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Blackwater Draw (ca. 9500–3000
b.c.)
As the
Pleistocene, or Ice Age, was ending and the earth was drying out,
hunters in North America pursued large animals for food. Skilled at
the task, these Americans left evidence of activities throughout
much of the continent where many of their living sites and hunt
sites are now known. Blackwater Draw in eastern New Mexico, which
evidences human activity from about 9500 to 3000 B.C., is one of the
most important of the early hunter locations. Large animals were
attracted to it for water—water sources being productive places for
hunting—and the weapons with which the animals were brought down
were principally of stone.
The stone projectile, or spear, points used by the early hunters
were beautifully made. Elegant as well as useful, the points of the
first cultural complex to be defined for North America (ca. 9500
B.C.) are known as Clovis points. Found at Blackwater Draw, Clovis
points were made by pressure flaking handsomely colored chert,
agate, or jasper and are distinctively shaped. Bifacial (that is,
worked on both sides), they have a large central, or "channel,"
flake removed from the bottom. This detail has given them the name
of fluted points, and they are peculiarly American. Following
Clovis, the Folsom complex (ca. 8500 B.C.) also produced an elegant
fluted point, one with a longer channel flake. It too was used in
the hunting of big game, primarily bison.
Laura Anne
Tedesco
Department of Education, The Metropolitan Museum of
Art
Citation for this
page:
Tedesco, Laura Anne. "Blackwater Draw (ca.
9500–3000 B.C.)". In Timeline of Art History.
New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2000–.
http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/blac/hd_blac.htm
(October 2000)
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