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 The Great Lakes, also called the Great Lakes of North America, are a series of large interconnected freshwater lakes in the mid-east region of North America that connect to the Atlantic Ocean via the Saint Lawrence River. There are five lakes ...

of the modern

United States of America The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territo ...

and

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

as well as adjacent areas to the west and south west. The Folsom Tradition was characterised by use of

Folsom point Folsom points are projectile points associated with the Folsom tradition of North America. The style of tool-making was named after the Folsom site located in Folsom, New Mexico, where the first sample was found in 1908 by George McJunkin within t ...

s 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,

marmot Marmots are large ground squirrels in the genus ''Marmota'', with 15 species living in Asia, Europe, and North America. These herbivores are active during the summer, when they can often be found in groups, but are not seen during the winter, w ...

deer Deer or true deer are hoofed ruminant mammals forming the family Cervidae. The two main groups of deer are the Cervinae, including the muntjac, the elk (wapiti), the red deer, and the fallow deer; and the Capreolinae, including the reindeer ...

and

cottontail rabbit Cottontail rabbits are the leporid species in the genus ''Sylvilagus'', found in the Americas. Most ''Sylvilagus'' species have stub tails with white undersides that show when they retreat, giving them their characteristic name. However, this ...

as well. The Folsom

Hanson Site The Hanson Site includes two separate areas of Paleoindian acheological sites in the northern Bighorn Basin of Wyoming, United States. The southern Hanson I site was investigated first in 1973, finding evidence of tool working and stone flakes at ...

in Wyoming also revealed areas of hardstanding, which indicate possible dwellings. The

type site In archaeology, a type site is the site used to define a particular archaeological culture or other typological unit, which is often named after it. For example, discoveries at La Tène and Hallstatt led scholars to divide the European Iron A ...

Folsom site Folsom site or Wild Horse Arroyo, designated by the Smithsonian trinomial 29CX1, is a major archaeological site about west of Folsom, New Mexico. It is the type site for the Folsom tradition, a Paleo-Indian cultural sequence dating to between ...

, near Folsom, New Mexico, in Colfax County (29CX1), a marsh-side kill site found in about 1908 by

George McJunkin George McJunkin (1856–1922) was an African American cowboy, amateur archaeologist and historian in New Mexico. He discovered the Folsom site in 1908. Born to slaves in Midway, Texas, McJunkin was approximately 9 years old when the Civil War ended ...

, 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 Clovis culture is a prehistoric Paleoamerican culture, named for distinct stone and bone tools found in close association with Pleistocene fauna, particularly two mammoths, at Blackwater Locality No. 1 near Clovis, New Mexico, in 1936 ...

. 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