8 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. 94 



Recent periods, but was not actually here in the ice age. All agree 

 that more data are essential. Archeologists generally concede that the 

 points belong to the earliest phase of aboriginal culture yet discovered 

 in America. 



Distributional studies have demonstrated several facts. The most 

 significant of these is that there are two main classes of Folsom type 

 points : the true Folsom, and a larger, more generalized form em- 

 bodying most of its characteristics but not exhibiting the skilful work- 

 manship or mastery of the stone-chipping technique apparent on the 

 true example. Present evidence is that the true Folsom is restricted to 

 the strip of terrain, known as the High Plains, extending along the 

 eastern slopes of the Rockies. The other form not only occurs in the 

 High Plains but is widely distributed across the eastern portion of the 

 United States.^" There are several places about which the latter seems 

 to center, notably the Finger Lakes section in New York State, in 

 Ohio. Tennessee, and southern X'irginia. Sporadic examples have 

 come to light in various localities in practically every State east of the 

 Rockies and in portions of southern Canada. The problem of distribu- 

 tion for the eastern area received considerable attention several years 

 ago from Alfred Kidder, H. then a graduate student at Harvard Uni- 

 versity. E. P>. Howard began his studies at about the same time, and 

 when Kidder's interests were turned to other fields, his unpublished 

 manuscript and all of his information were turned over to Howard. 

 The latter is still actively engaged in the study. 



From the letters, photographs, and actual specimens sent to Mr. 

 Bushnell and to the writer, following the publication of the Digest 

 articles and press notices of the work in Colorado, much more infor- 

 mation has been added to the data on the occurrence of the eastern 

 type. This work is still being continued, and a tabulation of the 

 results and a consideration of their significance will be incorporated in 

 a larger and more comprehensive study of the subject. It is in this 

 connection that investigators must face the problem of whether the 

 generalized form indicates an earlier phase which reached its perfec- 

 tion in the true Folsom or whether it represents a degenerate and later 

 variation. Another aspect of this phase of the study is the dififusion 

 of the type. There is the possibility that it traveled south along the 

 Cordillera, then swept east and north. On the other hand the two 

 forms may represent off shoots from an original basic type which 

 spread along two separate lines, one skirting the eastern slopes of the 

 mountains, the other moving eastward and then south. 



Howard, 1934. pp. 13-14- 



