... Nickname: River City, Cap City, R-V-A Motto: Sic Itur Ad Astra (Thus do we reach the stars) Location in the Commonwealth of Virginia Coordinates: Country United States State Virginia County Independent City Mayor L. Douglas Wilder (D) Area - City 62. ... International Paper (NYSE: IP) is an American pulp and paper company, the largest pulp and paper company in the world and the largest private owner of timberland in the United States. ...
The site has yielded multiple levels of early occupation. Archaic stage material is underlain by fluted stone tools associated with the Clovis culture dated to 10,920 BP. A lower level yields artifacts including unfluted bifacial stone tools with dates ranging from c. 15,000 to 17,000 years ago. White pine charcoal from a hearth context on this level dates to 15,070 radiocarbon years BP[1]. Further charcoal deposits retrieved at the site date to as early as 19,700 years ago, although these deposits may have been made by forest fires. In the sequence of North American cultural stages first proposed by Gordon Willey and Phillip Phillips in 1958, the Archaic stage was the second period of human occupation in the Americas, from around 8000 BC to 1000 BC although as its ending is defined by the adoption of sedentary farming... The Clovis culture (also Llano culture) is a prehistoric Native American culture that first appears in the archaeological record of North America around 13,500 years ago, at the end of the last ice age. ...
Evidence for a pre-Clovis level at CactusHill was presented in a series of papers given on April 7 at the annual Society for American Archaeology conference in Philadelphia by the director of the excavations at CactusHill, Joseph McAvoy, and a number of specialists studying various aspects of the site.
CactusHill, on the Nottoway River in southeastern Virginia, has Archaic material which is underlain by a Clovis-era level.
McAvoy said that, as far as he is concerned, the quotation of whether or not the pre-Clovis level at CactusHill is real is "not even close." In discussing the papers, Dennis Stanford of the Smithsonian Institution suggested the assemblage adds to evidence that Clovis may have originated in the Southeast.