On the Dating of the Folsom Complex and its Correlation with the Younger Dryas, the End of Clovis, and Megafaunal Extinction

Abstract

Using a set of high-quality radiocarbon dates, including three new dates from the Hanson site and one from the Folsom component of Hell Gap, we provide a revised estimate of the duration of the Folsom period. Limiting our sample to bone collagen samples pretreated using the XAD resin chromatographic or ultrafiltration techniques, calcined bone, and charcoal from hearth features, we show that Folsom sites fall within a limited range from 12,610 to 12,170 BP, or 440 years. This duration is considerably shorter than previous estimates. Additionally, we show that there is little correlation between the onset and termination of the Younger Dryas and the start and end of the Folsom complex. Finally, the youngest Clovis sites and the last of the Pleistocene megafauna correlate well in time, but are followed by a 100-year gap until the earliest Folsom sites, most likely a result of small sample size.

Keywords:

• Folsom
• Clovis
• radiocarbon
• Younger Dryas
• Hanson site
• Hell Gap site

Acknowledgements

The new radiocarbon dates from Hanson reported in this paper were obtained thanks to the generous support of the Cody Field Office of the Bureau of Land Management, Wyoming. Kierson Crume in particular has been incredibly helpful in supporting our work with the Hanson collection. We thank Brooke Morgan and Brian Andrews for inviting us to participate in the Folsom SAA session in San Francisco from which this volume evolved. We are also grateful to three anonymous reviewers who provided valuable feedback that improved this paper.

ORCID

Todd A. Surovell http://orcid.org/0000-0001-6587-8621

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Todd A. Surovell

Author Biographies

Todd A. Surovell is professor of anthropology at the University of Wyoming in Laramie. His research has focused primarily on Paleoindian archaeology in the Great Plains of North America, and he has published extensively on lithic technology, settlement organization, and Pleistocene extinctions, and currently he is conducting ethnoarchaeological research in Mongolia.

Joshua R. Boyd

Joshua R. Boyd is an MA student in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Wyoming, Laramie. His research interests include Paleoindian high-altitude adaptations, lithic technology, and communal hunting strategies.

C. Vance Haynes

C. Vance Haynes Jr is emeritus professor of anthropology at the University of Arizona in Tucson. His primary research interests relate to the archaeology and geoarchaeology of the American Southwest, as well as the peopling of the Americas. In 1990 he was elected into the US National Academy of Sciences.

Gregory W. L. Hodgins

Gregory W. L. Hodgins is assistant professor of anthropology and assistant research scientist, Laboratory of Tree Ring Research, at the University of Arizona in Tucson. His research interests include bone-dating in archaeology, compound-specific isotope analysis, and environmental-isotope analysis.