Folsom: New Archaeological Investigations of a Classic Paleoindian Bison KillIn the late 1920s outside a sleepy remote New Mexico village, prehistory was made. Spear points, found embedded between the ribs of an extinct Ice Age bison at the site of Folsom, finally resolved decades of bitter scientific controversy over whether the first Americans had arrived in the New World in Ice Age times. Although Folsom is justly famous in the history of archaeology for resolving that dispute, for decades little was known of the site except that it was very old. This book for the first time tells the full story of Folsom. David J. Meltzer deftly combines the results of extensive new excavations and laboratory analyses from the late 1990s, with the results of a complete examination and analysis of all the original artifacts and bison remains recovered in the 1920s - now scattered in museums and small towns across the country. Using the latest in archaeological method and technique, and bringing in data from geology and paleoecology, this interdisciplinary study provides a comprehensive look at the adaptations and environments of the late Ice Age Paleoindian hunters who killed a large herd of bison at this spot, as well as a measure of Folsom's pivotal role in American archaeology. |
Contents
| 1 | |
2 Folsom and the Human Antiquity Controversy in America | 22 |
3 Situating the Site and Setting the Ecological Stage | 51 |
4 Archaeological Research Designs Methods and Results | 84 |
5 Geology Paleotopography Stratigraphy and Geochronology | 112 |
6 Late Glacial Climate and Ecology | 154 |
7 The Faunal Assemblage and Bison Bonebed Taphonomy | 205 |
8 Artifacts Technological Organization and Mobility | 247 |
From Prehistory to History | 295 |
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Common terms and phrases
813C values Ahler and Geib American Museum Amick AMNH Anderson animals archaeological artifacts assemblage Barnum Brown base bedrock bison bone bison remains bonebed Brown camp carcasses chapter charcoal climate Colorado Cook core deposits DIR/DMNS Dry Cimarron elements elevation evidence excavations Figgins fluted points Folsom area Folsom bison Folsom points Folsom site foraging Frison Haynes HJC/AGFO Hofman Holocene Howarth Hrdlička human antiquity hunter-gatherers hunters Ind Ind Ind isotopic Jodry Johnson Mesa July Kaisen Kidder Late Glacial Lone Wolf Creek M17 block McJunkin Meltzer Mexico North Bank occur OPH/SIA Paleoindian paleotributary paleovalley Pleistocene pollen projectile points radiocarbon ages radiocarbon dating recovered relatively Renaud reworked Roberts sample Schwachheim season sediments shingle shale significant skeletal snails South Bank species specimens stone stratigraphic stratum surface taxa temperature Tieszen tion Todd VP/AMNH Wild Horse Arroyo Wissler Wolf Creek Younger Dryas yr B.P. Yuma