EXCAVATIONS AT THE LINDENMEIER SITE 



CONTRIBUTE NEW INFORMATION ON 



THE FOLSOM COMPLEX 



By FRANK H. H. ROBERTS, JR. 



Archeologist, Bureau of American Ethnology 



Continuance of excavations at the Linclenmeier site in northern 

 Colorado and careful exploration of the deeply gullied terrain for 

 many miles in all directions in an effort to obtain additional informa- 

 tion and further traces of Folsom man, the nomadic hunter who 

 tarried in that district during the closing days of the last ice age, 

 constituted the activities of one Bureau of American Ethnology- 

 Smithsonian Institution field party in the summer of 1939. The 

 digging produced new and augmenting data, but the reconnaissance 

 failed to locate more than sporadic traces of former occupancy, none 

 comparing either in extent or quality of evidence with the main site. 



Previous investigations established the fact that the Lindenmeier 

 site was a former camping place occupied when glaciers still lingered 

 in the mountains ; when the climate was cooler and more moist ; 

 when species of bison, camel, and mammoth, animals now extinct, 

 roamed the western plains ; and when the topography differed from 

 that of today. The earlier digging revealed that what now appears 

 as a terrace was originally part of a valley, the bottom dotted with 

 meadows, marshes, and bogs furnishing food, water, and wallowing 

 places for the animals, and the gently inclined lower slopes provid- 

 ing a suitable resting spot for the aboriginal hunters. In addition to 

 the game that served to satisfy the requirements for food and prob- 

 ably for the materials needed for tents and such clothing as was worn, 

 the region also supplied stone in the form of nodules, weathering 

 from surrounding deposits, from which to fashion tools. That full 

 advantage was taken of these resources is shown by the numerous 

 scattered assemblages with implements in association with cut, split, 

 and burned bones, and concentrations of chipper's debris, the minute 

 stone splinters and larger unused flakes resulting from the manufac- 

 ture of various kinds of articles. These materials are found along 

 the old level of occupation several feet below the present surface. 



The 1939 excavations consisted of the removal of the overburden, 

 ranging from 3^ to 5i feet in thickness, from some 1,540 square 

 feet of the camp area, the sinking of 10 test pits in unsampled por- 

 tions of the site, and making examinations of outcroppings of the 



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