Sandia Cave

Type site for a tanged and unfluted projectile point in New Mexico's Sandia Mountains. This cave has yielded artifacts of the so-called Sandia Man (25 000 BC). In Pueblo mythology the Sandias were sacred marking the southern boundary of the Tiwa-speaking Indian territory. Sandia points were stratified below Folsom points but the radiocarbon dates of pre-20 000 BC are often discounted the true date probably falling in the range 12000-8000 BC overlapping with Clovis. Associated fauna of bison mammoth and mastodon suggested contemporaneity with the Llano Complex. Sandia Type I has a lanceolate blade without fluting and without concave base of Clovis/Folsom and a shoulder to one side of the base of the blade suggesting knife use. Sandia Type II has rounded base.

Located in the Sandia Range near Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA, the lowest levels of this site contained a unique tool assemblage. Radiocarbon dates indicating an age greater than 10,000 years are generally disputed but the Sandia level was overlain by Folsom material. An association with certain extinct mammals (e.g. mammoth, camel and bison) suggests probable contemporaneity with Llano, but Sandia has yet to be satisfactorally integrated into other Paleo-Indian chronologies.