Haynes and Agogino 1986: 35°15'30" N, 106°24' W. A solution tunnel 138 m long and 2 to 4 m diameter in the Magdalena limestone of Pennsylvanian age. Mouth in a nearly vertical cliff some 100 m above the floor of Las Huertas Canyon, Sandia Mts. Preliminary excavations in 1936-37 (both by Hibben and by Wesley L. Bliss). 1938-1941 by Hibben. 1961-62, 10 days by Haynes and Agogino.
25,000 (Crane 1956; Hibben 1955); >20,000 (M-247) (Crane 1956; Hester 1960). Sandia artifacts, <14,000 BP (Haynes and Agogino 1986). Haynes and Agogino give a table of radiocarbon dates done by them, ranging from 11,850 to 13,700 radiocarbon dates BP. Non-Sandia artifacts (other than modern) suggest deposition in the 11,000 - 9000 BP span. Brasso and Emslie (2006) report a new date on Gymnogyps californianus of 10,795 ± 50 (CAMS 123881) or 25,090 ± 220 (CAMS 123916) [One of these dates is from Sandia Cave and one from Marmot Cave; however, which belongs to which cave is uncertain from the publication since the abstract gives one result and the text the other.]
Haynes and Agogino 1986, based on stratigraphy: 1) a warm, moist period for the derivation of the ocher by leaching from a pedalferic paleosol formed during a previous cool, moist period. 2) dessication of the ocher during a dry climate. 3) formation of the lower dripstone during a cool, moist period. 4) gypsum precipitation (Unit E) due to either a dry period or opening of the cave or both. 5) accumulation of dust and debris (units F and H) under dry conditions alternating with dripstones (units G and I) and breccia cementation under wet conditions.
Haynes and Agogino 1986: By the the traditional account, Sandia points were found in a loose deposit underlying a limonite ocher deposit which, in turn, underlies a cave breccia containing Folsom artifacts and reportedly sealed by an overlying dripstone. However, their investigation indicated that the Sandia deposit (Unit X) is a rodent deposit created by bioturbation of the limonite layer (Unit C) and contains material derived from most of the other deposits. A second dripstone (Unit D) is recognized as being preoccupation rather than contemporaneous with the post-Folsom dripstone. Absence from in front of the cave is attributed to removal by Paleo-Indians for mining of ocher. Other points in the "Folsom" breccia include those now classifiable as Agate Basin and Milnesand.
(Agenbroad 1984); *Brasso and Emslie 2006; Crane 1956; (Frison, Walker, Webb, and Zeimens 1978); Harris 1985; (*Haynes and Agogino 1986); Hester 1960; *Hibben 1941, 1955.
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Last Update: 11 Jan 2007