404 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1944 
tions is more convincing, of course, than that coming from only one. 
A number of the thus far unique discoveries, however, have contributed 
valuable information. 
The most widely distributed and probably the best known is the 
Folsom Complex (Howard, 1935; Roberts, 1935, 1939). The original 
find in this category was made near, and took its name from, the little 
town of Folsom in northeastern New Mexico. The Folsom Complex 
consists of a variety of stone and bone artifacts occurring in deposits 
indicative of some antiquity and in association with bones from extinct 
species of animals or from forms not now living in the regions where 
the finds are made. Three types of implements, the projectile points 
and two kinds of stone knives, are characteristic and may be considered 
criteria for the complex. The additional varieties of stone tools gen- 
erally found accompanying those three types also occur in other com- 
plexes and for the most part are too ubiquitous both in time and space 
to have significance. The points and one type of knife (pl. 1) are 
characterized by facial fluting. There are longitudinal channels on 
each face, extending from the base toward the tip, which produce 
lateral ridges paralleling the edges of the blade. The second type of 
knife, made from the flakes removed when the other forms were fluted, 
is a long, thin, plano-convex blade with approximately parallel sides. 
The knives and one series of the fluted points were given a fine, second- 
ary chipping along the edges after the channel flakes were struck off 
the faces of the blade. 
Other points, although fluted, tend to be more generalized in 
character (pl. 2). They do not show as careful workmanship, do 
not have the peripheral retouch, and are larger. The relationship 
between the two forms and the reasons for their differences have not 
yet been determined. Various explanations have been suggested. 
One is that the larger forms represent an early development of the 
type. Another takes the view that they may be a degenerate and later 
survival of the better-chipped form. Still different is the idea that 
they were used in killing large animals. Also, there is the possibility 
that they indicate a borrowed technique in the method employed in 
the manufacture of points, a technique that was never fully mastered 
by those who took it over. Any one or all of these postulations might 
apply in greater or less degree under varying circumstances. Definite 
statements, however, are not warranted without specific proof. The 
purpose of the fluting can only be surmised. It would facilitate 
hafting, make for easier penetration, would probably stimulate 
bleeding in a wound, and would tend to promote an inward working 
of the point if it was broken from its shaft. The makers may have 
had these or some other end in mind. That it was functional rather 
than notional seems likely because the fluting weakened the point 
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