Cultural Chronology

BC 10,000 to BC 7,000
Paleo-Indians - Big Game Hunters

Archaeologists identify the earliest culture in the Americas as Paleo-Indian. In the Southwest this group dates to nearly 12,000 years ago, or 10,000 BC. Paleo-Indians were considered “Big Game Hunters” because their lifeways seem to be associated with the hunting of large game animals, or megafauna. Paleo-Indians traveled great distances hunting now-extinct mammoths, horses, and camels.

Diagnostic artifacts include large spear points. The most distinctive, known as Clovis and Folsom points, were hafted on spears and used for thrusting and throwing. One or two Clovis points from this era and a cave site, dated to more than 10,000 years ago, have been found on the Monument.

Clovis Point	Fremont Point

Mammoth bones have been found in the Monument but no points or human artifacts have been associated with them. Paleo-Indians were definitely in the area, but they were wide-ranging.

• Clovis Points
• Folsom Points