SHADOWS on the TRAIL Pentalogy - Let the Adventures Begin!: A Stone Cold Inspiration

Figure One - Alibates agatized dolomite discoidal biface found by the author on a ranch in

northern Colorado in 2010. The type of flaking and its association with four

Folsom artifacts leads the author to believe this discoidal biface was

associated with the Folsom Complex.

The 4.1-inch long discoidal biface above was my inspiration for the prehistoric fiction novels in the Shadows on the Trail Quadrilogy. The prehistoric hunter who made this discoidal biface used it as an all-purpose tool for scraping animal hides, chopping wood, and cutting through animal bone and tendons. In addition, this nomadic hunter probably used this discoidal biface as a portable rock source if he found himself away from another source of rock. When he needed a new stone tool or projectile point, he simply hammered off a rock flake from the discoidal biface and made a new tool or projectile point, right there on the spot.

Figure Two - Concave profile makes
author believe that this discoidal
biface was on its way to becoming
an ultrathin knife form, another
tool type associated with the
Folsom Complex.

I found this discoidal biface in northern Colorado on a site where I have documented prehistoric artifacts dating back further than 13,000 years ago. This discoidal biface had something else interesting about it. The prehistoric hunter had made this discoidal biface from Alibates agatized dolomite, a rock type originating from the Panhandle of Texas, some five hundred miles to the south. This led me to believe that the prehistoric hunter made the discoidal biface in Texas and then transported it by foot to northern Colorado where he lost or misplaced it.

Finding Alibates in northern Colorado is not a common occurrence and this was the first discoidal biface I have ever found made from this rock type. Why did this prehistoric human carry this large piece of Alibates agatized dolomite all the way from Texas when there were numerous sources of rock within a stone’s throw (pardon the pun) of where I found this artifact? It appears that prehistoric humans were infatuated with the beauty of Alibates agatized dolomite. I can see why. Alibates had a wide distribution of artifacts made from the stuff so the prehistoric people were either carrying it with them over long distances or trading it to other people who carried it over a long distance.

For those of you unfamiliar with Alibates, it is a very distinctive, multicolored rock with colors ranging from maroon to red and gray to black. Mix in some white and tan with banded shades of pink, blue, purple, and brown and Alibates exhibits a rainbow of colors. It is apparent that prehistoric hunters were fascinated with its bright and exotic colors and must have believed that the rock held some mystical power over the animals they hunted. Prehistoric people made some of the finest prehistoric artifacts in existence out of Alibates agatized dolomite.

Figure Three - Side B of the discoidal biface. Note the pedogenic
(secondary) carbonate deposit that has formed on this artifact.

Of the thousands of artifacts that I have found, none of them captivates my imagination any more than this particular discoidal biface. I do not know why, it is just special to me. When I found this ancient discoidal biface from Texas, my mind went into overdrive thinking about who made it, what he or she was like, and how did it end up in northern Colorado.

The Shadows on the Trail Quadrilogy is my interpretation of how this particular artifact ended up in northern Colorado from Texas.

The Shadows on the Trail Quadrilogy is the prehistoric adventure that defines all other prehistoric adventures! A small band of Paleoindians fight to survive in a violent and unpredictable world over 12,000 years ago. The late Pleistocene is a time of dramatic climate change, large mammal extinctions, and shifting alliances among those humans attempting to survive.