Description, Microwear, and Morphometrics of Clovis and Possible-Clovis Lithic Artifacts from the Kasten Site, Erie County, Ohio, USA

The Kasten Site is a multicomponent plowzone site in Erie County, Ohio that possesses a Late Pleistocene Clovis lithic assemblage. Here, we describe the late Pleistocene Clovis, and possible-Clovis, lithic artifacts via technological descriptions, illustrations and images, morphometrics, and microwear. The lithic artifacts are made from cherts which appear to outcrop between 94.7 and 356.8 km from the site. Based on our descriptions, we suggest that the Kasten site is a small logistical site, whereby a small number Clovis people occupied it ephemerally for the purposes of resource procurement. Given the microwear evidence, this resource may have been animal prey, but given that the site is adjacent to a topographic depression, the desired resource could also have been water.