Folsom v. Clovis Technology - SHADOWS ON THE TRAIL



Figure One - Wide range of High Plains Folsom Points from Texas, Colorado, Wyoming, and South Dakota. The longest point is 1.9 inches long. John Bradford Branney Collection.  

Did you identify the above projectile points as Folsom?  

My five-book adventure series about North America and Paleoindians titled the SHADOWS on the TRAIL Pentalogy began in what is called Texas and Colorado today. Ultimately, the latest book in the series, BEYOND the CAMPFIRE, ended up in the Black Hill of South Dakota and Wyoming. 

The books were written about a mysterious group of people we now call Folsom who lived on the Great Plains around twelve thousand six hundred or so years ago. There is no archaeological evidence that the Folsom Paleoindians used any kind of written language. Hence, they probably handed down their customs, processes, rituals, and folklore from generation to generation through word of mouth. One of the distinguishing characteristics of the Folsom Paleoindian culture was a beautifully-crafted fluted projectile point that is arguably the finest projectile point type ever made in North America. One of the processes that the Folsom People passed on from generation to generation was the making of these fabulous fluted projectile points. Figure one is a photo of a few examples of Folsom points from my personal collection. Even with the variation in shape, size, material, and quality, most people familiar with artifacts would identify them as Folsom projectile points. 



Figure Two - The third book in the SHADOWS on the TRAIL Pentalogy.
CLICK for JOHN BRADFORD BRANNEY BOOKS 

In the third book of the SHADOWS on the TRAIL Pentalogy titled WINDS of EDEN, I wrote about how I thought the Folsom People passed along their flint knapping processes  In the passage below, a tribal elder teaches children how to make these wonderful fluted projectile points. School is now in session!

The old man picked up a square of tatanka – bison hide. He placed it on top of his left thigh. He then picked up the flat rock and placed it on top of the bison hide. He then placed another square of bison hide over the top of the flat rock. The old man picked up an unfinished spear point and the antler punch. The three boys watched, never taking their eyes off the old man’s skilled hands. The old man then adjusted the flat rock so it was on the inside of his left thigh. He pushed the tip of the unfinished spear point against the flat rock and lined up the antler punch against the tiny knob on the base of the spear point. When the old man was satisfied with the positioning of the spear point, he placed the other end of the antler punch against his right thigh.

Since the elder was teaching the children a relatively complex process (rarely duplicated with success even today), we would expect to find errors and variations in the children's final product. Twelve thousand years later, you or I might find one of the children's Folsom points and wonder why all Folsom points weren't created equal. In general, Folsom projectile points exhibit three critical characteristics; 1). fluting, 2). thinness, and 3). micro pressure retouch along the edges. You can see these characteristics in all of the Folsom points in figure one. 

Figure Three - More Folsom points from my collection. 

I am switching gears now, to an earlier group of Paleoindians before Folsom. These Paleoindians were associated with what we call the Clovis Complex.

Ever since the discovery of the famous Folsom, Clovis, and Plainview sites in the early part of the twentieth century, there has been an ongoing effort to identify and categorize all Paleoindian projectile points into specific projectile point type buckets. Before the discovery of the above sites, archaeologists and collectors lumped most finely-made western Paleoindian projectile points into a broad category called Yuma, named after the town in Colorado where collectors were finding these artifacts in sand blowouts during the Dust Bowl years of the 1930s. 

One Paleoindian projectile point type with a broad geographical range in North America was named Clovis after the insitu discovery near the town by the same name in New Mexico. Today, collectors and archaeologists find Clovis-styled points in forty-eight states, Canada, and Mexico. Clovis projectile points are normally fluted, just like Folsom, but the flutes on Clovis are shorter and angled outward from the base (see figure four which demonstrates typical fluting angle differences - "a" in the diagram is Folsom and "b" is Clovis). In addition, Clovis projectile points exhibit less intricate pressure flaking and retouch than the average Folsom projectile point. Just like Folsom, Clovis projectile points show a broad range in dimensions, form, and material.

Figure Four - One way to differentiate 

between Folsom and Clovis. Folsom fluting 

is parallel to the biface plane (flat) while 

Clovis is diagonal to the biface plan (angled). 

Credit unknown.    

There are several plausible explanations for the variation in Clovis projectile points. First of all, Clovis flint knappers did not work from blueprints like modern-day manufacturing workers do. Clovis projectile points did not have written specifications, and all Clovis flint knappers were not created equal. For that matter, no Paleoindian flint knapper had exactly the same skills and experience as their peers! People with different levels of skill, experience, and creativity created Clovis projectile points! Last but not least, Clovis and other Paleoindian flint knappers dealt with a wide range of raw materials with different mechanical properties and quality. For example, chalcedony knaps differently than silicified sandstone which knaps differently than obsidian. Some raw material was just better for flint knapping than other materials, resulting in a wide range of quality and form between different projectile points. 

We can and should expect variation in quality, dimensions, and sizes for Clovis and Folsom projectile points!

  

We see variations in Clovis-styled fluted projectile points across the different regions in North America. The variation in size, shape, manufacturing process and material has led to many debates about whether or not these regional variants of Clovis-styled fluted projectile are actually Clovis points and fit under the umbrella of the Clovis Paleoindian culture that swept across North America. Some analysts argue that these regional Clovis-styled fluted projectile points prove by their chronological and morphological differences that they did not come from a single Clovis culture while others argue that these Clovis-styled fluted projectile points are just regional variations of a common Clovis theme at a slightly different time and place.

If these Clovis-styled fluted projectile points did come from one common Clovis culture, the variation might be explained by a process called 'drift". Drift occurs when we see the changing of a standard through time within groups of people who share the same cultural ancestry. Drift can occur in any given culture and can happen for a variety of reasons such as isolation of a population or innovation within a specific population or the evolving needs in a changing environment. As an example of the last item; when mammoths and mastodons became scarce or were absent, Clovis people might have adapted their weaponry to hunt different animals. We should expect a change in their projectile point style going from hunting mammoths as a mainstay to hunting bison or smaller mammals. In figure five below I show three different Clovis-styled variants from the eastern United States. Did these precede or follow Clovis? These three eastern types carry a bunch of Clovis characteristics. 

Figure Five - Clovis-style regional variants from eastern U.S. (Haynes 2002) Were these made by the same Clovis culture discovered in the west or different cultures that copied the fluting technology?   

Figure six represents a few Clovis projectile points from my high plains Clovis collection. You can see by the photo that even though these Clovis points were surface finds from the same region, they have quite a bit of variation. Even with the differences in form, fluting length, and flaking patterns, they are still Clovis points. In the caption below figure six, I identified the variants from other regions of North America that my high plains points resemble. As an example, the first point in my photograph is a Clovis projectile point that was surface found in northern New Mexico. It resembles the Gainey projectile point from the Great Lakes region in figure five. 

The photo in figure seven shows Clovis-styled fluted projectile points from the east coast of the United States and Canada. These Clovis-styled fluted projectile points are not typed as Clovis, even though they have similar characteristics to my Colorado Clovis point in figure six, second from the right.   

Figure Six - High Plains Clovis points demonstrate the wide range of variability. From left to right; New Mexico Clovis, Gainey variety; Nebraska Clovis, Colby variety, Montana Clovis, western variety; Colorado Clovis, Hazel Variety, Colorado Clovis, eastern variety; Colorado Clovis, Barnes Variety. The longest point is 3.8 inches long.
John Bradford Branney Collection.       

The bottom line is that there are a variety of reasons that a single point type such as Clovis shows variation between different projectile points within the type. That does not mean that these regional variants were not part of the Clovis Paleoindian culture that overtook North America for a few hundred years around 13,000 years ago.  

Figure Seven - Clovis-style points from Nova Scotia, New York, and Main.
(Haynes 2002) Boy, they sure look like my Colorado Clovis
above (fifth point).   

I am going to say goodbye for now and return to WINDS OF EDEN to see what happened between the elder and the children. School is back in session.      

The old man motioned for his two young grandchildren to sit down in front of him, close enough to see, but far enough away to avoid flying pieces of sharp rock. The old man readjusted the flat rock with the tip of the spear point. He then carefully positioned the groove in the antler punch with the tiny knob at the base of the spear point. When everything was to his liking, the old man picked up the heavy antler hammer and took a couple of practice swings in the air. The old man then held the antler hammer above the antler punch and swung down with enough force to transfer energy from the antler punch through the rock. The rock popped loudly and when the old man lifted up the spear point for the children to see, a flute or groove ran longitudinally up the entire length of the spear point. The children laughed as if it they had just witnessed great magic. Their eyes were as big as the moon as they looked around at each other. The old man gazed around at the children, smiling. The old man was proud of the flute in the spear point and relieved that he could still do it. However, what made him the happiest was passing down the fluting tradition to the next generation of the tribe.

2002    Haynes, Gary. The Early Settlement of North America - The Clovis Era. University             Press. Cambridge.  

The historical fiction novels written by John Bradford Branney are known for their impeccable research and biting realism. In his latest blockbuster novel BEYOND the CAMPFIRE  Branney places his readers smack dab into the middle of the late Pleistocene along the high plains of North America. BEYOND the CAMPFIRE is Branney's eleventh book.  

John Bradford Branney holds a geology degree from the University of Wyoming and an MBA from the University of Colorado.