Lab News

Folsom Point Connects Us to Ancient Paleoindian History

by Jonathan Till, Lab Analysis Manager
July 19, 2007

Members of Crow Canyon’s lab staff were recently delighted to work with a very unusual artifact: the base of a Folsom point. Dating from approximately 9000 to 8000 B.C., Folsom points represent one of the earliest periods of human occupation in North America. These points were an important part of the Paleoindian period tool kit, which reflected a hunting-and-gathering lifestyle. People who made and used Folsom points hunted a now-extinct form of bison. Folsom points are distinctive for the long flake scars, called “flutes,” that begin at the base and extend partway up the length of the blade on both faces. These flutes probably helped ancient hunters attach the blade to a spear or dart shaft.

The artifact in Crow Canyon’s possession was recovered from the Jensen site, a late Basketmaker III/early Pueblo I (A.D. 700s) farmstead that was recently excavated in Blanding, Utah, by the Trail of the Ancients Archaeological Society. Crow Canyon lab staff, volunteers, and participants in Crow Canyon programs are washing the lithic assemblage for the Utah project. Small side-projects such as this give staff and students the opportunity to learn more about the archaeological record of the Mesa Verde region.

	Click on each thumbnail below for a larger image.
	Base of a Folsom point found at the Jensen site in southeastern Utah.

Very few Folsom points have been recovered from southwestern Colorado. In fact, only one possible Folsom point has been formally documented in this corner of our state! The Utah specimen is from a point that, when whole, probably measured 6 to 7 cm long, close to spanning the palm of the hand. It was made of Narbona Pass chert, a very fine-grained material that has its source in the Chuska Mountains of northwestern New Mexico. The point was already very old when it became part of the Jensen site assemblage, and how it came to be at the site is not known for certain. It may have been found and used by the occupants of the farmstead.

We are grateful to archaeologists Winston Hurst, director of the Jensen site project, and Don Irwin, who is analyzing the site’s lithic assemblage, for letting us work with the collection.

For more information about the culture history of the Mesa Verde region, including the Paleoindian, Basketmaker III, and Pueblo I periods, see Peoples of the Mesa Verde region.