The Bostrom Site: A Paleo-Indian Habitation in Southwestern Illinois

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Abstract
Recent investigations at the Bostrom site in southwestern Illinois demonstrate that the site was occupied by at least three successive groups of Paleo-Indians: Clovis, Gainey, and Holcombe. Of the artifacts for which lithic raw materials were identified, Clovis tools are manufactured from stone that was procured up to 1500 km from the site. Gainey and Holcombe artifacts, on the other hand, are manufactured from stone whose source areas occur within a radius of 300 km from the site. Early Archaic, Dalton artifacts are manufactured from stone procured within 150 km of the site. These lithic resource procurement patterns suggest that there is a dramatic fall-off in mobility, social interaction, or both, after the initial peopling of the area. The presence of Great Lakes and Northeastern tool types at this southerly latitude suggests that the Gainey and Holcombe economies were much broader than the stereotypical model of a caribou-based subsistence strategy.