Diverse Technologies at the South Gap Site (20AA232): A 9,000-Year-Old Caribou Hunting Site in Lake Huron

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Hunting for Hunters, Underwater: Results and Future Directions for Submerged Ancient Sites" session, at the 90th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

The South Gap site (20AA232) is a hunting location most likely for targeting caribou ~55 kilometers offshore from mainland Michigan on the Alpena-Amberley Ridge. The site features a sinuous esker that runs north – south and serves as a natural drive line that channeled migrating caribou along a predictable route through the site. Hunters utilizing the site built a series of constructed stone hunting blinds and a drive lane from local materials along this path to effectively create a hunting complex that could be used seasonally. Recovered in association with the constructed features is a small assemblage of stone tools that were used for hunting and subsequent animal processing, confirming the function of the site as a hunting location. The assemblage includes evidence for a diverse set of technologies that are not commonly found together in the Great Lakes region. This includes evidence for bifacial tools, microblades made with a bipolar reduction method, expedient scrapers, and potentially net sinkers. Terrestrial analogies for both constructed hunting features observed at South Gap and the diverse tool assemblage can be found to the northwest in the foothills of the Coastal Range and Interior Plains of Canada.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 90th Annual Meeting, Denver, CO (2025)   •
• Hunting for Hunters, Underwater: Results and Future Directions for Submerged Ancient Sites

Keywords

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 50351