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Diorama No. 1
EARLY MAN IN NORTH AMERICA
This diorama pictures a hunt such as may have taken place 10 or 12 thousand years ago in what is now northeastern New Mexico. In 1926, 1927 and 1928, the bones of 30 bison of an extinct species were dug out of the bed of an arroyo near the little town of Folsom, New Mexico. Associated with the bison bones were 19 spear points of an unusual type. The place where the bones and spear points were found had once been a water hole or marsh and men probably killed the bison when they came to drink or to wallow. They skinned the animals, cut off what flesh they wanted and left the carcasses in the mud. Sometimes spear points were lost or were left in the bodies and these points, preserved with the bones, tell the story of the early hunts.
The unusual spear points are now called Folsom Points and the men who made and used them are often referred to as Folsom Men. Other spear points of distinctive types have also been found with the bones of extinct animals and it indicates that there were many different groups of early men in America.
Men began to drift into America at least 15,000 years ago. They came from the north, crossing from Asia to Alaska, then moved to the south. These early men were hunters and their spear points, knives, scrapers and other stone tools have been found associated with the bones of elephants, mammoths, camels, horses and certain types of bison which have been extinct in America many thousands of years.
Little is known about these early inhabitants of North America. They lived by hunting and by gathering seeds, fruit and roots of wild plants. They had no permanent dwellings and moved about, following the game on which they lived. Pottery was unknown and their utensils and containers were made of animal skins. Cooking must have been done over the open fire although they may have been able to cook some foods by dropping hot stones into skin containers. Many primitive people have cooked in this manner.
Few human bones have been found, so little is known about the appearance or race of these early men. It can be presumed that they were ancestors of some of our present-day Indians.