willie you asked--" Are there present day consequences that depend on making accurate determinations, or is this study of history more of an academic curiosity?"
Back in the day Archaeology was a discipline.
Today it's more of a free for all with very little accountability.
I guess a mirror of society. LOL
Most times persons involved are sort of a fraternity
like lawyers and doctors, never turning on one another
no matter what.
Well, that is until some in the profession steps on another's toes
or start taking money out of others accounts. lol
There is big, big money in books, lectures, TV and movie productions etc.
Do a search of your own. It's endless.
But we are seeing the brakes applied more lately since there
is work that now calls the bluff of the bluffers.
Here is a tiny taste.
Clovis culture - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clovis_culture[edit]. Main article: Settlement of the Americas. Known as "Clovis First," the predominant hypothesis among ...
NOVA | Explore Pre-Clovis Sites - PBS
www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/ancient/explore-pre-clovis-sites.html - Similarto NOVA | Explore Pre-Clovis Sites - PBS
Explore Pre-Clovis Sites. By Robson Bonnichsen and Robert Lassen; Posted 11.09.04; NOVA. When did
humans first arrive in the Americas? For decades, the ...
Solutrean hypothesis - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solutrean_hypothesisThe Solutrean hypothesis claims that Ice Age Europeans crossed the North Atlantic ..... "The Solutrean-Clovis connection : reply to Straus, Meltzer and Goebel".
Characteristics - Atlantic crossing - Genetic research - Archaeological and ...