A Stone Cold Inspiration - SHADOWS on the TRAIL Hexalogy

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 lead 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 Hexalogy. 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, the prehistoric nomad who carried it also used the discoidal biface as a portable rock supply. When they needed a new stone tool or projectile point, they simply hammered off a flake and made a new tool, right there on the spot.

Figure Two - Was the discoidal
biface on its way to becoming
an ultrathin knife form? 

I found the discoidal biface in northern Colorado on a site where I have documented prehistoric artifacts dating back at least 13,000 years. There was something else interesting about the artifact. The prehistoric nomad made the discoidal biface from Alibates agatized dolomite, a rock type originating from the Panhandle of Texas, some five hundred miles to the south. That led me to believe that the nomad made the discoidal biface in Texas and transported it by foot to northern Colorado, where he lost or misplaced it.

Finding Alibates in northern Colorado is not common. That was the first discoidal biface I had ever found made from that rock type. Why did that prehistoric human carry that 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 the artifact? It appears that prehistoric humans were enamored with the beauty of Alibates agatized dolomite, and I can see why. Alibates artifacts are found far and wide from their Texas source. Prehistoric humans either carried the rock from Texas or traded it with other prehistoric humans.       

For those readers 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 people 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 from Alibates agatized dolomite.     

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

Of the thousands of artifacts that I have found, few captivate my imagination like this particular discoidal biface. I do not know why; it is just special to me. When I found that ancient discoidal biface from Texas, my mind went into overdrive thinking about who made it, what he or she was like, and how it ended up in northern Colorado.

The SHADOWS on the TRAIL Hexalogy is my six-book series about the people who made that particular artifact, and its journey to northern Colorado, so that I could find it 12,000 years later. 

The SHADOWS on the TRAIL Hexalogy is the prehistoric adventure that defines all other prehistoric adventures! A small band of Paleoindians fights to survive in a violent and unpredictable world over 12,000 years ago. The late Pleistocene is a time of dramatic climate change, large megafauna extinctions, and the shaky alliances amongst numerous bands of humans surviving at the time. 

Figure Four - The second edition of the SHADOWS on the TRAIL. 

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