Why is #clone() not in the Cloneable interface?

Question

I was reading up on performing a deep-copy of an array correctly, however I was confused about how the #clone() is implemented. It is a member of the java.lan

Answer 1

To deal with creating the clone and basic field copying, clone needs to inherit a method implementation. A Cloneable class can appear anywhere in the hierarchy, and may need to extend a specific superclass to do its primary job. The only superclass from which all possible Cloneable classes can inherit implementation is Object.

Cloning was defined long before generics.