THE LINDENMEIER SITE IN NORTHERN COLORADO 



CONTRIBUTES ADDITIONAL DATA ON 



THE FOLSOM COMPLEX 



By FRANK H. H. ROBERTS, JR. 

 Archeologist, Bureau of American Ethnology. 



Investigations in a little-known phase of American archeology were 

 continued during the summer of 1937 at the Lindenmeier Site in 

 northern Colorado. It is at this location that Folsom man, one of the 

 earliest known inhabitants of the New World, camped and left numer- 

 ous examples of the weapons and tools that he manufactured and 

 used in his occupation of killing big game. Excavations made in previ- 

 ous field seasons contributed much information on the material cul- 

 ture of the people and threw some light on their mode of life, but 

 they produced no skeletal remains to show what manner of men they 

 were. The 1937 work added valuable data on various phases of the 

 problem, although it failed to locate any of the elusive individuals or 

 to find even one human bone. 



When the writer and members of the Bureau of American Eth- 

 nology-Smithsonian expedition returned to the Lindenmeier ranch 

 in June, excavations were resumed at the place where they terminated 

 at the end of the preceding season. During the course of the summer 

 an area covering some 2,800 square feet was uncovered and numer- 

 ous traces of occupation were found (fig. 117). The level where the 

 remains occur follows an old hillside and its depth below the present 

 surface ranges from 4 feet, where work began, to 6 feet 3 inches, the 

 point reached when the season closed. 



Specimens are found either at the bottom of an old soil zone or in 

 a thin layer of earth, only slightly stained with humus, just below it. 

 The underlying stratum over the entire area is a hard tufaceous clay 

 dating from the Oligocene. In some places the dark soil stratum 

 rests on this clay and the artifacts are along the contact. Where the 

 thin stained earth layer intervenes, the objects are scattered through 

 it. The importance of this occurrence is that it demonstrates the 

 presence of the people in the region prior to the developments lead- 

 ing to the formation of the heavy soil zone, as well as during its 

 initial stages. The thin layer was formed by the decay of the surface 

 of the tufaceous layer, the deposition of some wind-borne material, 

 and some decaying vegetal matter. Sections where it is absent con- 



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