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The earliest appearance of elk/wapiti (Cervus canadensis) in eastern North America is not thoroughly documented due to the small number of directly dated remains. Until recently, no absolute dates on elk bone older than 10,000[.sup.14]C yr BP (11,621 to 11,306 calibratedyears(calyr)BP)were known from this region. The partial skeleton of the Tope Elk was discovered in 2017 during commercial excavation of peat deposits from a small bog in southeastern Medina County, Ohio, United States. Subsequent examination of the remains revealed the individual to be a robust male approximately 8.5 years old at death. The large size of this individual is compared with late Holocene specimens and suggests diminution of elk since the late Pleistocene. Two accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) radiocarbon assays on bone collagen samples taken from the scapula and metacarpal of this individual returned ages of 10,270 [+ or -] 30[.sup.14]C yr BP (Beta-477478) (12,154 to 11,835 cal yr BP) and 10,260 [+ or -] 30 [.sup.14]C yr BP (Beta-521748) (12,144 to 11,830 cal yr BP), respectively. These results place Cervus canadensis in the terminal Pleistocene of the eastern woodlands and near the establishment of the mixed deciduous forest biome over much of the region. This early temporal placement also situates this early elk as closely following the last representatives of now-extinct megafauna such as the American mastodon (Mammut americanum) and contemporary with the Late Paleoindian inhabitants of the region., INTRODUCTION The earliest presence of elk/wapiti (Cervus canadensis) in the eastern woodlands of North America is not thoroughly documented. In fact, there are virtually no records of directly dated elk [...]

The accidental discovery of Sheriden Cave in Ohio and its evidence of Paleoindians and the extinction of the megamammals are discussed.

The Mielke site (33SH26) is a multicomponent locality in western Ohio, in an upland portion of the state that forms a drainage divide between the Great Lakes and Ohio River watersheds. The site possesses a prominent Clovis component that we describe here and assessed via test excavations, geochemical sourcing, technological descriptions, geometric morphometrics, microwear, and GIS analysis. Five different raw materials, whose outcrops are located 150+ km from the site in several different directions, appear to be present. Although our inferences about the activities that occurred here in Clovis times are constrained by the presence of later components and the collecting history of the site, its location and artifacts are suggestive of what type of Clovis site Mielke may have been and how its Late Pleistocene inhabitants may have moved across North America's midcontinent. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent field re-investigations at the Paleo Crossing site, Ohio—a site first excavated by the Cleveland Museum of Natural History in the early 1990s—were aimed at relocating and expanding the original checkerboard of excavation units. It was in these that postmolds were found and inferred to be from a Clovis-age structure. Yet, unexcavated units in the checkerboard made it impossible to determine if there were additional postmolds or if they aligned or formed a pattern that would warrant the inference of a structure. To resolve these matters, we undertook new excavations at the site. Our field investigations re-located the checkerboard and expanded the original excavation. We found several additional postmolds, but their radiocarbon ages fall within just the last several centuries. Nor were we able to replicate the site's previously-reported late Pleistocene radiocarbon ages or find other evidence to support the onetime presence of a Clovis-age structure. Claims for a Clovis age structure at Paleo Crossing are therefore not supported. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

THOMAS EDWARD BERRES. 2001. Northern Illinois University Press, DeKalb. xii + 253 pp. $29.00 (paper), ISBN 0-87580-587-6. In this new work, Thomas Edward Berres gives us a most interesting look [...]