The Folsom Complex is a Paleo-Indian

archaeological culture An archaeological culture is a recurring assemblage of types of artifacts, buildings and monuments from a specific period and region that may constitute the material culture remains of a particular past human society. The connection between thes ...

that occupied much of central

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and the Car ...

from c. 8500 BCE to c. 4000 BCE. The term was first used in 1927 by Jesse Dade Figgins, director of the Colorado Museum of Natural History. Numerous Paleoindian cultures occupied North America, with some restricted to the

Great Plains The Great Plains (french: Grandes Plaines), sometimes simply "the Plains", is a broad expanse of flatland in North America. It is located west of the Mississippi River and east of the Rocky Mountains, much of it covered in prairie, steppe, an ...

and Great Lakes of the modern United States of America and Canada as well as adjacent areas to the west and south west. The Folsom Tradition was characterised by use of Folsom points as projectile tips and activities known from kill sites where slaughter and butchering of

bison Bison are large bovines in the genus ''Bison'' (Greek: "wild ox" (bison)) within the tribe Bovini. Two extant and numerous extinct species are recognised. Of the two surviving species, the American bison, ''B. bison'', found only in North Ame ...

took place and Folsom tools were left behind. Some kill sites exhibit evidence of up to 50 bison being killed, although the Folsom diet apparently included mountain sheep, marmots, deer and cottontail rabbit as well. The Folsom Hanson Site in Wyoming also revealed areas of hardstanding, which indicate possible dwellings. The type site is Folsom site, near

Folsom, New Mexico Folsom is a village in Union County, New Mexico, United States. Its population was 56 at the 2010 census, down from 75 in 2000. The town was named after Frances Folsom, the fiancée of President Grover Cleveland. History Folsom gives its nam ...

, in Colfax County (29CX1), a marsh-side kill site found in about 1908 by George McJunkin, a cowboy and former slave who had lived in Texas as a child. Archaeologists excavated the site in 1926. The Folsom Complex dates to between 9000 BC and 8000 BC and is thought to have derived from the earlier Clovis culture. The Lindenmeier site in Colorado is a campsite that was used throughout a longer period, spanning this era.

References

Archaeology of Canada Archaeology of the United States Archaeological cultures of North America Hunter-gatherers of the United States Hunter-gatherers of Canada Native American history of Colorado Paleo-Indian period Pre-Columbian cultures Prehistoric cultures in Colorado 9th-millennium BC establishments 8th-millennium BC disestablishments {{US-archaeology-stub