The term “Folsom Man” refers not to human remains, but to an archaeological discovery near Folsom, New Mexico. This find represents a Paleo-Indian culture from the end of the last Ice Age, about 10,000 to 11,000 years ago. The discovery provided the first definitive evidence of ancient human presence in North America, fundamentally reshaping the understanding of when the continent was first inhabited.
The Landmark Discovery
In August 1908, ranch foreman George McJunkin was surveying flood damage at a ravine known as Wild Horse Arroyo. He noticed large, unfamiliar bones protruding from the earth. McJunkin recognized the bones were not from modern bison and were buried too deeply to be recent, concluding they belonged to an extinct species.
McJunkin tried for years to attract interest from archaeologists, but his discovery was largely ignored until 1926. At that time, Jesse Figgins of the Denver Museum of Natural History began a formal excavation. The scientific community remained skeptical that human artifacts were being found with ancient animal bones, believing any association was accidental due to mixed soil layers.
On August 29, 1927, an excavator found a crafted stone spearhead lodged between the ribs of a Bison antiquus, an extinct species of giant bison. Figgins ordered the work to halt, leaving the point in its original position. He then sent telegrams inviting prominent archaeologists to witness the in situ evidence for themselves, providing direct proof of the association between humans and Ice Age animals.
Overturning Scientific Consensus
At the time of the Folsom discovery, scientific theory held that humans had populated the Americas for only about 4,000 years. This consensus was based on a lack of confirmed evidence linking people to the Pleistocene Epoch, or Ice Age. Claims of greater human antiquity were met with intense skepticism from the archaeological community.
The find at Wild Horse Arroyo directly challenged this timeline. The association of a human-made point with an animal extinct for nearly 10,000 years was irrefutable proof. This evidence demonstrated that human occupation of North America extended thousands of years further back than previously accepted.
This discovery legitimized the study of the Paleo-Indian period. It prompted archaeologists to reconsider other sites and evidence that had been previously dismissed. The Folsom find ultimately forced a complete revision of American prehistory.
The Folsom Cultural Tradition
The Folsom discovery gave its name to a cultural tradition across North America between 9,000 and 8,000 BCE. These people were highly mobile, living in small groups and specializing in hunting Bison antiquus. Archaeological evidence suggests they were sophisticated hunters, sometimes driving herds into natural traps like narrow gullies.
The most characteristic artifact of this culture is the Folsom point. This projectile point is distinguished by its leaf-like shape and a long central groove, or “flute,” removed from each face. This fluting technique required great skill and created a thin, strong point that could be secured into a spear or dart foreshaft.
The Folsom tradition appears in the archaeological record after the earlier Clovis culture, known for hunting mammoths. Folsom technology represents a distinct adaptation, with smaller, thinner, and more fluted points than those of their predecessors. The development of this projectile point shows the ingenuity of early North Americans adapting to a changing world at the end of the Ice Age.