408 | ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1944 
notch. Sandia type 1 is lanceolate or rounded in general outline, 
has a convex base, and is lenticular in cross section. Sandia type 2 
tends to be more elongated with parallel sides, straight or slightly 
concave bases, an occasional basal thinning produced by the removal 
of a short flake suggestive of an incipient Folsom fluting, and a dia- 
mond-shaped cross section. Single-notched points of the Sandia 
types are not common in North America and only rarely are observed 
in collections, principally in those from the southern plains area. 
An example of Sandia type 2 was found early in 1944 weathering 
out of a grayel layer near Abilene, Tex.,? in a district where there are 
deeply buried sites that have yielded artifacts comprising another 
complex that is regarded as being fairly old. The latter will be con- 
sidered in some detail in subsequent paragraphs and need not be dis- 
cussed further at this place. The Sandia forms are suggestive of the 
well-known points from the Solutrean industry in the Old World— 
in fact both types have analogs there—but probably were not derived 
from, or related to, them. Besides points, the Sandia Complex in- 
cludes stone kiiives, scrapers, pieces of large blades, and a number of 
grooved stone balls. The knives and scrapers differ little from com- 
parable implements found in the cultural materials of other hunting 
peoples, but the stone balls are particularly interesting because they 
suggest the bolas of South America. The latter, attached to the ends 
of a thong or cord, are hurled at animals for the purpose of entangling 
and catching them. If used for a similar purpose by the inhabitants 
of Sandia Cave, they indicate a new trait in North America, one that 
apparently was short-lived and very restricted in its distribution. 
Where there is no direct physical connection between the deposits 
in a cave and those of known geologic age in the surrounding terrain, 
it is difficult to make correlations, and conclusions regarding their 
relationship may be questioned. Indications are that the breccia of 
the Folsom and Sandia layers and the intervening yellow ocher must 
have been formed when there was much more moisture in the region 
than has been known in recent times. The fauna, represented by the 
bones, is characteristic of a cooler climate. Since cool, moist condi- 
tions prevailed throughout this area in the pluvial period following 
the maximum of the Wisconsin glaciation and the combination has 
not occurred in sufficient degree to produce comparable phenomena in 
the intervening millennia, it seems probable that the cave was occupied 
at that time. Evidence from the Folsom sites, as previously men- 
tioned, is for a late or terminal Pleistocene horizon, and it is logical 
to suppose that the Folsom material in Sandia Cave would be of simi- 
lar age. The Sandia artifacts, underlying the Folsom as they did, 
would be somewhat older yet belong to the same general period. 
2 Information contained in a personal communication from Dr. Cyrus N. Ray, the finder. 
