Description and microwear analysis of Clovis artifacts on a glacially-deposited secondary chert source near the Hartley Mastodon discovery, Columbiana County, Northeastern Ohio, U.S.A.

Five Clovis lithic artifacts were found in a plowed farm field just north of an unnamed tributary of the Mahoning River, Columbiana County, Northeast Ohio, approximately 700 m northeast of the Hartley Mastodon discovery. These artifacts include the base of a Clovis fluted projectile point, a preform base with a prepared fluting “nipple”, a large flake, a biface tip, and a biface mid-section. We present here basic artifact morphometrics; observations involving stone tool raw material, production, and discard; microwear analysis; and stone-source-to-site straight-line and least-cost distances. Overall, our results are relevant to two discussion points. First, there is currently no strong evidence linking the five Clovis stone tools to the Hartley Mastodon. Second, the area in which the five artifacts were found would have been attractive to Clovis Paleoindians for a variety of reasons, not least of which is that the immediate area is a glacially-deposited secondary chert source.