Fluting Devices in the Folsom Tradition: Patterning in Debitage Formation and Projectile Point Basal Configuration

Abstract

Replicative experiments in Folsom point manufacture suggest that fluting during the final stages of biface reduction may have been executed via indirect percussion using a grooved anvil and backstop fluting device. Experimental preform breakage patterns through this procedure systematically replicate those observed at known Folsom base camps on the Llano Estacada of eastern New Mexico and west Texas and elsewhere in the Great Plains. The experiments also demonstrate that use of a fluting device can impose certain restrictions on preform configuration, especially with respect to width dimensions. Therefore, it is suggested that observed low variations in Folsom point basal width may have been a function of manufacture related variables, in addition to hafting tolerances as postulated by Judge (1973).