1.
Knapped
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The original Germanic term knopp meant strike, shape, or work, so it could theoretically have referred equally well to making a statue or dice. Modern usage is specific, referring almost exclusively to the hand-tool pressure-flaking process pictured. Flintknapping or knapping is done in a variety of ways depending on the purpose of the final product, for stone tools and flintlock strikers, chert is worked using a fabricator such as a hammerstone to remove lithic flakes from a nucleus or core of tool stone. Stone tools can then be refined using wood, bone. For building work a hammer or pick is used to split chert nodules supported on the lap, often the chert nodule will be split in half to create two cherts with a flat circular face for use in walls constructed of lime. More sophisticated knapping is employed to produce almost perfect cubes which are used as bricks, there are many different methods of shaping stone into useful tools. Early knappers could have used hammers made of wood or antler to shape stone tools. The factors that contribute to the results are varied, but the EPA indeed influences many attributes, such as length, thickness. Hard hammer techniques are used to remove large flakes of stone, early knappers and hobbyists replicating their methods often use cobbles of very hard stone, such as quartzite. This technique can be used by flintknappers to remove broad flakes that can be made into smaller tools and this method of manufacture is believed to have been used to make some of the earliest stone tools ever found, some of which date from over 2 million years ago. Soft hammer techniques are more precise than hard hammer methods of shaping stone, soft hammer techniques allow a knapper to shape a stone into many different kinds of cutting, scraping, and projectile tools. These soft hammer techniques also produce longer, thinner flakes, potentially allowing for material conservation or a lighter lithic tool kit to be carried by mobile societies, pressure flaking involves removing narrow flakes along the edge of a stone tool. This technique is used to do detailed thinning and shaping of a stone tool. Pressure flaking involves putting an amount of force across a region on the edge of the tool. The major advantage of using soft metals rather than wood or bone is that the metal punches wear down less and are likely to break under pressure. Archaeologists usually undertake the task so that they can understand how prehistoric stone tools were made. Knapping is often learned by outdoorsmen, such as British bushcraft exponent Ray Mears, knapping gun flints, used by flintlock firearms was formerly a major industry in flint bearing locations, such as Brandon in Suffolk, England and the small towns of Meusnes and Couffy in France. Meusnes has a museum dedicated to the industry
2.
Projectile point
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In archaeological terms, a projectile point is an object that was hafted to a projectile, such as a spear, dart, or arrow, or perhaps used as a knife. Scientific techniques exist to track the specific kinds of rock or minerals used to make stone tools in various regions back to their original sources. Occasionally, projectile points made of worked bone or ivory are found at archaeological sites, in regions where metallurgy had emerged, projectile points were made from copper, bronze, or iron. In North America, some late prehistoric points were fashioned from copper that was mined in the Lake Superior region, a large variety of prehistoric arrowheads, dart points, and spear points have been discovered. Flint, obsidian, quartz and many rocks and minerals were commonly used to make points in North America. Some of the more famous Paleo-Indian types include Clovis, Folsom, projectile points fall into two general types, dart/spear points, and arrow points. Larger points were used to tip spears and atlatl darts, arrow points are smaller and lighter than dart points, and were used to tip arrows. The question of how to distinguish an arrow point from a point used on a projectile is non-trivial. According to some investigators, the best indication is the width of the hafting area, an alternative approach is to distinguish arrow points by their necessarily smaller size. Projectile points come in a variety of shapes and styles, which vary according to chronological periods, cultural identities. Typological studies of projectile points have become more elaborate through the years, for instance, Gregory Perino began his categorical study of projectile point typology in the late 1950s. Collaborating with Robert Bell, he published a set of four volumes defining the known point types of that time, Perino followed this several years later with a three-volume study of Selected Preforms, Points and Knives of the North American Indians. Another recent set of studies of North American projectile points has been produced by Noel Justice
3.
Folsom tradition
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The Folsom Complex is a name given by archaeologists to a specific Paleo-Indian archaeological culture that occupied much of central North America. The term was first used in 1927 by Jesse Dade Figgins, 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. A Folsom site at Hanson, Wyoming, also revealed areas of hardstanding, which indicate possible dwellings. The type site is Folsom Site, near Folsom, New Mexico, in Colfax County, a kill site found in about 1908 by George McJunkin. 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
4.
North America
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North America is a continent entirely within the Northern Hemisphere and almost all within the Western Hemisphere. It can also be considered a subcontinent of the Americas. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the west and south by the Pacific Ocean, and to the southeast by South America and the Caribbean Sea. North America covers an area of about 24,709,000 square kilometers, about 16. 5% of the land area. North America is the third largest continent by area, following Asia and Africa, and the fourth by population after Asia, Africa, and Europe. In 2013, its population was estimated at nearly 565 million people in 23 independent states, or about 7. 5% of the worlds population, North America was reached by its first human populations during the last glacial period, via crossing the Bering land bridge. The so-called Paleo-Indian period is taken to have lasted until about 10,000 years ago, the Classic stage spans roughly the 6th to 13th centuries. The Pre-Columbian era ended with the migrations and the arrival of European settlers during the Age of Discovery. Present-day cultural and ethnic patterns reflect different kind of interactions between European colonists, indigenous peoples, African slaves and their descendants, European influences are strongest in the northern parts of the continent while indigenous and African influences are relatively stronger in the south. Because of the history of colonialism, most North Americans speak English, Spanish or French, the Americas are usually accepted as having been named after the Italian explorer Amerigo Vespucci by the German cartographers Martin Waldseemüller and Matthias Ringmann. Vespucci, who explored South America between 1497 and 1502, was the first European to suggest that the Americas were not the East Indies, but a different landmass previously unknown by Europeans. In 1507, Waldseemüller produced a map, in which he placed the word America on the continent of South America. He explained the rationale for the name in the accompanying book Cosmographiae Introductio, for Waldseemüller, no one should object to the naming of the land after its discoverer. He used the Latinized version of Vespuccis name, but in its feminine form America, following the examples of Europa, Asia and Africa. Later, other mapmakers extended the name America to the continent, In 1538. Some argue that the convention is to use the surname for naming discoveries except in the case of royalty, a minutely explored belief that has been advanced is that America was named for a Spanish sailor bearing the ancient Visigothic name of Amairick. Another is that the name is rooted in a Native American language, the term North America maintains various definitions in accordance with location and context. In Canadian English, North America may be used to refer to the United States, alternatively, usage sometimes includes Greenland and Mexico, as well as offshore islands
5.
Folsom Site
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Folsom Site or Wild Horse Arroyo, designated by the Smithsonian trinomial 29CX1, is a major archaeological site about 8 miles west of Folsom, New Mexico. It is the site for the Folsom tradition, a Paleo-Indian cultural sequence dating to between 9000 BC and 8000 BC. The Folsom Site was excavated in 1926 and found to have been a marsh-side kill site or camp where 23 bison had been killed using distinctive tools, the site was found in 1908 by George McJunkin, an ex-slave cowboy and ranch foreman. McJunkin was a man, with enough interest in geology and archaeology to recognize that the bones were not modern bison. For several years he tried to interest field archaeologists to visit the site, with little success. In 1918 he and Ivan Shoemaker, the son of the Crowfoot Ranchs owner, dug bones and a fluted lance point out of the arroyo bank. The museum sent paleontologist Harold Cook to the Crowfoot the following spring, most notably Ales Hrdlicka, then curator of the U. S. National Museum, remained adamant in his belief that humans could not have arrived until about three thousand years ago. Any archaeologist bold enough to challenge the conventional view risked damage to his reputation and career, the site in Wild Horse Arroyo provided this opportunity. In 1926, archaeologist Jesse Figgins from the Denver Museum arrived at the site to begin excavations, instead of extracting the projectile point from the bones, he instead cut around the bones and the embedded projectile point, removing the entire sample without disturbing the associated point. Figgins returned to the Denver Museum of Natural History with the point, the site was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1961. Lindenmeier Site, another National Historic Landmark site that was a Folsom culture campsite, National Register of Historic Places listings in Colfax County, New Mexico List of National Historic Landmarks in New Mexico Adovasio, J. M. and David Pedler
6.
Folsom, New Mexico
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Folsom is a village in Union County, New Mexico, United States. The population was 56 at the 2010 census, down from 75 in 2000, the town was named after Frances Folsom, the fiancee of President Grover Cleveland. According to the United States Census Bureau, the village has an area of 0.5 square miles. Folsom is situated in a valley near the headwaters of the Cimarron River. The village is ringed by buttes, mesas, and old volcanic cones, most of the valley is rich grassland with a pinyon pine and juniper forest found on slopes and in rocky areas. Ponderosa pines are found in canyons and at higher elevations, large ranches and cattle grazing are typical of the area although some irrigated agriculture is found downstream from Folsom. Hunting for deer, bear, elk, pronghorn, and turkey is popular on local ranches, Capulin Volcano National Monument is located seven miles south of Folsom. Rising to 8,182 feet above sea level, Capulin is the highest mountain near Folsom, Folsom Falls are five miles east of the city. The Cimarron River, only a stream a few feet wide here, is stocked with trout annually. Eight miles west of the city below Johnson Mesa is Wild Horse Arroyo where in 1908 a cowboy named George McJunkin discovered the bones of an extinct bison. This was the find that later proved ancient man had been in the Americas at least 10,000 years. Folsom is commonly called a “ghost town” as it has hardly any active businesses, most community life centers around the Folsom Museum, established 1966 in the Doherty Mercantile building. The museum, with a collection of local artifacts, sponsors several events each year. It is open seven days a week between Memorial Day and Labor Day, july is the warmest month with an average high temperature of 84 degrees and an average low of 56. January is the coldest month with a high temperature of 45. The highest recorded temperature is 99 degrees and the lowest was minus 28, Folsom receives 18 inches of precipitation per year, mostly as summer rainfall but with about 30 inches of snow annually. July and August are the wettest months and January and February are the driest, Folsom gives its name to the nearby type site for the Folsom Tradition, a Paleo-Indian cultural sequence dating to between 9000 BC and 8000 BC. In the first half of the 19th century, the region was a ground for Comanche, Ute
7.
Hand axe
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A hand axe is a prehistoric stone tool with two faces that is the longest-used tool in human history. It is usually made from flint or chert and it is characteristic of the lower Acheulean and middle Palaeolithic periods. Its technical name comes from the fact that the model is a generally bifacial Lithic flake with an almond-shaped shape. Hand axes tend to be symmetrical along their axis and formed by pressure or percussion. The most common hand axes have an end and rounded base, which gives them their characteristic shape. Hand axes are a type of the somewhat wider biface group of two-faced tools or weapons, Hand axes were the first prehistoric tools to be recognized as such, the first published representation of a hand axe was drawn by John Frere and appeared in a British publication in 1800. Until that time, their origins were thought to be natural or supernatural and they were called thunderstones, because popular tradition held that they had fallen from the sky during storms or were formed inside the earth by a lightning strike and then appeared at the surface. They are used in rural areas as an amulet to protect against storms. Hand axe tools were used to butcher animals, to dig for tubers, animals and water, to chop wood and remove tree bark, to throw at prey. Four classes of hand axe are,1, Large, thick hand axes reduced from cores or thick flakes, referred to as blanks 2, French antiquarian André Vayson de Pradenne introduced the word biface in 1920. The expression faustkeil is used in German and it can be literally translated as hand axe, although in a stricter sense it means fist wedge. It is the same in Dutch where the expression used is vuistbijl which literally means fist axe, the same locution occurs in other languages. However, the impression of these tools were based on ideal pieces that were of such perfect shape that they caught the attention of non-experts. Their typology broadened the terms meaning, biface hand axe and bifacial lithic items are distinguished. A hand axe need not be an item and many bifacial items are not hand axes. Nor were hand axes and bifacial items exclusive to the Lower Palaeolithic period in the Old World and they appear throughout the world and in many different pre-historical epochs, without necessarily implying an ancient origin. Lithic typology is not a chronological reference and was abandoned as a dating system. The word biface refers to something different in English than biface in French or bifaz in Spanish, bifacially carved cutting tools, similar to hand axes, were used to clear scrub vegetation throughout the Neolithic and Chalcolithic periods
8.
Hafting
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Hafting is a process by which an artifact, often bone, metal, or stone, is attached to a haft. This makes the artifact more useful by allowing it to be shot, thrown, when constructed properly, hafting can tremendously improve a weapons damage and range. It is estimated that hafted weapons were most common during the Upper Paleolithic, Hafting was a significant milestone in the history of technology. It was one of the first tools where hominins took separate elements and united them into a single tool increasing the efficiency, the development of hafting was considered a significant milestone of humans by archaeologists. Hafting weapons is perhaps best known for its use by humans in prehistory, but it is practiced by enthusiasts today. Many people still practice the techniques by using old-fashioned methods to figure out the best way to attach a handle onto tools, while improving the overall structure. Hafting has evolved through the past and the idea can still be seen in the structure of modern day tools such as hammers, axes, and many other hand tools. The evolution of tools such as hammers, and axes would be greatly altered had the people of our past failed to invent the idea of hafting. The methods of hafting and the process have also varied and evolved over the years. There must be some way to attach the artifact to the strap or shaft, flanges are produced by a process of knapping or grinding the excess stone away, resulting in indentations in the piece. If a shaft or handle is to be used, it must also be prepared in some way. Wood is commonly used, and many people prefer Big Leaf Maple due to its structure that allows them to easily chip away at the end of the shaft to which the tool is to be affixed. A good piece of wood would have a large enough to provide adequate strength yet small enough to hold comfortably for long periods of time. A common practice of hafting is to remove the outer layer of bark where your hand would be to prevent cuts and the painful imperfections found in bark. Attaching the tool to the shaft can be difficult which is why there are two methods used to soften the wooden shaft including burning the end, and/or soaking it in water. These soften the material to allow the slits to be cut vertically into the center of the shaft. This provides a place for the head of the tool or weapon to fit, alternatively, the shaft may be split down the center which allows the artifact to fully sit within the shaft, and once fully wrapped up, can be much stronger. The artifact can then be inserted into the slit, and fixed to the shaft by tying around the flanges with a suitable material, materials such as Australian Sea Grass Cordage, and split deer intestine can be used due to its high strength and durability once installed
