The Dent site is a

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 ...

(about 11,000 years before present) site located in

Weld County, Colorado Weld County is a county located in the U.S. state of Colorado. As of the 2020 census, the population was 328,981. The county seat is Greeley. Weld County comprises the Greeley, CO Metropolitan Statistical Area, which is included in the Denver ...

, near

Milliken, Colorado Milliken is a statutory town in Weld County, Colorado, United States. The town population was 5,610 at the 2010 United States Census. History The town was named for John D. Milliken, a Judge. The first community located near the Milliken towns ...

. It provided evidence that humans and mammoths co-existed in the Americas. The site is located on an

alluvial fan An alluvial fan is an accumulation of sediments that fans outwards from a concentrated source of sediments, such as a narrow canyon emerging from an escarpment. They are characteristic of mountainous terrain in arid to semiarid climates, but a ...

alongside the

South Platte River The South Platte River is one of the two principal tributaries of the Platte River. Flowing through the U.S. states of Colorado and Nebraska, it is itself a major river of the American Midwestern United States, Midwest and the American Sout ...

.Hoppe, Kathryn A
(2004). "Late Pleistocene mammoth herd structure, migration patterns, and Clovis hunting strategies inferred from isotopic analyses of multiple death assemblages."
''Paleobiology.'' 30(1):135. On p.7 of the pdf file.

Discovery

Following a period of heavy rainfall and flooding in August 27th 1908, George Mcjunkin, a black cowboy, discovered large animal bones that were exposed near a ranch located in Folsom New Mexico. Because of Mcjunkin's major contribution to American history he received his spot in the Hall of Great Westerners, managed by The National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum Shortly after Mcjunkin's death in 1922 and well after his discovery in 1908, his reports of the large bison bones were taken seriously. Carl Schwacheim, Harold Cook, and JD Figgins of the Colorado Museum of Natural History came to follow up on George Mcjunkin reports and began excavations on the ranch. The Dent site, in Weld County, Colorado, was a fossil mammoth excavation for most of 1932. The first Dent Clovis point was found November 5, 1932 and the in situ point was found July 7, 1933. Cassells, E. Steve. (1997). ''The Archaeology of Colorado'', Revised Edition. Boulder, Colorado: Johnson Books. p. 58. .

Findings

Clovis culture

The Clovis culture (about 13,300 - 12,900 calendar years before present) used

projectile point In North American archaeological terminology, a projectile point is an object that was hafted to a weapon that was capable of being thrown or projected, such as a javelin, dart, or arrow. They are thus different from weapons presumed to have be ...

s in hunting. Previous to the use of projectile points, indigenous people used a tool-kit like that used in

Asia Asia (, ) is one of the world's most notable geographical regions, which is either considered a continent in its own right or a subcontinent of Eurasia, which shares the continental landmass of Afro-Eurasia with Africa. Asia covers an area ...

, which included large

axe An axe ( sometimes ax in American English; see spelling differences) is an implement that has been used for millennia to shape, split and cut wood, to harvest timber, as a weapon, and as a ceremonial or heraldic symbol. The axe has ma ...

cutting tools, scrapers, blades and

flake tool In archaeology, a flake tool is a type of stone tool that was used during the Stone Age that was created by striking a flake from a prepared stone core. People during prehistoric times often preferred these flake tools as compared to other tools ...

s. The Clovis point was the first use of large, symmetrical and fluted

Mammoth bones

Mammoth bones and what were later called Clovis points were found at the Dent site in 1932. The site was notable for both the presence of the projectile points larger than the known

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 ...

s and one of the first direct pieces of evidence that man and mammoth co-existed in the Americas. The mammoth killed were not part of a family group, as originally hypothesized, and were not related to other mammoth killed at Clovis sites, such as Blackwater, New Mexico and

Miami, Texas Miami ( ) is a town in Roberts County, Texas, United States. It is part of the Pampa, Texas micropolitan statistical area. Its population was 597 at the 2010 census. It is the county seat of Roberts County and the only municipality in the cou ...

Discovery

Findings

Clovis culture

Mammoth bones

Excavations

See also

Notes

References

Further reading