The year 1926 was marked by the first of a series of important
archeological finds in New Mexico that were eventually to demonstrate
that man had occupied this area as much as 11,000 to 12,000 years ago.
During this period, Late Pleistocene ice sheets of continental glaciers
still blanketed parts of the northern tier of states in the vicinity of
the Great Lakes, and elephants (both mammoths and mastodons), horses,
camels, giant bison, tapirs, and ground sloths roamed the Southwest.
Excavations begun in 1926 near the small town of Folsom, in northeastern
New Mexico (fig. 1), disclosed a number of fossil skeletons of a large
form of extinct bison, forerunners of the modern bison or buffalo. Among
these bones were dart or spear points of distinctive form and
workmanship, characterized by broad, shallow flutes or channels on each
face (fig. 2). These artifacts, now known as Folsom points, have since
been recovered from a number of sites in New Mexico and elsewhere in
North America, commonly in association with the remains of extinct
bison. Evidently Folsom “Man” (whose skeletal remains have not been
discovered) was a nomadic hunter particularly dependent upon the bison
for his food supply, much as were the later Plains Indians of historic
time. Ages of from 10,000 to 11,000 years have been obtained from
charcoal and other organic remains at Folsom camp sites by the
radiocarbon method.
Succeeding years have seen an increasing number of valuable
archeological discoveries at camp and game-kill sites of Folsom Man and
other Early Hunters. Unquestionably, the most important of these sites
is the Blackwater Draw locality between Clovis and Portales in extreme
eastern New Mexico, where excavations for gravel disclosed a stratified
sequence of sediments that were deposited in an ancient pond and spring.
Here, too, were the characteristic Folsom points in association with the
bones of fossil bison. Below the Folsom layer, still older deposits
contained the fossil bones of mammoth, horse, camel, and bison
associated with fluted spear points that resembled those from Folsom but
were generally larger and less skillfully chipped and fluted. These
points, now known as Clovis points, are so commonly found beside the
remains of mammoths in a number of sites in the High Plains and the
Southwest that their makers are believed to have been adept at hunting
these extinct elephants. Radiocarbon dates place Clovis points in a time
range of from 11,000 to 12,000 years ago.
In a layer above that containing Folsom points at Blackwater Draw,
several varieties of unfluted lanceolate points were found to be
associated with the bones of fossil bison. These points have been
identified by various specific names such as Plainview, Milnesand, Eden,
and Scottsbluff from excavated sites elsewhere in the High Plains
region, and probably range in age from 8000 to 10,000 years. Although
the giant bison still survived into this level of stratigraphy and time,
the elephant, camel, and horse of the Clovis level had disappeared from
the area.
[Illustration: Figure 1. Index map of New Mexico showing locations
of significant archeological sites, modern Indian pueblos, and
Navajo, Ute, and Apache reservations]
Early Hunter Sites
1. Folsom State Monument
2. Sandia Cave
3. San Jon
4. Blackwater Draw
5. Manzano Cave
6. Lucy
7. Milnesand
8. Burnet Cave
Prehistoric Pueblo and Cliff-Dwelling Ruins
9. Aztec Ruins National Monument
10. Chaco Canyon National Monument
11. Puye Cliff Dwellings
12. Bandelier National Monument (Tyuonyi)
13. Gila Cliff Dwellings National Monument
Historic Pueblo Ruins
14. Jemez State Monument
15. Pecos State Monument
16. Coronado State Monument (Kuaua)
17. Paako State Monument
18. Quarai State Monument
19. Abo State Monument
20. Gran Quivira National Monument
Modern Pueblos
21. Taos
22. San Lorenzo (Picurís)
23. San Juan
24. Santa Clara
25. San Ildefonso
26. Nambé
27. Tesuque
28. Cochiti
29. Santo Domingo
30. San Felipe
31. Sandia
32. Santa Ana
33. Zia
34. Jemez
35. Isleta
36. Laguna
37. Acoma
38. Zuni
39. Ojo Caliente
Navajo, Ute, and Apache Reservations
40. Navajo Indian Reservation
41. Ute Mountain Indian Reservation
42. Jicarilla Apache Indian Reservation
43. Mescalero Apache Indian Reservation
Modern pueblos
Historic pueblo ruins
Prehistoric pueblo and cliff-dwelling ruins
Early Hunter sites
Another important discovery was made in Sandia Cave northeast of
Albuquerque. Below cave deposits containing Folsom points was an earlier
type of point among the bones of mammoth, horse, camel, and other large
Pleistocene mammals. Now identified as Sandia points, these projectile
tips are distinguished by an asymmetric stemmed form with a shoulder on
one side. The age of the Sandia points has been a subject of some
controversy, but the latest available data from charcoal in Sandia Cave
indicates an age of nearly 12,000 years, which is within the accepted
range of the Clovis points.
[Illustration: Figure 2. Folsom point recovered from among rib bones
of fossil bison at Folsom, New Mexico (Photograph of plastic
replica. Original point in collection of Denver Museum of Natural
History.)]
Clovis, Sandia, and Folsom points, together with related stone
implements, are at many places enclosed in sediments deposited in or
adjacent to ponds, lakes, streams, and wet meadows. These environments
indicate a former cool and more humid climate in areas that are now
semiarid. The food requirements of many of the large herbivores that
lived at this time also suggest more abundant vegetation and surface
water than prevails here today. It is not unreasonable, then, to presume
that climatic conditions contributing to the advance of continental
glaciers in the Great Lakes region, and to valley glaciers in the Rocky
Mountains, should have been reflected in lower summer temperatures and
higher rainfall in non-glaciated areas. The ultimate extinction of the
large Pleistocene mammals and the similar time of disappearance of the
hunters who preyed upon them may both be related to the climatic changes
that followed the end of the Ice Age in America.