Folsom point

The points are bifacially worked and have a symmetrical, leaf-like shape with a concave base and wide, shallow grooves running almost the entire length of the point. The edges are finely worked. The characteristic groove, known as fluting, may have served to aid hafting to a wooden shaft or dart. Use-wear studies have shown that some examples were used as knives as well as projectile points. The fluting required great technical ability to effect, and it took archaeologists many years of experimentation to replicate it. This point is thought to be the pinnacle of the fluting technology. The flute was made by creating a nipple platform{{clarification needed|date=April 2024}} at the center of the base.  The remnants of the nipple may be present on completed examples.{{Cite book|title=Stone age spear and arrow points of the midcontinental and eastern United States : a modern survey and reference|author=Justice, Noel D.|date=1987|publisher=Indiana University Press|oclc=767569405}}

File:Folsom point-Blackwater Draw.jpg

Compared to Clovis points, Folsom points are usually shorter and thinner, and the central groove is much longer, often extending more than half the length of the blade.{{cite book |last1=Boszhardt |first1=Robert F. |title=A Projectile Point Guide for the Upper Mississippi River Valley |date=2003 |publisher=University of Iowa Press |page=14 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt20q21gx}}

Folsom points are found widely across North America and are dated to the period between 11000 BCE and 10000 BCE in calibrated radiocarbon years. (Older radiocarbon readings date the Folsom sites at 9,000 to 8,000 BCE.) The discovery of these artifacts in the early 20th century raised questions about when the first humans arrived in North America. The prevailing idea of a time depth of about 3,000 years was clearly mistaken.

In 1932, an even earlier style of projectile point was found, Clovis, dating back to 11,500 BCE. Clovis points have been found in situ in association with mammoth skeletons.[http://www.sangres.com/history/firstamericans.htm Sangres]

In the Great Plains area, the use of Folsom points was supplanted over time by Plano points of the various Plano cultures.[http://www.ssc.uwo.ca/assoc/oas/points/madina.html Ontario Archaeological Society]

• Folsom tradition
• Cascade point
• Clovis point
• Plano point
• Eden point
• Cumberland point
• Levanna projectile point
• Jack's Reef pentagonal projectile point
• Lamoka projectile point
• Susquehanna broad projectile point
• Bare Island projectile point
• Greene projectile point

• {{cite book |title= The Great Taos Bank Robbery and Other Indian Country Affairs |last= Hillerman |first= Anthony G. |author-link= Tony Hillerman |year= 1973 |publisher= University of New Mexico Press |isbn= 0-8263-0306-4|chapter= The Hunt for the Lost American}} republished in {{cite book |title= The Great Taos Bank Robbery and Other Indian Country Affairs |date=May 1997 |publisher= Harper Paperbacks |location= New York |isbn= 0-06-101173-8 }}
• {{cite book |title= Selected preforms, points and knives of the North American Indians, Vol. 1 |last= Perino |first= Gregory |author-link= Greg Perino |year= 1985 |publisher= Hyneck Printing }}

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{{Prehistoric technology| state=expanded}}

{{Pre-Columbian North America}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Folsom Point}}

Category:Paleo-Indian period

Category:Projectile points

Category:Indigenous weapons of the Americas