Knapping a FOLSOM POINT with Chayton!

FIGURE ONE. A perfect 2.2 inch long Folsom projectile point found by
Lee Pinello Jr. on November 10, 1968 on a family farm in northern Colorado.
Note the flute or channel running up the middle of the point. John Branney Collection..   

My prehistoric adventure series titled the SHADOWS ON THE TRAIL QUADRILOGY took place around 10,700 years ago in what we now call Texas and Colorado. The SHADOWS ON THE TRAIL QUADRILOGY is about the challenging survival of a group of Paleoindian hunters and gatherers called the Folsom People. What makes the SHADOWS ON THE TRAIL QUADRILOGY different from your ordinary fictional adventure is that the Folsom People actually existed in North America’s prehistoric past. How do we know the Folsom People existed? Easy, they left behind a very distinct calling card, a culturally diagnostic stone projectile point that was named Folsom for the place it was first documented; Folsom, New Mexico. 

FIGURE TWO. 
Click for SHADOWS ON THE TRAIL  

Folsom points (Figure one) are thin, small to medium size, well-made projectile points with convex sides, a concave basal edge, sharp basal corners and ground stem edges. What makes Folsom projectile points distinctive from other prehistoric stone projectile point types? Besides the remarkable workmanship, the most distinctive characteristic of Folsom projectile points are the flutes or channels that run most of the length up the middle of the projectile point, starting at the base. The knapping skill required to create flutes on a Folsom projectile point is without equal in America’s prehistory. Even modern day knapping experts are challenged in making replica Folsom projectile points using the same tools and materials that were available to Folsom People in the Pleistocene.

When the Folsom People created these thin, fluted, projectile points, they not only created an important component in their weaponry, but they also created works of art. Folsom projectile points are arguably the finest projectile points ever made in North America. No one has yet confirmed the exact manufacturing process that Folsom People used to make these fluted projectile points. This is not to say that people do not have their pet theories. In fact, you can add me to that list of having a pet theory on how Folsom People made their projectile points.

In the first book of the QUADRILOGY titled SHADOWS ON THE TRAIL, I wrote about the

FIGURE THREE. Folsom point surface found on 

private land in Natrona County, Wyoming. 

John Branney Collection.  

manufacturing process the Folsom People may have used to make fluted projectile points. Since there has never been any exact evidence as to how the Folsom point makers made fluted projectile points, we have to make some assumptions. 

In the scene below from SHADOWS ON THE TRAIL, a young Folsom hunter named Chayton was learning how to make fluted projectile points from Tarca Sapa, a salty old tribal healer. In this scene Chayton shows up and wants Tarca Sapa to tutor him on the finer points of making fluted projectile points. 

“I have spear points for our journey, but I need you to help me flute them,” Chayton requested.

“I have shown you how to flute before. Why have you not learned what I have taught you?”

“I do not want to ruin these spear points since we leave the canyon tomorrow.”

“Do you think I have nothing better to do than to teach you something I have already taught you?” Tarca Sapa queried. “I will watch you flute only one. The rest you must do yourself.”

Chayton had expected this reaction from Tarca Sapa. It was the old man’s way. Tarca Sapa always complained, but always found the time to ensure Chayton learned properly. Chayton handed Tarca Sapa the spear points, one at a time. Each spear point was approximately the length of a finger and wider than a thumb. The tip of each spear point was slightly rounded, but still dangerously sharp while the base of the spear point, where the spear point attached to a wooden shaft, had two sharp ears. In the middle of the spear point’s base, between the two ears, Chayton had knapped a small square platform. When hit with an antler hammer precisely in the right place, the rock would crack and a long thin flake would detach from the middle of the spear point. A flute channel would remain where the long thin flake detached. How well this square platform was constructed and then struck with the antler hammer meant the difference between a good spear point and a broken spear point.

The platform was where Tarca Sapa focused his eyes. Tarca Sapa looked at each spear point carefully and put each inspected spear point in one of two piles. Once his inspection was over, Tarca Sapa touched the pile with seven spear points and said, “These points are good, the others need work. Now, let me see you drive a flute channel into the spear point.”

With his hands shaking, Chayton opened up his leather pouch and pulled out two thick pads made from buffalo hide and two elk antler hammers. He sat down on a nearby rock and covered his legs with the thick pads. He placed a spear point, tip down, along the inside of his left thigh and then placed an elk antler hammer horizontally on top of the platform at the base of the projectile point. He braced the other end of the elk antler hammer against the inside of his right thigh. When Chayton had the hammer precisely lined up with the small square platform, he took the second elk antler hammer in his right hand and swung down hard on top of the first elk hammer. Nothing happened.

Flustered, Chayton looked over at Tonkala hoping that she was not watching. Chayton then looked at Tarca Sapa hoping for some words of encouragement, but Tarca Sapa only stared straight ahead at the spear point still resting in Chayton’s lap. Chayton nervously lined up the spear point, this time swinging the hammer even harder, striking the spear point with much more force. A solid cracking sound came from the spear point and Chayton looked down and saw the long thin flake that had detached from the spear point. To Chayton’s delight, the spear point had a beautiful flute channel running its entire length.

"It looks like you don’t need me after all.” Tarca Sapa said with a smile. “Take the rest of the spear points and finish them.”

FIGURE FOUR. 2.5 inch long
Folsom preform certified by 
Greg Perino*. 
John Branney Collection.    

FIGURE FIVE. Striking platform to
create flute on projectile point.

FIGURE SIX. Rounded and beveled tip
of projectile point.

     The fluted points that Chayton took to Tarca Sapa were not finished and looked like the unfinished Folsom preform projectile point in FIGURE FOUR. An anonymous collector found this Folsom preform projectile point in Mecosta County, Michigan. The material is Norwood Chert. This particular preform was ready for fluting. The Paleoindian knapper had pressure flaked both faces of the preform leaving closely spaced flakes terminating near the middle of the biface. He or she rounded, beveled and abraded the distal end or tip of the preform which aided the fluting process (FIGURE SIX).  ight abrasion and grinding on the tip. Isolation of the central portion of the preform base or proximal end took place, leaving a platform nipple in the center of the base. Two pressure flakes were removed from either side of the platform nipple to allow the maker's antler punch to follow the channel flake easier. The platform nipple was beveled, ground, and polished. It was ready for Side A to be fluted. Age somewhere between 10900 and 10200 years ago. Finder unknown. Perino certification. Ex John Baldwin and Ron Van Heukelom Collections. John Branney Collection.

FIGURE SEVEN. Expert knapper Bob
Patten's pet theory of the way Folsom
People fluted their projectile points.
From Mr. Patten's book
Old Tools - New Ways..

* One or two knowledgeable people have called

this preform a Barnes Clovis, an older and

possible ancestoral point  to Folsom. They called

it a Barnes Clovis based on provenance. It

is impossible to determine whether this

point is Folsom or Barnes, I am going with 

my and Greg Perino's opinion

To assist the flutes, the Paleoindian knapper isolated a striking platform in the center portion of the projectile point base or proximal end. The Paleoindian knapper accomplished this by creating a small nipple or striking platform in the center of the preform base (FIGURE FIVE). Then, he or she removed two pressure flakes from either side of the striking platform so that the maker’s antler punch could reach the striking platform without interference from the rest of the point. The Paleoindian knapper stabilized the striking platform or nipple by beveling, grinding, and polishing it.

This Folsom preform would have made Tarca Sapa very happy! Read the SHADOWS ON THE TRAIL QUADRILOGY for all the stories!    

Midland v. Folsom and the Shadows on the Trail

Figure One - 2.0-inch long projectile point from Wyoming. Some might call this a Folsom 

point made on a flake (pseudo flute) while others might call it a Midland point. 

John Bradford Branney Collection.    

Fourth Edition 

I love researching archaeological reports about Paleoindians for my historical fiction books. I take what I learn about Paleoindian lifestyles and spin a yarn that portrays how Paleoindians might have lived. I love breathing life into Paleoindians and the challenges they faced 12,600 years ago. From what we know in the archaeological record, 'word of mouth' and 'hands-on' instruction were most likely the methods used for Paleoindians to pass on traditions to the younger generation. Archaeologists have not found any written documentation dating back to the time of Paleoindians in North America. 

The passage below in red is from the third book in my five-book, historical fiction series on Paleoindians. This particular book is titled WINDS of EDEN from the SHADOWS on the TRAIL Pentalogy. The series takes place around 12,500 years ago on the high plains of Texas, Colorado, Wyoming, and South Dakota. In this passage, an elderly man is showing his grandchild how to make a fluted projectile point that we now call a Folsom point. Here is a tiny taste of WINDS of EDEN;  

Click for My Books

The old man woke up from his nap when the sun was starting its descent in the sky. He reached over and picked up his satchel. He pulled out a large red and gray striped rock and sat staring at it. He rubbed the rock between his thumb and forefinger while thinking about everything that had happened to him since he had carried the rock from the canyon. Much had happened in his life since then, some of it good and some of it bad. When the old man finished reminiscing, he gently placed the red and gray striped rock back into the satchel. Then, with satchel in hand, the old man stood up and left his tipi. When he was outside the tipi, he had to shield his aged eyes from the bright sun. He slowly edged his way to a flat boulder next to his campfire where he sat down. Then, he pulled five unfinished spear points from the satchel. He laid the unfinished spear points down on the boulder next to him and then dug through the satchel, pulling out a cylinder–shaped punch made from an antler, a large antler hammer, small squares of bison hide, and a sharp deer antler tine. He placed these items next to the five unfinished spear points. He leaned over and picked up a flat rock at the base of the boulder. He set the flat rock down next to his other supplies. 

When the old man looked up, a young boy was running like the wind towards him.

“Haw! – Hello!” the old man said to the young boy when he arrived at the campfire.

“Haw!” the boy replied, somewhat out of breath. “I want to watch you.”

“Waste! – Good!” the old man declared with a grin.

The young boy sat down as close to the old man as possible without actually sitting on the old man’s lap. The old man picked up the first spear point and handed it to the young boy.

“He táku hwo? – What is it?” the old man asked.

The boy studied the piece of chert, his face frozen in a frown as he concentrated on the old man’s question. The young boy flipped the rock over in his hands, studying every surface. His eyes narrowed as he scrutinized the base of the spear point. Between the two sharp ears at the corners of the base of the spear point, the young boy spotted a tiny knob of chert, jutting out at the middle of the base.

“Tóka he? – What is wrong?” the old man asked, a whimsical smile on his face.

The boy flicked the tiny knob with his thumbnail and replied, “You have dulled this part.”

The young boy then ran his thumb across the small knobbed platform and said, “It is smooth.”

The fluted projectile point that the old man and the boy made was so distinctive that there is no mistaking a fluted Folsom point when found today.  

Headline: Pleistocene Woman Discovered at Midland, Texas 

In 1953, an avocational archaeologist 

by the name of Keith Glasscock 

discovered fossilized human remains

Figure two. A Kansas-found Folsom point and
a Colorado-found Midland point, both
made from Alibates agatized dolomite.
John Bradford Branney Collection.

remains in a sand blowout six miles southwest of Midland, Texas. In the same blowout, Mr. Glasscock found several fluted Folsom projectile points and a similarly made unfluted Folsom-like projectile point. Mr. Glasscock understood the archaeological significance of the fossilized human remains associated with the artifacts. He reported his findings to archaeologist Fred Wendorf. Wendorf, Glasscock, and other archaeologists investigated the site In all, Glasscock and the archaeologists found seven fluted Folsom projectile points and twenty-one unfluted Folsom-like points during their investigation. 

Wendorf and his colleagues named the site Scharbauer after the landowner and initially coined the term "unfluted Folsom point" to describe the Folsom-like projectile points found associated with the fluted Folsom points. In their study of the "unfluted Folsom points", the archaeologists came up with the similarities and differences between the fluted and unfluted points found at the site. They evaluated the raw material to see if the fluted and the "unfluted Folsom points" came from different geographical locations. The archaeologists concluded that the makers of the two projectile point styles used the same material. Their studies led the archaeologists to propose that several of the "unfluted Folsom points" were purposely made without flutes and that they were just not fluted Folsom point rejects. Later on and based on the high volume of unfluted Folsom points found at the Scharbauer site, Wendorf proposed a new projectile point type for the "unfluted Folsom points", calling them Midland after a nearby town. The name Midland stuck.      



Figure three. Colorado Folsom and
Midland projectile points.
John Bradford Branney Collection.

The investigation of the blowout at the Scharbauer site led the archaeologists to conclude that the human remains belonged to a woman who died in the late Pleistocene and that the associated Folsom / Midland artifacts came after her death. The archaeologists postulated that the woman could be a Folsom / Midland Paleoindian, but more likely she belonged to an earlier Paleoindian culture. Based on the geological analysis, the archaeologists suggested that there was a possibility that the Folsom and Midland projectile points came from the same Paleoindian culture, but their evidence was inconclusive. 

So where do Midland points belong?

Perhaps, Midland points were reworked Folsom points or were made from Folsom channel flakes. Maybe, Midland preform points were just too thin to flute. A few people argue that Midland was an archaeological complex separate from Folsom. These people call attention to a Midland-only site named Winkler-1, discovered in southeastern New Mexico by an amateur archaeologist who throughout the years surface collected Midland points from an active sand blowout. Food for thought, huh? 

If Midland was a separate archaeological complex, perhaps there was a transition period between fluted Folsom and unfluted Midland projectile points? 

What are your thoughts? 

Bradley, Bruce 
2010    Paleoindian Flaked Stone Technology on the Plains and in the Rockies. In Prehistoric Hunters-Gatherers of the High Plains and Rockies by Marcel Kornfeld, George C. Frison, and Mary Lou Larson, pp. 474-475. Left Coast Press. Walnut Creek, California.  

Wendorf, Fred, Alex D. Krieger, and Claude C. Albritton

1955    The Midland Discovery. Greenwood Press. Westport, Connecticut

Click on this link to order my books.  

Elk Dogs and SAND and SAGE!



Figure One - Buffalo Hunt by David Mann

My ninth book SAND and SAGE took place in the late 1600s in the southwest and high plains portions of the United States. By the early 1600s, Plains Indian tribes still did not have horses yet. It was not until the Spaniards arrived in the southwest part of the United States that horses became available to the Indians. 

Imagine what it would be like to live an isolated existence like many Plains Indian tribes and to spot a horse for the very first time, or even more unbelievable, see a human riding A horse! Pretend it was you in that situation. How would you react? How would you explain it to other members of your tribe? 

It wouldn't be easy, would it?  

The blue passage below is from my historical fiction novel titled SAND and SAGE. In that part of the book, we meet a young Indian boy named Ouray, and his sweetheart named Haiwee. They belong to a tribe called the Snakes (a.k.a. Shoshone) and are out walking the hills surrounding their village. Ouray and Haiwee discover some very odd animal tracks that neither of them can explain. Those animal tracks started an avalanche of events that changed Ouray and Haiwee's lives forever.

      Did you hear that?” an Indian boy named Ouray asked the girl alongside him.
     “I heard it,” a tall girl named Haiwee replied.

     “Meat, Haiwee!” Ouray bellowed much too loudly. “Follow me!” 

     Ouray nocked an arrow onto the bowstring of his old wooden bow. He crept forward, heading in the direction of the sound. Haiwee followed, giggling at Ouray’s seriousness. 

     “Quiet!” Ouray instructed the girl. Ouray bent over and studied the ground. When Ouray found the tracks, he smiled but the smile quickly darkened into a frown.
     “What is wrong?” Haiwee asked.
     Ouray did not answer. He had never seen such tracks. By the size of them, the beast was huge. Bent over, Ouray followed the tracks until they disappeared across bare rock.
     “I have never seen tracks like these,” he muttered.
     “That does not surprise me,” Haiwee replied. “You are a hunter of rabbits and grasshoppers.”
     Ouray did not appreciate the critique on his hunting prowess. All boys wanted to be hunters of great beasts, not rabbits and grasshoppers. Oftentimes, Haiwee underestimated Ouray’s abilities. He peered over his shoulder and glared at her.
     “What?” she demanded. “Is that not true?”
     “Quiet,” he whispered.
     “Remember the time yo—”
     "Quiet!” Ouray exclaimed. “I cannot think with your constant yap-yap-yapping like an old mother coyote.”
     “You are making more noise than me with your yap-yap-yapping,” Haiwee whispered.
     Ouray knew he had already lost the argument with Haiwee. He always did.
     “I need your help,” he said, changing the subject.
     “Oh,” Haiwee responded with sarcasm, “the great hunter needs help from an old mother coyote.”
     Ouray placed his hand alongside the horse hoofprint on the ground.
     “Look at this,” he said.
     Still in a huff, Haiwee bent her tall frame toward the ground. Her thick red hair fell forward, covering her face. She grabbed her hair and pulled it back into a ponytail. She held her hair with one hand while inspecting the track with her other hand. She traced the outline of the track with her finger.
     “That is an elk,” she declared.
     “Ha! Ha! Ha!” Ouray laughed aloud.
     Haiwee glared at the boy, stopping Ouray’s chuckling dead in its tracks.
     “It is not elk,” he replied politely.
     “How do you know?” Haiwee questioned.

To find out the kind of animal that Ouray and Haiwee discovered,  you will have to read SAND and SAGE. 

I am sure you will enjoy the read! 

 

Figure Two - Photograph of Shoshone Indians in 1871.
Photo by William H. Jackson. 

When did the Snake or Shoshone People encounter horses?    

In their book, The Shoshones: Sentinels of the Rockies, Trenholm and Carley described a mid-eighteenth-century story about Shoshone warriors showing up for battle in the Blackfoot tribe's country. According to the testimony of Blackfoot warriors, the Shoshone warriors were riding strange animals as 'swift as deer'. During the course of the battle, the Blackfoot warriors isolated and killed a Shoshone warrior and the animal he was riding.  The Blackfoot warriors were astonished at the horse's great size and at first, they called it a 'big dog', after the only domesticated animal they were familiar with. Later, the Blackfoot tribe referred to horses as 'stags that lost their horns' or 'elk dogs'.

In 2002, Peter Faris wrote an article in the Southwestern Lore journal about a Blackfoot warrior named Shaved Head who first saw horses in the early 1700s in the camp of an enemy. Shaved Head referred to those animals in his tongue as 'big dogs' or 'elk that have lost their horns'. Shaved Head and other Blackfoot warriors captured a few horses and took them to their village. At first, no one in the village knew what to do with the animals until one ingenious soul hooked up a dog travois to one of the horses and the rest became history.

Figure Three - Julia Tuell took this photograph on the Northern
Cheyenne Indian reservation in 1906.

I once read that the three things that dramatically changed the lives of Plains Indians were 1). the bow and arrow, and 2). horses, and 3). firearms. I cannot argue with that list. 

There is absolutely no way I can prove it, but out of all three items, I believe that the introduction of horses made the most positive impact on the lives of the Plains Indian tribes. Horses allowed the nomadic Plains Indian tribes to move faster and carry more possessions between camps. As beasts of burden, horses were more powerful and efficient than dogs. As a result, tribal dwellings grew in size  Riding horseback gave Plains Indian hunters a distinct advantage in hunting bison. No longer did the Plains Indians have to find ways to trap or sneak up on bison herds. The Plains Indians could now keep up with the bison herds which translated into more kills which meant less hunger and more prosperity. Horses could now keep up with every prey animal on the plains, excluding pronghorns. It only took the Plains Indians a few decades with horses to become arguably the greatest horsemen that history ever knew.

Last, but not least, horses improved the odds the Plains Indians held against the encroachment of Europeans from the east. Unfortunately, we know how that eventually worked out for the Plains Indian tribes.    

Read SAND and SAGE for the rest of the story!

Available at Amazon.com.

Wild Horses - Living Artifacts from our Great Past!

CLICK TO VIEW ALL JOHN BRADFORD BRANNEY BOOKS

My latest book WHEN LEAVES CHANGE COLOR is about the introduction of horses to the Plains Indians in the late 17th Century. I dedicated the book to the wild horse herds in North America. When I wrote WHEN LEAVES CHANGE COLOR I wanted to portray the majesty and nobility of America's wild horse herds. Whenever I travel across the desert basins of southwestern Wyoming I always try to take a detour off the highways to see if I can capture a glimpse at the splendor and beauty of America's last wild horse herds. Even with the modern world encroaching on their environment from almost every direction, the wild horses maintain their nobility and desire to remain free. These proud creatures represent a living and breathing historical link to our country's past. When these wild horse herds are finally gone, America will lose yet another link to the country's greater past.

Wild horses in the Washakie Basin of Wyoming.
Photograph by John Bradford Branney. 

At the beginning of the 20th Century, there were approximately one million wild horses in the western United States. Over the last one hundred years plus, poachers, mustangers, developers, ranchers, energy companies and the federal government have cut deeply into the wild horse herds. Today, there are less than twenty-five thousand wild horses left and their environment and lifestyle continues to be attacked. The cattlemen and sheep ranchers want what is left of the meager desert rangeland while the oil men and miners want what is buried under the surface of the desert. Wild horses must also compete with antelope, deer, and elk. The ironic part is when newspaper articles blame wild horses for the destruction of the desert rangelands.

Wild horses along Powder Rim in Wyoming. Photograph by John Bradford Branney.  

What can we do about it? Write your congressman! Adopt a wild horse if you have the land! If we do nothing, within the next few decades, the wild horse herds will disappear from North America and the indomitable spirit of the wild horses will become only a memory.


Wild horses along the Wyoming - Colorado border north of Craig, Colorado.
Photo by John Bradford Branney.

       

From Clovis to Hell Gap - Overlapping Technologies?

Figure One - Paleoindian Projectile Point evolution from oldest on the left to old on the right.
From left to right, Clovis (northern Colorado), Goshen (Nebraska Panhandle), Folsom
(northern Colorado), Agate Basin (north-central Colorado), and Hell Gap  (eastern
Colorado). For scale, Hell Gap is 2.55 inches long. John Bradford Branney Collection. 

Using radiocarbon dating and geology, scientists are able to establish age ranges for different prehistoric cultures and the associated stone projectile point types. For example, scientists estimate that the Folsom prehistoric culture existed from around 10,900 to 10,200 RCYBP. This is based on a 10,900 RCYBP age from the Hanson site in northern Wyoming and a 10,200 RCYBP age from the Hell Gap site in southeastern Wyoming. This means that when I find a Folsom projectile point out on the surface of the prairie, I pretty much know how old it is and who made it. As more and more archaeological evidence is unearthed, scientists will fine-tune the Folsom prehistoric culture and age.

Without getting too far into the weeds, I want to explain the above dates, the 10,900 to 10,200 RCYBP. Those dates are uncalibrated or uncorrected radiocarbon dates, often referred to as Radiocarbon Years Before Present, with Before Present representing the year 1950. Archaeologists and scientists oftentimes publish uncalibrated or uncorrected radiocarbon ages like the above, even though uncalibrated radiocarbon dates can be misleading and do not tie up well to calendar years. For example, 10,000 RCYBP (uncalibrated radiocarbon years) corrects to approximately 11,695 to 11,336 calendar years from 1950, depending on the correction model used. And 11,000 RCYBP corrects to approximately 13,000 calendar years; two thousand years of correction going from uncalibrated to calibrated radiocarbon dates!  When you read an author quoting Clovis at 11,000 years bp that is an uncalibrated radiocarbon date. The Clovis prehistoric culture was really around 13,000 calendar years old. So be careful when you are looking at ages and dates. For more information, see my article on Reporting Radiocarbon Dates.  

Below is a scene from my prehistoric thriller book series the SHADOWS on the TRAIL Pentalogy. In this particular scene from the first edition of my first book SHADOWS on the TRAIL, the leaders of  a Paleoindian 

Figure Two - CLICK for ADVENTURE

tribe found a spear point near the remains of their burning village.  From the style and technology of the spear point, Avonaco identified the people and culture who made the spear point and destroyed his village. In my book series, I emphasize my belief that certain Paleoindian projectile point types overlapped chronologically and geographically, and that Paleoindian projectile point evolution was not a serial process but more like a parallel process.  

Avonaco held the spear in his hands. The spear shaft was the same wood that the River People used, but the stone spear point was different. The stone spear point was thinner and longer than any Avonaco had ever seen and made from a shiny, black rock material. Avonaco ran his thumb down the sharp edge of the spear point and quickly pulled his thumb away.

“Éŝkos!–Sharp!” Avonaco exclaimed, looking down at his bleeding thumb.

He continued to examine the spear point, “I have only seen a spear point like this once made from this black rock. When I was a boy, I found a spear point much like this deep in the mountains. My father told me the black rock comes from the mountains.”

Avonaco then inspected the sinew wrap that connected the stone spear point to the wooden spear shaft. The River People used sinew from deer or bison to attach their spear points. Avonaco pointed to the sinew and said, “This is too thin, it is not from bison or deer.”

Avonaco ran his fingers down the smooth wood of the spear and noticed it had carvings in it. To see better, Avonaco moved the spear shaft closer to the light of the campfire. Carved into the

wood were five green-painted peaks next to two orange-painted suns : ҉  Ʌ Ʌ Ʌ Ʌ Ʌ  ҉   Waquini and Vipponah leaned over Avonaco’s shoulders to take a better look.

Vipponah asked, “Tipis?”

Avonaco thought about this and replied, “Mountains, maybe.”

The spear point that Avonaco inspected was a calling card for the people who made it. Just like Avonaco, scientists and collectors interpret and analyze prehistoric clues from projectile points. While Avonaco noted the differences in material and projectile point style, scientists and collectors recognize the differences in projectile point technologies and tie them back to specific prehistoric cultures. 

Figure Three - Paleoindians making their way. 

                                                                                                                                              Archaeological evidence and radiometric dating lean toward specific Paleoindian projectile point types overlapping with other Paleoindian projectile point types in both time and space. The High Plains Paleoindian projectile point types in figure one represent a chronological and technological continuum from the oldest stone projectile point on the left, a Clovis point made sometime around 13,000 years ago to the youngest projectile point on the right, a Hell Gap point made sometime around 11,500 years ago (calibrated radiocarbon ages). The Clovis prehistoric culture was gone by the time Paleoindians started making Hell Gap styled projectile points, but Hell Gap most likely overlapped in time with other prehistoric cultures such as Agate Basin and the Cody Complex.  

One way to illustrate this is with Table One below. It shows the statistical age ranges for each of the prehistoric cultures represented in Figure One above. As a reminder, B.P. in this table represents uncalibrated or uncorrected radiocarbon dates from the baseline year of 1950. I don't want to get hung up on the actual ages because as more archaeological data surfaces and technology improves, these age ranges will become better defined. My point is that these projectile point types statistically overlap in time, just as archeological sites indicate that these projectile point types overlapped in geographical space. 

The age ranges in Table One are from a single source, the book Projectile Points of the High Plains by Jeb Taylor. You will find that ages for prehistoric cultures vary from book to book and that ages are periodically updated as radiometric technology improves, but what stays the same is the overlapping projectile point technology concept. As a reminder, the ages in Table One are uncalibrated or uncorrected radiocarbon dates. For example, Clovis and Folsom 'calibrated years ago' are around 13,000 and 12,600 years ago, respectively.           

Prehistoric Culture	Earliest Date	Latest date
Clovis	11,300 B.P.	10,600 B.P.
Goshen	11,000 B.P.	10,700 B.P.
Folsom	10,900 B.P.	10,200 B.P.
Agate Basin	10,400 B.P	9,000 B.P.
Hell Gap	10,400 B.P.	9,500 B.P.

Table One. B.P. is uncalibrated radiocarbon age in years benchmarked from 1950.

It should be noted that in some cases the width of the age ranges in Table One might not be due to overlap but to the sampling and technology limitations of the radiometric measurements. 

If the overlap is legitimate between Paleoindian projectile point types, it opens up a number of mind-blowing questions, such as were the different projectile point types made by the same or different prehistoric cultures? Were the changes due to manufacturing process differences or changes in style? Did different prehistoric cultures make different projectile point types and just utilize the same sites or did the same culture make the different projectile point types? Were these projectile point types made by prehistoric cultures with different religions, beliefs, and languages?

Figure Four - Paleoindian artifacts from the Author's collection. 
From left to right: Clovis, Goshen, Hell Gap, Agate Basin, 
and Folsom. Agate Basin is 4.6 inches long.    

There is a high probability that we will never know the answers to these questions, we can only speculate, but it is fun to ponder these questions anyway. There is currently no archaeological evidence that defines the relationships between the people and cultures who made these different projectile point types. Scientists fill in these blanks with conjecture and theory. As an author of historical fiction novels about Prehistoric America, these blank spaces provide me some latitude in my stories, as well as food for thought.   

When I wrote the SHADOWS on the TRAIL Pentalogy, I extensively researched the archaeological evidence from Folsom Paleoindian sites. I wrote my stories based on archaeological data combined with my own fictional spin and plot. I invite you to read the SHADOWS on the TRAIL Pentalogy and join the adventure.    



John Bradford Branney Books [CLICK] 

Click for Adventure