Gearing Up at the Adair-Steadman (41FS2) Folsom Site

Adair-Steadman (41FS2) is one of only a few Folsom aged (10,800–10,300 ¹⁴C yr BP) sites located near (∼5 km) a high-quality lithic material source in North America. The large number of preforms (n = 130), channel flakes (n = 287), and projectile points (n = 58) has led many researchers to assume Adair-Steadman was a “gearing up” locality. This study is a first step in reexamining the Adair-Steadman lithic assemblage to asses this locality's role in Folsom landscape-use strategies. The results indicate Adair-Steadman indeed was a gearing up place, but the analytical nodule analysis presented indicates most of the chert used was not from the nearby quarry, but was part of the transported lithic supply. Restocking the transported lithic supply with new biface and flake blanks may have been an important consideration to gearing up at Adair-Steadman.