Recent archaeological excavations produced evidence showing that the first humans to live in the Great Lakes region of North America built a summer hunting camp in southwestern Michigan, approximately 13,000 years ago during the Late Pleistocene epoch.
In an article about their research published in the journal PLOS ONE, a team of archaeologists from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor introduce proof that the legendary Clovis people built a temporary encampment at what is now known as the Belson site, overlooking a river where Pleistocene herbivores would have congregated in large numbers during the summer.
The most recent excavations at Belson indicate that Clovis hunting and gathering groups returned to this location annually for between three and five years, looking to take advantage of the opportunities for easy hunting provided by the nearby water source. The archaeologists know the visits were temporary and seasonal, based on the distribution of the Clovis artifacts in different layers of soil.
Traces of animal proteins recovered from the surfaces of tools and weapons found at Belson show the Clovis people had hunted and consumed a wide variety of animals there, including rabbits, musk ox, deer, and peccary, an ancient relative of the pig.
“Taken together, the ancient protein data suggests that these people had a broad spectrum diet, eating a wide variety of animals,” study lead author Brendan Nash said in a University of Michigan press release.
“Our findings are contrary to the…
