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Bear Grease

Ep. 34: The Folsom Site - The Unsolved Mystery of Fluted Stone (Part 4)

Bear Grease

MeatEater

Wilderness, Sports

4.87.1K Ratings

🗓️ 29 December 2021

⏱️ 74 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

On this final episode in our series on the Folsom archeological site, we’ll explore the risky and mysterious process of fluting stone projectile points. For one thousand years these ancient bison hunters employed this process that some believe was entirely utilitarian, while others say it held greater significance. We’ll hear from the experts Dr. David Meltzer, Devin Pettigrew and Steve Rinella as we wrestle through the evidence. We’ll hear Rick Spicer knap out a fluted point and we’ll discuss the history of the atlatl with Devin. At the end, we’ll find our long awaited answer of why any of this ancient stuff is relevant to us in modern times.


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Transcript

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0:00.0

Hey, I'm Janice Patelis.

0:01.4

And I'm Jordan Bud.

0:02.5

Jordan and I have spent our lives in the outdoors, both as hunters and professional guys.

0:08.6

And on Meet Eaters newest podcast, Gear Talk, we're taking the ultimate deep dive into the tools and gear we rely on in the field,

0:15.9

seeing the natural season.

0:17.1

We're talking classic, don't leave home without it,

0:20.2

staples, to the cutting edge and outdoor equipment.

0:23.3

Listen to Gear Talk on the iHeart radio app on Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcast.

0:36.8

A guy that introduced me to the Folsom site.

0:38.6

He couldn't get excited about certain cultures because they used a lot of junk stone and their points were crude in course.

0:45.2

The guy had been an engineer.

0:46.6

He lighted the Folsom point.

0:49.0

To him, it was like, no, that's a good people.

0:51.8

Man, what kind of his attitude you know?

0:54.8

This week on the Bear Geese podcast, we're on our fourth and final episode in our series on the Folsom Archaeological site.

1:02.3

And we're talking about stone points.

1:05.1

We're in search of understanding the ancient, mysterious and difficult process of fluting stone.

1:12.5

We'll discuss the radical design and the mechanics of these stone points.

1:16.9

And then first some stuff about the culture of these people based on all that we have.

1:22.6

These beautiful stone points that we call Folsom points.

1:27.7

Of all their material possessions, these stones are the only thing that have outlasted the erosive nature of time.

1:35.5

We're talking with a new guest anthropologist, Devon Petagru, who will walk us through the design of these points

...

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