The oldest house in the Southeast? Identifying a probable Clovis domestic structure at the Topper site, South Carolina

Clovis is the best-documented early archaeological expression in North America, and archaeologists have reconstructed Clovis lithic technologies, retraced Clovis mobility and subsistence patterns, and described regional cultural variation within Clovis. Yet despite these significant achievements, the patterns of daily life at Clovis campsites remain understudied. In this paper, we report the discovery of a Clovis hearth at the Topper site, South Carolina. We use multiple lines of evidence to show that the hearth was likely situated within a semi-open structure, the first potential Clovis structure identified in the American Southeast. We then analyze tool and debitage distributions to document the activities that took place in and around the structure to reveal a clearer picture of Clovis daily life at Topper.