Clovis people used Great Lakes camp annually about 13,000 years ago, researchers confirm

[Judi Lynn]

September 11, 2024
by University of Michigan



Independent researcher Thomas Talbot and University of Michigan archaeologists have found more than 20 Clovis tools and hundreds of pieces of manufacturing and refurbishment debris at the Belson Clovis Site in St. Joseph County. Credit: Daryl Marshke/Michigan Photography


The earliest humans to settle the Great Lakes region likely returned to a campsite in southwest Michigan for several years in a row, according to a University of Michigan study.

Until recently, there was no evidence that people from the Clovis period had settled the Great Lakes region. The Clovis people appeared in North America about 13,000 years ago, during the geologic epoch called the Pleistocene. During the Pleistocene, sheets of glaciers covered much of the world, including Michigan, making the land inhospitable for human settlers. But a 2021 U-M study confirmed that Clovis people built a camp, now called the Belson site, in southwest Michigan.

Now, the same researchers have confirmed that Clovis people traveled to the site annually, probably in the, for at least three but likely up to five consecutive years, according to Brendan Nash, lead author of the study and a doctoral student of archaeology. Tools from the site also show evidence that the settlers' diets included a wide variety of animals, ranging from rabbits to musk ox. The team's results are published in the journal PLOS ONE.

At the Belson site, the researchers discovered tools that were made with a type of stone called chert from what is now western Kentucky, about 400 miles from the Belson site. These tools were then resharpened at the Belson site, leaving behind small pieces for researchers to analyze.

More:
https://phys.org/news/2024-09-clovis-people-great-lakes-annually.html