536 ANNUAL KEPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 19 3 8 



the northeastern borders of many of them, exposing a hard bluish-gray 

 deposit. These constitute what are known locally as "blow-outs" 

 (pi. 3, figs. 1 and 2). In some the bluish layer has been cut down to a 

 harder, underlying stratum of caliche, leaving shelves or benches 

 around the edges of the basins and "erosion islands" scattered through 

 the middle. Excavations in these shelves and islands yield animal 

 bones, stone artifacts, some bone tools, charcoal, and ashes. Many 

 of the bones show the effects of fire, and a large number appear to 

 have been cut and split for the marrow. In numerous cases there is 

 a definite association between the bones and man-made objects. 

 The bones represent an extinct species of bison and the mammoth 

 (pi. 4, fig. 1). Hence, there is little question but that in this region 

 man was contemporary with both animals. Camel and horse bones 

 are present in lower levels antedating the human period of occupancy. 



Implements found there comprise projectile points, various kinds 

 of scrapers, rough-flake knives, knives, blades, gravers, bone tools of 

 unidentified function and two sharpened bones that may have served 

 as spear points. Some of the stone projectile points are significant 

 because they are comparable to the fluted examples from the original 

 Folsom quarry. Others do not have as pronounced channels, and 

 some do not have the feature at all. The latter correspond to a much 

 disputed form called the Yuma. The presence of the fluted forms is 

 an indication of some cultural relationship between the makers of 

 these implements and those from the Folsom pit. The meaning of 

 the so-called Yuma specimens is not clear. They may belong to the 

 Folsom implement complex, but it is possible that they represent 

 trade objects or an influence from another complex. This is still to 

 be determined. One theoretical study based on typology, without 

 any actual stratigraphic evidence, derives the Folsom type from the 

 Yuma. The validity of this hypothesis is made questionable, how- 

 ever, by the fact that in some localities Folsom materials are found 

 without any associated Yuma points and in others the Yumas occur 

 and the Folsoms are absent. Furthermore, numerous channel flakes 

 and unfinished Folsom points show that the chipping technique was 

 not the same as that employed on the Yuma specimens (pi. 4, fig. 2). 

 The specimens from the Clovis-Portales sites demonstrate that the 

 fluted points belong to a definite complex and that they are only one 

 of a series of different types of implements rather than the major 

 item in the material culture of a hunting people as the evidence from 

 the original Folsom pit would tend to indicate. 



General interpretation of the geologic evidence is that the blue-gray 

 stratum in the Clovis-Portales region was a lake deposit, probably 

 laid down when temperatures were lower and there was much more 

 precipitation. These conditions have led Dr. Antevs to conclude that 

 the time represented corresponds to the end of the Pleistocene period, 



