B eck and Jones (2010) present arguments for three debatable propositions: (1) West- ern Stemmed points are at least as old as, and probably older than, fluted points in the Inter- mountain West (2010:82, Figure 14); (2) Clovis “was not first in the Intermountain West” (2010:82); and (3) the people who made stemmed points were derived from a population, distinct from Clovis people, that had migrated along the Pacific Coast long before 13,000 cal BP, perhaps before the Last Glacial Maximum (2010:82, 101–104). As corollaries of these primary postulates, they also contend that: fluted points of the Intermoun- tain West are later than “classic” Clovis points of the Plains (Beck and Jones 2010:82, 96); Clovis probably originated in Texas or the Southeast in a population that had not migrated through the ice- free corridor (2010:86, 89, Figure 5); the dimin- ishing frequency of prismatic blades in caches and other contexts, and decreasing radiocarbon ages, mark the northward spread of Clovis from this cultural hearth (2010:88–95); and “people were in the Intermountain West before Clovis was present anywhere” (2010:106, emphasis in origi- nal). As we will demonstrate here, these bold and debatable assertions rest on slim evidence. There is not yet any compelling reason to reject the less radical and problematic interpretation of essen- tially the same data that was advanced two decades ago (Willig and Aikens 1988) and later was en- dorsed by Beck and Jones themselves (1997). Stemmed Points Are Not Older than Fluted Points Apart from a few outliers, the earliest radiocarbon dates associated with Western Stemmed points cluster around 10,700 rcbp (Beck and Jones 2010:Table 6). Based on Intcal09, this is equiva- lent to a calibrated date of ca. 12,650 cal B.P. The most precise and apparently accurate Clovis dates are in the range of ca. 11,100 to 10,900 rcbp (Fiedel 2006; Roosevelt et al. 2002; Waters and Stafford 2007), or 13,100–12,700 cal B.P. ac- cording to IntCal09. However, it is possible that IntCal09 is off by some 200 years in this section COMMENT ON “CLOVIS AND WESTERN STEMMED: POPULATION MIGRATION AND THE MEETING OF TWO TECHNOLOGIES IN THE INTERMOUNTAIN WEST” BY CHARLOTTE BECK AND GEORGE T. JONES Stuart J. Fiedel and Juliet E. Morrow Beck and Jones (2010) assert that Clovis “was not first in the Intermountain West”; Western Stemmed points are older than fluted points; and the stemmed point makers derived from a hypothetical pre-13,000 cal B.P. Pacific Coast migration. A less tendentious review of the data suggests instead that Western Stemmed follows Clovis in this region, as previously inferred by Willig and Aikens. Beck y Jones (2010) afirman que: Clovis “no fue la primera [cultura] en el oeste entre las montañas”; las puntas Western Stemmed (pedunculadas) son más antiguas que las puntas canaladas; y las poblaciones que fabricaron las puntas peduncu- ladas tuvieron una migración hipotética a lo largo de la costa pacifica más temprano que 13.000 años calendricos antes del presente. Estas afirmaciones están basadas en evidencia incompleta, selectiva, y malinterpretada. Una revisión menos ten- denciosa de los datos nos sugiere en cambio que Western Stemmed viene después de Clovis en esta región, como han inferido anteriormente Willig y Aikens. Stuart J. Fiedel  Louis Berger Group, 801 E. Main Street, Richmond, Virginia 23219 Juliet E. Morrow  Arkansas Archeological Survey, P.O. Box 820 State University Arkansas 72567 American Antiquity 77(2), 2012, pp. 376–385 Copyright ©2012 by the Society for American Archaeology 376 AQ77(2)13-Fiedel comment_Layout 1 4/6/12 4:33 PM Page 376