**If you have Clovis, or other early artifacts, and would like to join this effort, please contact me (glmill1@ilstu.edu or 309-438-3537). Please email pictures if you are able.**
Over the last several years, I have had the pleasure of working with distinguished colleagues Drs. Michelle Bebber (Kent State University), Matt Boulanger (Southern Methodist University), Briggs Buchanan (University of Tulsa), Metin Eren (Kent State University), and Brian Redmond (Cleveland Museum of Natural History), and their students, to put concerted efforts into collaborating with artifact collectors and avocational archeologists. The procedure is simple: if collectors and avocational archeologists are willing to donate their collections to public museums, we as professional archeologists will describe, analyze, and publish those collections and include them as co-authors, if they so choose. We have found several benefits to this arrangement. First, artifacts and collections are transferred to public institutions where any researcher can study them. In addition to increasing scholarship, this situation helps to combat the reproducibility crisis beyond the level of only publishing one’s data because artifacts themselves need to be reanalyzed and data need to be reproduced, not just analyses of those data. Second, co-authorship with collectors and avocational archeologists produces goodwill on the part of these latter groups who understandably wish to feel respected and oftentimes simply want to learn about their artifacts. Third, once the partnership develops, further education and learning take place on both sides. Professional archeologists discuss the importance of leaving discovered sites intact while collectors and avocational archeologists are more likely to report future finds to professionals. Finally, while some collections are large, many collections of artifacts are comprised of only a small number of items or even single items. Our team has committed to studying these small collections or isolates intensely with a variety of approaches: qualitative descriptions, lithic illustrations and high-resolution images, traditional measurements, geometric morphometrics, microwear, and GIS mapping. The analysis and publication of small assemblages are a worthwhile endeavor to offset the historic focus on larger, well-known sites.
Below are come of the publications that have resulted form these collaborative projects.
Eren, Metin I, Michelle R. Bebber, Anna Mika, Kat Flood, Leanna Maguire, Dusty Norris, Alyssa Perrone, Damon A. Mullen, Scott Centea, Chase Centea, Bob Christy, Rami Daud, Jermaine Jackson, Robert J. Patten, Brian G. Redmond, Briggs Buchanan, RichardHaythorn, G. Logan Miller, Mark A. Conaway, Rebecca Biermann Gürbüz, Stephen J. Lycet, J. David Kilby, Brian Andrews, Brandi MacDonald, Matthew T. Boulanger, and David J.Meltzer 2021 The Nelson stone tool cache, North-Central Ohio, U.S.A.: Assessing its cultural affiliation. Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports 37.
Perrone, Alyssa, Michelle R. Bebber, Matthew Boulanger, Briggs Buchanan, G. Logan Miller, Brian G. Redmond, Metin I. Eren. 2020 Description, Geometric Morphometrics, and Microwear of Five Clovis Fluted Projectile Points from Lucas and Wood Counties, Northwest Ohio, USA. Journal of Paleolithic Archaeology 3:1034-1047.
Eren, Metin I., G. Logan Miller, Briggs Buchanan, Matthew T. Boulanger, Michelle R. Bebber, Brian G. Redmond, Charles “Chuck” Stephens, Lisa Coates, Patricia Boser, Becky Sponseller, Matt Slicker 2019 The Black Diamond Site, Northeast Ohio, U.S.A.: A New Clovis Occupation in a Proposed Secondary Staging Area. Journal of Paleolithic Archaeology 2:211-233.
Eren, Metin I., Michelle R Bebber, G Logan Miller, Briggs Buchanan, Matthew Boulanger, Robert J Patten
2018 Description, morphometrics, and microwear of Late Pleistocene-Early Holocene artifacts from Southwestern Kentucky, USA. Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports 20:516-523.
Angelia Werner, Kathleen Jones, G Logan Miller, Briggs Buchanan, Matthew T Boulanger, Alastair J.M. Key, Crystal Reedy, Michelle R Bebber, Metin I Eren
2017 The morphometrics and microwear of a small Clovis assemblage from Guernsey County, Southeastern Ohio, USA. Journal of archaeological Science: Reports 15:318-329.
Bebber, Michelle R., G. Logan Miller, Matthew T. Boulanger, Brian N. Andrews, Brian G. Redmond, Donna Jackson, and Metin I. Eren.
2017 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. Journal of Archaeological Science:Reports 12:543-552.
Eren, Metin I., Brian G. Redmond, G. Logan Miller, Briggs Buchanan, Matthew T. Boulanger, Ashley Hall, Lee Hall
2016 The Wauseon Clovis Fluted Point Preform, Northwest, Ohio, U.S.A.: Observations, Geometric Morphometrics, Microwear, and Toolstone Procurement Distance. Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports. 10:147-154.