Folsom point

Folsom point
US depatament of the Interior, Bureau of Land Magement · Public domain · source
Name	Folsom point
Material	Chert, flint, jasper, obsidian
Created	c. 10,900–10,200 BP
Period	Paleo-Indian
Culture	Paleo-Indian, Folsom tradition
Discovered	1908
Place	New Mexico, United States

Folsom point The Folsom point is a distinctive Paleo-Indian projectile point associated with early hunter-gatherer cultures of North America. First recognized in the early 20th century near Folsom, New Mexico and subsequently linked to high-profile excavations at Blackwater Draw, the artifact has been central to debates involving Ales Hrdlicka, Gordon Willey, Julian H. Steward, Alfred V. Kidder and institutions such as the Smithsonian Institution and the American Museum of Natural History. Its recognition reshaped understandings of prehistoric occupation in regions including the Plains, Southwest United States, Great Basin, Rocky Mountains, and Eastern Woodlands.

Discovery and History

The formal discovery that defined the type occurred during excavations by George McJunkin, Floyd Grote, and investigators who contacted Jesse Bodfish and William H. Holmes before museum involvement by Ales Hrdlicka and fieldwork led to chronologies refined by scholars like E. B. Sayles and C. V. Haynes Jr.. Public attention rose after association with extinct megafauna at sites linked to Bison antiquus and research by Glen Evans],] Richard S. MacNeish, and William A. Ritchie intersected with debates involving Lewis Binford and Gamble-era models. Excavations at Blackwater Draw Locality No. 1 and subsequent work by teams from the University of New Mexico and the Denver Museum of Nature & Science involved stratigraphic studies influenced by methods advanced at Peabody Museum, Field Museum of Natural History, and Harvard University laboratories. Radiocarbon dating campaigns by laboratories associated with Oxford University Radiocarbon Accelerator Unit, University of Arizona, and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory helped establish chronologies challenged by proponents of models from V. Gordon Childe-inspired syntheses and later refined by investigators such as Thomas D. Dillehay.

Description and Manufacture

Folsom points are characterized by a typically bifacially fluted form with central fluting removed from one or both faces, a thin lanceolate cross-section, and finely pressure-retouched edges; these features were analyzed in comparative studies by Tom Dillehay, J. Lawrence Angel, Ives Goddard, Eugene H. Smith, and lithic specialists from the Smithsonian Institution and Royal Ontario Museum. Raw material sourcing studies involving petrographic analysis, X-ray fluorescence, and obsidian hydration techniques by teams at Los Alamos National Laboratory, University of California, Berkeley, and University of Arizona linked specimens to chert and flint outcrops near Flint Ridge, Jemez Mountains, Chuska Mountains, and the Ozark Plateau. Experimental archaeology carried out by researchers affiliated with Texas A&M University, University of Kansas, and Society for American Archaeology workshops reproduced percussion-platform preparation, soft-hammer reduction sequences, and pressure flaking attributed to master knappers like those studied by S. W. Neumann and Bruce Bradley.

Cultural Context and Use

Within Paleo-Indian lifeways, scholars from University of New Mexico, University of Colorado Boulder, University of Wyoming, and the National Park Service have interpreted Folsom points as components of sophisticated hunting toolkits used in communal bison procurement at kill sites analogous to those documented at Agate Basin, Campbell Site, Cooper's Ferry, and Dent Site. Ethnoarchaeological comparisons invoking histories from Plains Indians groups recorded by George Bird Grinnell, Edward S. Curtis, and ethnographers such as Franz Boas and J. O. Dorsey inform models for hafting, hide processing, and social organization. Interpretations by archaeologists at Smithsonian Institution and Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology emphasize seasonal mobility patterns resonant with analyses published in journals edited by American Antiquity and researchers like Richard B. Woodbury.

Distribution and Chronology

Folsom points have a broad but regionally patterned distribution documented in collections from the Denver Museum of Nature & Science, Museum of Natural History, New York, Royal Ontario Museum, and regional repositories in Texas, Kansas, Colorado, Montana, Wyoming, Nebraska, Oklahoma, New Mexico, Arizona, and parts of Mexico. Chronological frameworks place Folsom assemblages between roughly 10,900 and 10,200 radiocarbon years before present, refined through calibration efforts by Stuiver and Reimer protocols used at labs associated with University of Washington and Arizona State University. Provincial studies by C. V. Haynes Jr., Walter W. Taylor, James Adovasio, and John L. Cotter integrated stratigraphic evidence from sites such as Blackwater Draw, Sheridan Reservoir, Torrejon Reservoir, and Miami Site to delineate temporal and spatial patterns later discussed in syntheses by Timothy Taylor and Michael R. Waters.

Typology and Variants

Typological work by A. E. Douglass, James B. Griffin, William A. Ritchie, and Richard J. Russell distinguished classic fluted Folsom types from related Paleo-Indian point forms like those of the Clovis culture, Plainview complex, Gainey phase, and other regional variants including Agate Basin, Dalton, and Olsen-Chubbuck types. Regional variants and subtypes identified in museum catalogs and studies at Peabody Museum and American Museum of Natural History reflect variation in flute length, basal morphology, and flake-scar patterns; archaeologists such as George C. Frison and Allen Denoyer emphasized functional and stylistic diversity within broader Paleo-Indian lithic traditions. Ongoing morphometric analyses at institutions including MIT, University of Michigan, and University of California, Los Angeles employ 3D scanning and multivariate statistics developed by researchers like David N. Kean to reassess classification and cultural relationships.

Category:Projectile points