Clovis Land Use Patterns in the Midwest: Evidence from the Mueller-Keck Site Complex

The Mueller and Keck Clovis sites are located in Southwestern Illinois in the uplands along the American Bottom and occupy a shared landform. Repeated collections since the 1970s have yielded several hundred Clovis tools and waste flakes made primarily from exotic Attica chert, located 350 km to the east in west-central Indiana. Recent field and laboratory investigations document spatial patterning and context of Clovis artifacts at this complex. Though the potential for intact buried deposits is unlikely, the assemblage size and abundant non-local raw material provide critical information for evaluating models of Clovis colonization and land use in the midcontinent.