Chronology of the Farmington Complex

Recent geomorphic investigations in central California coupled with a re-evaluation of radiocarbon determinations from one Farmington complex locus provide a base for a more explicit definition of the age of this alleged Paleoindian manifestation. Flaked stone implements were apparently buried in gravels deposited during terminal Pleistocene and early Holocene times when channel filling occurred in the Sierra Nevada foothill drainages. The radiocarbon dates do not support the geologic interpretations. However, because of the charcoal"s stratigraphic context the dates are considered the product of later events.