Folsom points are projectile points associated with the Folsom tradition of

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere, Northern and Western Hemisphere, Western hemispheres. North America is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South Ameri ...

. The style of tool-making was named after the Folsom site located in Folsom, New Mexico, where the first sample was found in 1908 by George McJunkin within the bone structure of an extinct bison, ''

Bison antiquus ''Bison antiquus'' is an extinct species of bison that lived in North America during the Late Pleistocene from over 60,000 years ago until around 10,000 years ago. ''Bison antiquus'' was one of the most common large herbivores in North America d ...

'', an animal hunted by the Folsom people. The Folsom point was identified as a unique style of projectile point in 1928, after being found in place August 29, 1927. The Folsom point found in association with the extinct bison bones proved to the scientific community that humans had lived in the Americas thousands of years longer than many had previously believed.

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 aid hafting 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. Folsom point-Blackwater Draw

Compared to Clovis points, Folsom points are usually shorter and thinner, and the central groove is much longer, often extending more than half the length of the blade.

Age and cultural affiliations

Folsom points are found widely across North America and are dated to the period between 11000 BCE and 10000 BCE in calibrated radiocarbon years. (Older radiocarbon readings date the Folsom sites at 9,000 to 8,000 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 is a Latin phrase meaning 'in place' or 'on site', derived from ' ('in') and ' ( ablative of ''situs'', ). The term typically refers to the examination or occurrence of a process within its original context, without relocation. The term is use ...

'' in association with

mammoth A mammoth is any species of the extinct elephantid genus ''Mammuthus.'' They lived from the late Miocene epoch (from around 6.2 million years ago) into the Holocene until about 4,000 years ago, with mammoth species at various times inhabi ...

skeletons. In the

Great Plains The Great Plains is a broad expanse of plain, flatland in North America. The region stretches east of the Rocky Mountains, much of it covered in prairie, steppe, and grassland. They are the western part of the Interior Plains, which include th ...

area, the use of Folsom points was supplanted over time by

Plano point In archaeology, Plano points are 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 w ...

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 (North America), Archaic period. Distinguishin ...

.Ontario Archaeological Society
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References

* republished in * {{DEFAULTSORT:Folsom Point Paleo-Indian period Projectile points Indigenous weapons of the Americas

Description

Age and cultural affiliations

See also

References