64  SMITHSONIAN    MISCELLANEOUS    COLLECTIONS  VOL.    96 
but  all  possessing  the  same  characteristic  features,  similar  in  many 
details  to  the  western  points.  It  is  a  highly  specialized  form  and  one 
believed  to  have  developed  from  a  single  center  rather  than  to  have 
arisen  independently  in  different  localities  at  different  times. 
The  discoveries  made  by  Roberts "'  at  the  Lindenmeier  Site  in 
northern  Colorado  during  the  past  2  years  have  established  the  great 
antiquity  of  the  Folsom  culture  in  that  part  of  the  country,  placed 
by  some  at  from  8,000  to  10,000  years;  by  others  these  figures  are 
considered  conservative.  But  not  until  a  similar  site  has  been  un- 
covered in  the  eastern  part  of  the  country  will  it  be  possible  to  suggest, 
with  a  degree  of  certainty,  the  age  of  the  eastern  Folsom  points,  as 
represented  by  the  example  from  the  valley  of  the  Rappahannock.  It 
will  be  necessary  to  find  specimens  resting  in  an  undisturbed,  strati- 
fied deposit  that  will  permit  the  geologist  to  determine  the  approximate 
age  of  the  superimposed  or  surrounding  mass.  The  discovery  of  such 
a  deposit  would  be  of  the  utmost  value  in  the  attempt  to  determine 
the  antiquity  of  man  in  the  eastern  part  of  the  continent. 
Next  in  importance  to  the  Folsom  point  are  the  two  axes  illustrated 
in  plate  21.  Both  bear  evidence  of  having  been  used  during  two 
long-separated  periods,  and  in  this  respect  they  are  similar  to  another 
specimen  found  some  years  ago  on  the  bank  of  the  Rapidan.**  And 
as  has  been  suggested  in  the  description,  both  periods  during  which 
one  of  the  specimens  from  the  Rappahannock  site  was  used  may  have 
preceded  that  represented  by  the  tribes  encountered  by  the  first 
English  colonists. 
Some  material  recovered  from  the  site  of  ancient  Pissaseck  may 
likewise  have  belonged  to  an  early  period,  although  this  will  be  more 
difficult  to  prove.  This  refers  in  particular  to  the  argillite  points  and 
scrapers  illustrated  in  plate  3,  which  are  similar  to  specimens  recovered 
from  the  stratum  of  yellow  sand,  below  black  soil,  in  the  Delaware 
valley. 
The  objects  which  have  been  mentioned — a  Folsom  point,  the  two 
axes,  and  the  argillite  material — afford  conclusive  evidence  of  the 
existence  of  several  distinct  periods  of  occupancy  in  the  valley  of  the 
Rappahannock  preceding  the  coming  of  the  historic  tribes,  those 
whose  villages  stood  on  the  banks  of  the  river  at  the  beginning  of  the 
seventeenth  century. 
""*  Roberts,  Frank  H.  H.,  Jr.,  Additional  information  on  the  Folsom  complex. 
Smithsonian  Misc.  Coll.,  vol.  95,  no.  10,  1936. 
°°  Bushnell,  David  I.,  Jr.,  Evidence  of  Indian  occupancy  in  Albemarle  County, 
Virginia.    Smithsonian  Misc.  Coll.,  vol.  89,  no.  7,  pi.  2,  1933. 
