Archaeologists disagree on when the first humans arrived in America, but we all pretty much agree that the Clovis culture represents the earliest large-scale occupation of North America. The culture is named for Clovis, New Mexico, where the highly distinctive Clovis spear point was first found in direct association with the bones of the extinct mammoth.

More than 1,000 Clovis points have been recorded in Ohio, many more than most other states, so this must have been a paradise for Ice Age hunters. Most of Ohio’s Clovis points are made of Upper Mercer flint, which can be found in abundance in Coshocton County, so it’s not surprising that more Clovis points have been found there than in any other Ohio county.

The Welling site, located along the Walhonding River about 12 miles west of Coshocton, was studied by the late Olaf Prufer of Kent State University back in the 1960s. From this single site, he documented 54 Clovis points in various stages of manufacture, along with numerous other flint tools.

Prufer believed that Welling was a workshop where small groups of Clovis people would periodically come to make flint tools before heading off to hunt mammoths and mastodons in the flatlands of central Ohio. A new study of the tools found at Welling suggests that Welling was much more than just a workshop.

Read more:

http://www.dispatch.com/news/20180701/archaeology-ancient-clovis-hunters-drawn-to-ohio-flint