Clovis organizational dynamics at a Late Glacial campsite in the central Great Lakes: Belson site excavations 2020–2021

Abstract

The Belson site is located on an outwash plain draining the Early Algonquin stage of the central Great Lakes (coinciding with the Older Dryas stadial period around 14,000 Cal B.P) southwest across Lower Michigan into the Ohio tributaries. By 13,000 Cal B.P the St. Joseph River had incised multiple channels into this plain. On a terrace just north of a now-abandoned channel, a detailed surface study by Talbot from 2005–2018 showed several flake clusters largely of Attica chert, procured about 235 km southwest of Belson. A study of the surface sample was published by the authors in 2021 and indicated that the points were made with the Clovis technological pattern. Excavations in 2020–21 revealed hundreds of buried flakes and multiple tools in the lower, less-disturbed terrace sediment. Plotting of this material indicates successive occupations below the ploughed deposit and covering more than 30 m2. The buried assemblages are similar to the published surface assemblage with the addition of more small scrapers and manufacturing debris. Several of the buried tools have traces of proteins from a range of mammals, suggesting a broad-spectrum subsistence strategy. The documentation of a succession of little disturbed deposits with precisely recorded micro-debris will allow for testing of models describing settlement choice and developing dynamics of internal site organization. Initial analysis of recovered data provides support for an ‘outcrop centered’ model where high-quality chert outcrops serve as central places on the landscape. Samples of sediment and charcoal for identification and dating await study.