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Folsom points are projectile points associated with the
Ontario Archaeological Society
/ref>
American Museum of Natural History--Folsom Point
Folsom tradition
The Folsom Complex is a Paleo-Indian archaeological culture that occupied much of central North America from c. 8500 BCE to c. 4000 BCE. The term was first used in 1927 by Jesse Dade Figgins, director of the Colorado Museum of Natural History.
...
of North America
North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and th ...
. The style of tool-making was named after the Folsom site
Folsom site or Wild Horse Arroyo, designated by the Smithsonian trinomial 29CX1, is a major archaeological site about west of Folsom, New Mexico. It is the type site for the Folsom tradition, a Paleo-Indian cultural sequence dating to betwee ...
located in Folsom, New Mexico
Folsom is a village in Union County, New Mexico, United States. Its population was 56 at the 2010 census, down from 75 in 2000. The town was named after Frances Folsom, the fiancée of President Grover Cleveland.
History
Folsom gives its n ...
, where the first sample was found in 1908 by George McJunkin George McJunkin (1856–1922) was an African American cowboy, amateur archaeologist and historian in New Mexico. He discovered the Folsom site in 1908.
Born to slaves in Midway, Texas, McJunkin was approximately 9 years old when the Civil War ended ...
within the bone structure of a bison, an animal hunted by the Folsom people in New Mexico. The Folsom point was identified as a unique style of projectile point in 1926.
Description
The points are bifacially worked and have a symmetrical, leaf-like shape with a concave base and wide, shallow grooves running almost the entire length of the point. The edges are finely worked. The characteristic groove, known as fluting, may have served to aidhafting
Hafting is a process by which an artifact, often bone, stone, or metal is attached to a ''haft'' (handle or strap). This makes the artifact more useful by allowing it to be shot (arrow), thrown by hand (spear), or used with more effective levera ...
to a wooden shaft or dart. Use-wear studies have shown that some examples were used as knives as well as projectile points. The fluting required great technical ability to effect, and it took archaeologists many years of experimentation to replicate it. This point is thought to be the pinnacle of the fluting technology. The flute was made by creating a nipple platform at the center of the base. The remnants of the nipple may be present on completed examples.
Age and cultural affiliations
Folsom points are found widely across North America and are dated to the period between 9500 BCE and 8000 BCE. The discovery of these artifacts in the early 20th century raised questions about when the first humans arrived in North America. The prevailing idea of a time depth of about 3,000 years was clearly mistaken. In 1932, an even earlier style of projectile point was found, Clovis, dating back to 11,500 BCE. Clovis points have been found ''in situ
''In situ'' (; often not italicized in English) is a Latin phrase that translates literally to "on site" or "in position." It can mean "locally", "on site", "on the premises", or "in place" to describe where an event takes place and is used in ...
'' in association with mammoth
A mammoth is any species of the extinct elephantid genus ''Mammuthus'', one of the many genera that make up the order of trunked mammals called proboscideans. The various species of mammoth were commonly equipped with long, curved tusks an ...
skeletons.
In the Great Plains
The Great Plains (french: Grandes Plaines), sometimes simply "the Plains", is a broad expanse of flatland in North America. It is located west of the Mississippi River and east of the Rocky Mountains, much of it covered in prairie, steppe, a ...
area, the use of Folsom points was supplanted over time by Plano point
In archaeology, Plano point is flaked stone projectile points and tools created by the various Plano cultures of the North American Great Plains between 9000 BC and 6000 BC for hunting, and possibly to kill other humans.
They are bifacially work ...
s of the various Plano cultures
The Plano cultures is a name given by archaeologists to a group of disparate hunter-gatherer communities that occupied the Great Plains area of North America during the Paleo-Indian or Archaic period.
Distinguishing characteristics
The Plano ...
./ref>
See also
*Folsom tradition
The Folsom Complex is a Paleo-Indian archaeological culture that occupied much of central North America from c. 8500 BCE to c. 4000 BCE. The term was first used in 1927 by Jesse Dade Figgins, director of the Colorado Museum of Natural History.
...
*Cascade point A Cascade point is a projectile point associated with the Cascade phase, an ancient culture of Native Americans that settled in the Pacific Northwest that existed from 9000 or 10000 BC until about 5500 BC.
The Cascade (Bipointed) point is typical ...
* Clovis point
*Plano point
In archaeology, Plano point is flaked stone projectile points and tools created by the various Plano cultures of the North American Great Plains between 9000 BC and 6000 BC for hunting, and possibly to kill other humans.
They are bifacially work ...
*Eden point
Eden Points are a form of chipped stone projectile points associated with a sub-group of the larger Plano culture. Sometimes also called Yuma points, the first Eden points were discovered in washouts in Yuma County, Colorado. They were first d ...
* Cumberland point
*Levanna projectile point
Levanna projectile points are stone projectile points manufactured by Native Americans what is now the Northeastern United States, generally in the time interval of 700-1350 AD. They are true arrowheads rather than atlatl dart points, and they d ...
*Jack's Reef pentagonal projectile point 300px, Jack's Reef pentagonal projectile point from central New York State
Jacks Reef Pentagonal is the name for small (1" to 1 ½"), broad projectiles and specialized knives. They were named by William A. Ritchie based on examples recovered from ...
* Lamoka projectile point
* Susquehanna broad projectile point
*Bare Island projectile point
up360px, A Bare Island projectile point made of flint from central New York State.">flint.html" ;"title="projectile point made of flint">projectile point made of flint from central New York State.
The Bare Island projectile point is a stone proj ...
* Greene projectile point
External links
American Museum of Natural History--Folsom Point
References
* republished in * {{DEFAULTSORT:Folsom Point Paleo-Indian period Projectile points Indigenous weapons of the Americas Pre-Columbian projectile points