Robert Begole discovered and described 15 sites in the Sweeny Pass region of Anza-Borrego Desert State Park that he considered early man of possible Pre-Clovis antiquity. Members of our research team visited several of these sites in late 2017 and observed possible in situ bifacial stone tools resembling Old World Palaeolithic types, some of which are interlocked as clasts in desert pavement surfaces formed on late Quaternary fluvial (river) terrace deposits on both sides of Carrizo Wash. The purpose is to provide geochronologic control for the fluvial terraces and associated artifact-bearing desert pavements.

Approved