Subject: hunter
Culture: Folsom Paleoindian
Setting: North America 11000BP
Context (Event Photos, Primary Sources, Secondary Sources, Field Notes)
* Jones 2007 p58-59
"Around 11,000 years ago, a major climatic change dried the moist savannahs where the Clovis hunters roamed. The temperature warmed, and the mammoth became extinct. So too did the Clovis tradition, which gave way to a similar way of life called Folsom, named after a town in New Mexico near which the first Folsom points were found. Folsom culture resembled Clovis in a number of ways. Centered in the same general area, both were associated with fluted points and big game animals. For Clovis it was the mammoth; for Folsom, Bison antiquus, the much larger forerunner of the modern Bison bison."
* Kurten 1988 plate 28
"After the demise of the great proboscideans (most mammoths and mastodons, perhaps all, were gone about 11,000 years ago) the Paleoindians concentrated their interest on the bison. These late Paleoindians, the Folsom people, developed a somewhat lighter projectile point. They would drive a bison herd ... into a suitable trap -- such as the head of an arroyo, or the concave flank of a sand dune -- where the animals could be killed off. Some of their bags were enormous, numbering a hundred heads or more, with an occasional camel (Camelops hesternus) among the bison."
* Adovasio/Page 2002 p100
"Jennings, Meltzer, and many other archaeologists have 'reconstructed' the scene that might have occurred at Folsom at the very end of the Pleistocene, but it is a tale worth telling again. At some point about 10,000 years ago, a herd of very large bison thundered down a narrowing arroyo, came around a curve, and were ambushed by a group of people armed with what were most likely wooden-shafted throwing spears or atlatl-propelled darts tipped with extremely fine, even elegant points. Some of the big animals probably escaped, thundering on, bellowing. A number of the bison may have perished instantly, the fierce projectiles striking through ribs to a vital source of life, the heart or lungs. Some would not have been so lucky. The hunters no doubt promptly fell to finishing off the wounded and then began butchering this wonderful kill with the enthusiastic help of the other people, probably mostly women and children, who had watched from the bank above as the noisy and extremely dangerous melee took place."
Weapons
* Jones 2007 p59
"Folsom points were smaller (one to three inches) than Clovis and more detailed. The Folsom flute, however, is much longer and deeper, running two-thirds of the way from the base of the point, and like Clovis, sometimes fluted only on one side.
"[...] The capabilities of bison, particularly their speed, suggest another reason for the development of longer flutes on Folsom points as compared to those of Clovis. Poisoned arrows prevent prey from running a great distance before dying, a particularly important condition in rough terrain or thick forests."
* Big Bear Native American Museum
"Folsom Culture ca 9,000-7,000 BCE A smaller fluted point, first identified near Folsom, New Mexico, became associated with a culture that followed the Clovis people and occupied much of central North America for two thousand years."
