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Historia de América Latina
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_Online chapter_

_Las sociedades originarias
__(The Indigenous societies)_

_Director_
_Teresa Rojas Rabiela_ (Mexico)

_Codirector
__John V. Murra_ (United States of America)

_Chapter 2: _The Original Peopling of Latin America_
__Alan L. Bryan_

_Themes_

_| _[13]Introduction
_|_ [14]Asiatic Biological Origins
_|_ [15]Asiatic Technological Origins _|_ [16]The Peopling of Latin
America
_|__ _Early Adaptations to South American Environments

__Early Adaptations to South American Environments

Early sites reported in South America will be reviewed by first
looking at northern South America, and then traversing the Andes
before moving back north from Patagonia to Northeast Brazil. It can be
assumed that some coastally adapted people expanding out of the
forested Central American funnel turned eastward along the Caribbean
coast while other groups advanced southward along the Pacific Coast.
So far, little has been reported from eastern Venezuela, the Guianas,
or the Amazon Basin, mainly because it is so difficult to find
preceramic sites in densely forested regions. Recently, however, two
well-stratifed sites have been discovered in the gallery forest along
the Rio Orinoco in the Venezuela/Colombia border region (Barse l990).
Quartz crystal flakes, a hammerstone, a ground stone axe fragment, and
a nut cracking stone were associated with a hearth that dated 9020 +
l00 B. P. Other undated preceramic localities have yielded flakes,
flake scrapers, and two tanged projectile points in later levels. The
utilized flakes and flake scrapers are thought to have been used to
manufacture wood, cane, and bone artefacts. A preliminary note
(_American Antiquity _53: l79) indicates that the site of Taperinha, a
large shellmound near the mouth of the Tapajos River before it flows
into the Amazon has yielded dates back to l0,000 B. P. Although
artefacts are not described, a report on this site will be important
because it will describe bone and shell as well as stone artefacts

People expanding eastward from the Darien region of Panama and
Colombia soon ran out of dense tropical forests and had to adapt to
the semiarid thorn forests of north-eastern Colombia and north-western
Venezuela north of the northern terminus of the Andes. The Pedregal
River has a series of low terraces and old higher surfaces with good
exposures. The Venezuelan archaeologist José Cruxent collected
artifacts made of local quartzite from these old surfaces. He
discovered a possible technological sequence correlated with the
different levels. The highest level above the river yielded large
crude cores, scrapers, knives, and rough thick bifaces. The next lower
surface yielded smaller, thinner bifaces in addition to the early
types. On terrace l, thick willow-leaf-shaped projectile points were
added to older types. The thick biconvex points, obviously shaped to
fit into socketed hafts like a cylindrical bone or wood point, were
termed El Jobo after the nearly country store. Finally, the floodplain
terrace yielded small tanged points with constricted bases ([17]Rouse
and Cruxent l963, fig. 5 and plate 3). The hypothetical topological
sequence, which might be expected if knappers were experimenting with
stone as a useful material for tipping wooden spears, remains undated.
Acting upon his hunch that the El Jobo points were used to hunt large
mammals, Cruxent joined a paleontological team excavating bones of
mastodons and other extinct animals at the Muaco waterhole near the
coast east of Coro. Much to his delight he found El Jobo points at
Muaco, but also more recent artifacts; so it was clearly not possible
to prove that El Jobo points had been used to kill mastodons at Muaco.
Nevertheless, a fossil bone that evidently had been incised in a
patterned way before permineralization was recovered at Muaco
([18]Rouse and Cruxent l963, plate 4A), and burned bone from the site
was dated 16,870 B. P. ([19]Rouse and Cruxent l963: 35-36).

Encouraged by these finds, Cruxent searched for better sites where
upwelling water might not have mixed materials. Two fossiliferous
localities were found a few kilometres east, but one of these was a
stream bed so it was concluded the El Jobo points and horse bones
could have been introduced into the gravel deposit from different
original contexts.

The more extensive Taima-Taima site is neither a waterhole nor a
streambed, although artesian water does seep horizontally from the San
Luis Mountains and flows through ancient beach sands beneath a bed of
coquina containing Miocene fossils. Gradually the saturated sand
caused the coquina to settle and crack. Water seeping through the
cracks redeposited old beach sand onto the coquina pavement. The top
of the pavement blocks were smoothed by the moving sand, but the water
pressure was never strong enough to roll the pavement blocks. Animals,
mostly mastodons, were attracted by water that pooled on the pavement
in the grey sand. Early people were also attracted to the site,
because Cruxent found El Jobo points in intimate association with
mastodon bones, and one inside a pelvic cavity.

Several years after Cruxent's initial excavations, confirmatory
excavations in l976 recovered a broken El Jobo point inside the pubic
cavity of a partially disarticulated and butchered young mastodon
whose bones had been cut, probably using a jasper flake found adjacent
to the left ulna of the beast. The heavy bones had not been moved by
water action, only by man. Preserved by constant wetness, a nearby
concentration of twigs, evidently chewed by the mastodon and
presumably part of its stomach contents, provided dates from several
radiocarbon laboratories that indicated that the young mastodon had
been slain and butchered about 13,000 B. P. ([20]Bryan, et al. l978;
Ochsenius and Gruhn l979; Gruhn and Bryan l984). The new dates
confirmed most dates that had been obtained earlier on different
materials from the grey sand. Eventually a soil developed on the grey
sand, and horses and glyptodonts lived on this later surface, but
evidently the mastodons had become extinct. Colluvium then accumulated
and another paleosol developed on another surface. Mor colluvium was
covered by an organic black muck, which yielded dates around l0,000 B.
P. The entire depositional sequence was capped by sterile colluvium.
No artifacts were found in any deposit above the grey sand, so the
artifacts could not have intruded from above.

Despite claims to the contrary (e.g., [21]Lynch l990), Taima-Taima has
yielded definite artifacts in a well-dated, deeply stratified
geological context which remained saturated with seeping water that
moved sand and concentrated twigs into pockets, but was not strong
enough to move or mix bones or stone artifacts. Reported in great
detail, the data constitute the only solid evidence for a megamammal
kill site anywhere in South America. Of course, if one accepts the
model that North American big game hunters were the earliest South
Americans, the evidence from Taima-Taima or any other site earlier
than Clovis cannot be correct, and all such sites must be explained
away, as [22]Lynch (l990) has systematically attempted to do.

Significant differences between the archaeology of North and South
America now become evident. North American archaeologists looking for
cultural origins naturally look back to Beringia and Siberia; and it
is quite easy to find similarities and relationships because people
adapted to the Great Plains and the steppe tundra of Beringia and
Siberia lived in ecosystems that required an emphasis on hunting as
opposed to collecting. South American archaeologists naturally look
back to Panama and Central America for cultural origins, but the
dominant ecosystem in that region is tropical forest, and the only
relationships that have been recognized are the widely scattered
fishtail and Clovis-like fluted points. Archaeologists oriented toward
North America thus conclude that fluted points must constitute the
earliest relationships. Unlike fluted points, which have a widespread
distribution because many cultural groups found them to be effective
hunting weapons, El Jobo points have a very limited known
distribution. Although willow-leaf-shaped points are known from Costa
Rica, Nicaragua, and Mexico, they are not distinctive El Jobo points.
Characteristic thick biconvex points like El Jobo have been collected
from a site in north-western Argentina (Alberto Rex Gonzalez, personal
communication, l970), and one was recovered in southern Chile at the
contemporary 13,000 year old occupation site at Monte Verde to be
summarized below. Future work, especially along the unknown eastern
slopes of the Andes, may reveal a linkage between these widely
separated occurrences; but it is also possible that the nearly
cylindrical shape of El Jobo points was transferred from similarly
shaped ground bone or wooden points in several parts of South America.
A major difference between North and South America is the greater
diversity in lithic assemblages which developed locally in South
America as part of distinctive cultural adaptations to different
ecosystems containing a wide and diverse range of natural resources.
Technological convergence, including bifacial points with similar
shapes, may be expected to occur as parallel adaptations to similar
environmental and resource bases ([23]Bryan 1973; [24]Richardson
l978).

In central Colombia, almost l000 km Southwest of Taima-Taima on the
high Sabana de Bogotá, excavations in the El Abra rock shelters
yielded a simple core and minimally retouched flake industry dated as
early as 12,400 B. P. ([25]Correal l986). The Abriense industry was
also found at the open Tibitó site in association with remains of
mastodons and horses but mainly deer in a context dated 11,740 B. P.
([26]Correal l981). Tibitó may have been a processing station and not
a kill site; but nevertheless the absence of any evidence of bifacial
points, even broken, seems significant. These people probably killed
their game with wooden spears, as did the occupants of Monte Verde,
Chile, and as still do many lowland South American forest Indians. It
is to be expected that Abriense people sometimes obtained bifacial
points as trade items, but evidently these hunter/gatherers did not
regularly use bifacially flaked stone projectile points on the Sabana
de Bogotá, even into ceramic times.

The story near the equator in highland Ecuador is different. The
region around Ilaló east of Quito contains abundant quantities of
excellent obsidian, which attracted people at least by ll,000 B. P.
Excavations at El Inga yielded several types of bifacial points,
including fishtail fluted and unfluted forms; however, disappointingly
late radiocarbon dates between 4,000 and 9,000 B. P. were obtained
([27]Mayer-Oakes l986). Excavations at the nearby San José site by the
American archaeologist William Mayer-Oakes yielded a similar industry,
including blades, burins, and many carefully retouched unifacially
flaked tools, but no evidence of bifacial flaking at all ([28]William
Mayer-Oakes, personal communication l990). A stratigraphically
consistent series of obsidian hydration dates between 10,000 and
11,000 B. P. suggests that the earliest known occupants of the Ilaló
region innovated an advanced flaked stone industry that lacked
bifacial flaking only after l0,000 years ago. The idea of bifacial
flaking was probably adopted when the Magellanic fishtail form
diffused in from the south. Somewhat later the concept of fluting was
accepted from the north and applied to fishtail points.

But Magellanic fishtail points are not ubiquitous farther south in the
Andes, and they do not form a convenient horizon marker. In fact, they
have a very spotty known distribution with gaps even at sites well
dated to the time they should occur if the idea was passed from group
to group. Rather, it seems that several projectile point styles were
experimented with by different groups between 13,000 and 10,000 years
ago, while other groups like those living on the Sabana de Bogotá
never adopted the idea of bifacially flaked points at all, even though
they hunted large mammals in a grassland environment. Unlike North
America, where popular point styles became widely distributed, most
South Americans continued to use functional technology that worked for
them.

For instance, the earliest occupants of Pachamachay, a small rock
shelter located at 4000 m on the high puna of central Peru, used a
squat triangular point type to hunt vicuñas ([29]Rick l980:149, fig.
7.1). By 9000 B. P. these people, who also hunted smaller game and
gathered tubers and fruits, had switched to a peculiar willow
leaf-shaped form with projecting bilateral spurs near the base, and
stayed with that form for thousands of years. Evidently, these hunters
successfully managed the vicuña herds to maintain their population,
but began to herd the animals only about 4,000 years ago. The
triangular points came from deposits dated 11,800 + 930 B. P., a date
which [30]Rick (l980:65) at first accepted, but later ([31]Rick l988)
cast doubt upon because of the large statistical error and the 2,500
year gap in time before the next occupation.

The story is quite different only l00 km north near Lake Lauricocha,
the headwaters of the Rio Marañon. The first people who occupied
Lauricocha Cave about 9500 years ago, immediately after glacial ice
melted from the region, used abundant flakes, many with unifacial
marginal retouch, as scrapers and points for hunting the Andean deer.
Bone and antler points, identified by the excavator as daggers or
awls, were more common artifacts ([32]Cardich l978: 298). Bifacially
retouched triangular and simple willow-leaf-shaped projectile points
were used between 8,000 and 5,000 B. P., when people hunted more
camelids than deer. The evidence from the high puna of central Peru
indicates that neighbouring groups of people used different projectile
point styles at the same time.

The possibility that bone points evolved into stone points at
Lauricocha should be considered as an hypothesis which would explain
local independent developments of bifacially flaked stone projectile
points. Comparison of the early flaked triangular points at
Pachamachay and Lauricocha with two ground bone triangular points
recovered from beneath a massive rockfall in Pikimachay, a large rock
shelter overlooking the Ayacucho Valley in southern Peru, suggests
that a similar point form could easily have been transferred to a
harder material when knappers familiar with simple marginal retouch
experimented with retouching all edges on both sides to create a point
that would penetrate thick hides more effectively than bone or antler
points.

Pikimachay has become one of the more controversial sites in South
America because evidence suggests that the shelter was occupied as
early as 21,000 years ago.

However, as the flaked stones from the early deposits are of the same
volcanic tuff as the cave wall, it is conceivable that roof spalls
could have flaked when they struck the cave floor. Bones of extinct
animals, mainly sloth, also appear to have been cut and worked, but
this could also be ascribed to falling rocks. Nevertheless, unworked
exotic pebbles which must be manuports have also been recovered from
the same deposits. Although the equivocal unifacially flaked stones
are found throughout the lower deposits, there can be no question that
the triangular bone points from higher in the pre-roof fall deposits,
which have been dated 14,150 + 180 B. P. ([33]MacNeish, et al: 309,
fig 8-l; l98l),are artifacts because the grinding marks are readily
visible with the naked eye. One would have to suppose that several
definite flake tools, and the ground bone points, all part of the
Ayacucho Complex, were all intruded through the sterile layer of roof
fall, a possibility that seems remote by the Canadian project
geologist, Nathaniel Rutter (personal communication, l99l). Unifacial
flake points were also described as part of the Ayacucho Complex; but
the earliest biface, a rather crude percussion flaked bipoint, was
found above the roof fall. Three broken points identified as
"fishtail" appeared sometime after 11,000 B.P. ([34]MacNeish, et al.
l980). The reported evidence from Pikimachay makes sense if it is
assumed that the earliest general hunter/gatherers carried with them
an unspecialized unifacial flaked stone technology that embodied the
potential to innovate bifacial points either by local experimentation
or by external stimulus.

Although the earliest dated sites in western South America have been
found on the puna where camelids abound and tubers can be collected,
several localities have been found on or near the Pacific Coast that
are more significant because of their artefacts content than their
age. Shellfish, seabirds, fish, sea and land mammals, components of
productive ecosystems especially at the mouths of rivers along the
arid Pacific Coast, were exploited at least as early as l0,500 B. P.
Significantly, the technology associated with these early coastal
sites does not contain bifacially flaked artifacts, which would be
expected if their immediate ancestors had been specialized big game
hunters who occupied the high Andes.

On the arid Santa Elena Peninsula in Ecuador, Stothert (l985) reports
on the Las Vegas culture, which is fully developed by l0,000 B. P.,
and earlier dates indicate its roots extend back another millennium.
Shell, charcoal and human bone yielded stratigraphically consistent
dates between 6,600 and l0,840 B. P. Artifacts include a unifacial
flake industry lacking any formal types, although hammerstones, edge
ground pebbles, and two ground stone axes were found. Bone points and
a spatula may have been used for making nets or textiles. Scoops,
dishes, and other containers were shaped of shell. The abundant
industry of utilized but minimally retouched flakes and chunks
suggests the manufacture of tools and equipment from wood, bamboo,
reeds, and bark. Las Vegas is interpreted as an early tropical forest
tradition which included some horticulture; and gave rise to the early
ceramic Valdivia culture with intensive agriculture, an expanded
fishing technology, and more developed ceremonialism after 5300 B. P.

The Talara tarseeps in extreme north-western Peru is a well-known Late
Pleistocene paleontological locality. Nearby on the same marine
platform, clusters of unifacial choppers, "horse-hoof" scrapers,
denticulates, and utilized flakes were mapped and analyzed
([35]Richardson l978). Associated shells of large mollusks, _Anadara,
_evidently carried up from distant mangrove swamps, yielded dates of
11,200 and 8125 B. P. Probably the unifacial artifacts were used to
work wood, bone, and fibres. With the addition of ground stone axes,
mortars, and bowls, a similar industry continued to be used at the
mouth of the nearby Siches River until at least 5500 B. P.

People adapted to the semiarid coast of the Santa Elena Peninsula and
northern Peru evidently never found a need for bifacial points,
although their absence seems strange if they had recently been big
game hunters in the Andes. However, less than 500 km farther south, in
the region around the Moche Valley, mastodons evidently were killed by
hunters with distinctive large tanged Paiján points, which are known
only from this limited coastal region, although a few similar forms
were found at El Inga. In a sealed context in the small Quirihuac
rockshelter, ten broken Paiján points and thousands of flakes were
recovered. Four dates on wood and charcoal ranged from 12,795 to 8,645
B. P., while human bones dated 9,930 and 9,020 B. P. (Ossa l978). The
open site of La Cumbre yielded Paiján points in association with
mastodon bones that dated l2,360 and l0,535 B. P. As the dates were so
variable, they were averaged to yield l0,796 B. P., as compared with
an average of l0,650 for Quirihuac. It is believed that the Paiján
Complex existed between 11,000 and l0,000 years ago, when the people
gradually abandoned Paiján points but continued to emphasize the
maritime economy that they probably pursued during a seasonal round
([36]Richardson l989).

In southern Peru, near Ilo, marine resources were being utilized
intensively by l0,500 B. P. A ring-shaped shellmound yielded a bone
harpoon, bone and shell fishhooks, and modified shells, along with a
unifacial flake industry, but no bifaces, in deposits dated between
l0,570 and 7670 B. P. ([37]Richardson l989). Mollusks, near shore
fish, sea mammals, and bird remains were identified; but terrestrial
mammals were absent.

Most likely, the reason a fully developed maritime adaptation was
present on the Pacific Coast of South America by l0,500 B. P. and in
California by l0,000 B. P., but not on the Atlantic Coast until after
8,000 B. P. is because sections of the Pacific Coast are tectonically
rising, whereas the Atlantic Coast is stable. Thus, Las Vegas, Siches,
and the Ring site all represent well established maritime adaptations
which, like their contemporaries in southern California, happen to be
the earliest locally preserved sites representative of more ancient
coastal adaptations, remnants of which should be found by underwater
archaeologists working on the continental shelves of all coasts. This
interpretation implies that inland sites in the western cordilleras
were first occupied by people who gradually expanded inland from the
coasts as they adapted their economies to the utilization of
terrestrial animals and plants. At first these explorers simply
incorporated the resources of the adjacent interior regions in their
annual round; but eventually some people, as at Pachamachay, developed
a technology capable of adapting to year-round terrestrial ecosystems
([38]Dillehay l989a). Two sites in central Chile have yielded
artifacts with extinct animals. Quereo, located on a bluff now
overlooking the Pacific, yielded simple unifacial flaked tools
associated with mastodon, horse, extinct camelid, deer, and sea mammal
bones in addition to marine shells in a context dated 11,500 years ago
([39]Dillehay l989b). Evidently these coastal people were
experimenting with interior ecosystems. Tagua-Tagua, farther inland in
the central valley south of Santiago, is situated on a lake shore
which attracted game (mastodons, horses, camelids, and aquatic birds)
and hunters who left flakes, cores, hammerstones, and some bone tools
in a stratum dated between 11,430 and 11,000 B. P. (Montané l968).

At Monte Verde, about 900 km farther south in the subantarctic rain
forest and 15 km inland from the northernmost fjord, a boggy locality
has revealed superbly preserved perishable artifacts in a context
dated around 13,000 B. P. ([40]Dillehay l989a, [41]l986). The earliest
known architecture in the Americas, at least ten semi-rectangular hut
foundations made of roughly modified wooden logs held in place by
wooden stakes; wooden mortars containing well-preserved seeds, fruits,
and stalks of edible plants were directly associated with grinding
stones. Wooden artifacts and a few unifacial flaked stone tools were
found near small clay-lined hearths within the structures, and larger
hearths were located outside the entranceways of these houses aligned
along Chinchihuapi Creek. Monte Verde was a planned settlement with
different activity areas for food preparation, tool production, and
evidently even medical treatment. As plant remains were found which
ripen in all seasons, it was concluded that the settlement was
permanent. The presence of floral remains native to the ocean shores,
the high mountains, and even Patagonia, indicate relations with other
ecosystems, probably including trade. The presence of two large
bifaces, and an El Jobo-like point of exotic materials probably were
obtained through trade connections. Otherwise the lithic industry is
composed of simple flakes and stones with naturally sharp edges, some
of which were hafted onto wooden handles. The working edges of these
carefully selected stones show clear traces of use ([42]Dillehay and
Collins l986). Grooved bolas stones and a wooden spear with a fire
hardened tip were probably used to hunt extinct camelids and smaller
game. Mastodon bones may have been collected as useful objects,
although possibly people killed mired animals.

The final report on the artifacts from Monte Verde will give a clearer
picture of the total material culture used by early hunter/gatherers.
Test excavation across the creek in older sediments yielded several
fractured stones, LL of which show clear percussion scars and/or use
wear on their edges, in direct association with three hearth-like
features that yielded dates of about 33,000 B. P. ([43]Dillehay and
Collins l988).

Many sites dated after 8500 B. P. have been excavated on the Chilean
coast. These people collected shellfish, fished, and hunted sea
mammals and birds, sometimes with bifacial willow-leaf-shaped and
stemmed points. Some of these groups, especially in the arid north,
moved upriver seasonally to hunt terrestrial animals and collect
plants for food and medicine; however, most groups occupying the
formerly glaciated south coast moved seasonally to various coastal
localities. It has always been assumed that these Archaic maritime
cultures had developed from earlier Paleo-Indian hunting cultures that
used bifacially flaked stone projectile points, although the early
evidence from Las Vegas, Talara, and the Ring site suggests that a
general hunting/gathering economy had been followed in coastal zones
before the innovation of bifacial points. The evidence from Monte
Verde, Tagua-Tagua, Quereo, and Paiján suggests that early people
living on or near the coast utilized all sizes of readily procurable
game animals whether or not they used bifacial points. With this
interpretation, the North American terms Paleo-Indian and Archaic, as
well as their implied sequence, are clearly inapplicable in South
America.

East of the Andes, people are known to have been on Tierra del Fuego,
at the southern extremity of the Americas using a non-diagnostic
unifacial flaked stone assemblage at least by 10,400 B. P.
([44]Orquera l987). The earliest documented evidence of occupation of
Patagonia is at Los Toldos, Cave 3 in interior southern Argentina,
were the lowest cultural layer, Level LL, was dated 12,600 + 600 B. P.
([45]Cardich l978; Orquera l987). Scrapers, knives, projectile points,
and utilized flakes, all unifacially retouched, were found with bones
of guanacos, extinct camelids, and horses. About 11,000 B. P. the
shelter was reoccupied by the Toldense people, who used similar
unifacial tools, with the addition of sub-triangular bifacial points
and knives, as well as bone awls and spatulas, all associated with
horse and guanaco bones. Toldense people left the region about 8750 B.
P.; but people emphasizing unifacially retouched blades, scrapers,
knives, and denticulates occupied the cave after 7260 B. P. Evidently
these people used bolas rather than bifacial points to hunt guanacos.

Fell's Cave, in Chile north of the Straits of Magellan, is the type
site for Magellanic fishtail points, two of which have long basal
thinning scars. End and side scrapers were also recovered with broken
and burned horse bones and many butchered guanaco bones in layers
dated between 11,000 and l0,000 B. P. The subsequent occupation, dated
between 9l00 and 8l00 B. P., reportedly lacked bifacial points. Bone
points may have been used to hunt guanacos. Short triangular bifacial
points and bolas stones were found in the third occupation dated
between 8180 and 6560 B. P. The triangular points and overlapping
dates suggest some relationship with Toldense ([46]Orquera l987),
although the lack of fishtail points in Argentine Patagonian sites of
similar age remains a puzzle. Unlike North America, it seems that
standardized projectile point styles were not widely adopted by
contemporary groups. However, far to the north in central Buenos Aires
Province, fishtail points were excavated from two nearby sites in
contexts dated between l0,800 and l0,600 B. P. (Flegenheimer l987).
The only identified bone was an extinct armadillo scute. Another
locality in the region is apparently a workshop where fishtail points
were shaped, one by grinding rather than flaking. Given the absence of
kill sites, it is difficult to make a case for an early specialized
hunting horizon simply from the known distribution of fishtail points
in the southern cone ([47]Orquera l987: 354).

Extinct glyptodon and guanaco bones were found with many exotic quartz
flakes not far away at La Moderna. A bone collagen date of 6550 B. P.
on the glyptodon has been questioned because it implies late
persistence of extinct fauna ([48]Orquera l987). However, Arroyo Seco
in the southern part of Buenos Aires Province, has produced even
greater surprises concerning extinct fauna. Bifacial triangular points
occur with unifacial artifacts in an undated component. Below that
stratum, a few tools with only unifacial marginal retouch were found
associated with guanaco, deer, horse, and giant ground sloth bones.
Beneath this occupation level and with no evidence of intrusion
through the zone yielding the megafauna, were found human burials with
red ochre, perforated shell and teeth beads, and a glyptodon scute.
The suggestion that people maintained a graveyard while giant ground
sloths and giant armadillo-like glyptodons were still living in the
area appears to be confirmed by almost identical radiocarbon dates of
about 8500 B. P. on sloth and human bones (Fidalgo, et al. l986).
Certainly there is no evidence to support a model that big game
hunters with a specialized technology had much effect on the Pampan
fauna.

In southern Brazil, fishtail points are generally associated with more
recent sites, although some stemmed points may be as early as 7,000 to
8,000 B. P. ([49]Schmitz l987: 90). In fact, the only reported
evidence for big game hunting in the savannah/parkland areas of Rio
Grande do Sul are modified ground sloth bones, one of which yielded a
date of 12,770 + 220 B. P. ([50]Bombin and Bryan l978; Schmitz l987,
fig. 14). Later people occupying this savannah/parkland region along
the Rio Uruguai hunted deer and collected pitted fruits between 11,000
and 8,500 B. P. These hunter/gatherers used bifacially flaked stemmed
points, bifacial knives, and a variety or flake scrapers, pounding
stones, and anvil stones ([51]Schmitz l987).

Along the Altoparaná in northeaster Argentina, eastern Paraguay, and
south-western Brazil, a distinctive percussion flaked bifacial
industry appeared sometime after 8,000 B. P. and lasted into
protohistoric times. The large heavy bifaces, often looking like Old
World handaxes and cleavers, led to the hypothesis that this industry
was early and ultimately derived by diffusion from the Old World;
however, apparently it was simply a local adaptation to a dense
tropical forest ecosystem by hunters and collectors. Artifacts
recovered include picks, scrapers, knives, heavy choppers and
cleavers, but no bifacial projectile points.

Farther Northeast in the forested interior of the State of Sao Paulo,
at the Alice Boër site near the city of Rio Claro, a unifacial core
scraper and an end/side scraper

were recovered with several flakes on the surface of an alluvial
gravel beneath a thick sterile alluvium. Unifacial artifacts and
flakes were found throughout the clayey sand above the sterile
alluvium. Tanged bifacial points appeared near the middle of the
stratum and continued to the top. A small charcoal sample from the
middle of the stratum yielded a date of 14,200 + 1150 B. P., and a
burned chert flake from above this sample yielded a thermoluminescence
date of 10,970 B. P., below charcoal dates which clustered around
6,000 B. P. ([52]Bryan and Beltrão l978; [53]Beltrão, et al. l986;
Hurt l986). Evidence from Alice Boër suggesting that bifacial points
were innovated as early as 14,000 years ago, earlier than anywhere
else in the New World, must be confirmed at other sites; however, the
presence of stratigraphically early unifacial artifacts seems to
confirm the early dates in Rio Grande do Sul.

Farther Southwest in Sao Paulo State, but still on the Planalto, a
series of occupation settlements, including open sites and
rockshelters have been dated between 9,800 and 10,500 B. P.
([54]Collet l985). Shells of giant land snails are the most abundant
animal remains, although bones of tapir, deer, peccary, monkeys, small
rodents, turtles and fish indicate a diversified hunting and
collecting economy. Amorphous unifacial flake tools and pebble
choppers were found, but bifacial points were absent. Ground mammal
and bird bone points were used as projectile points. Flexed burials,
one of which was dated 98l0 +_ 150 B. P., were placed in the
occupation layers. The fact that these hunter/gatherers did not use
bifacial points while their contemporaries to the Northwest and south
used finely retouched tanged and stemmed bifacial points indicates
that bifacial point styles were not widely adopted. Possibly these
people seasonally climbed onto the Planalto from the coast where
bifacial points were always very rare.

Shell mounds (sambaquis) were once common the coast from Rio Grande do
Sul to Espirito Santo State north of Rio de Janeiro, although very few
of them were excavated carefully before they were destroyed for
construction materials. The largest sambaquis, more than 20 m high,
were in the States of Santa Catarina, Paraná, and Sao Paulo, where
there are many headlands, bays, inlets and estuaries which protected
shellfish beds as well as the shellmounds from ocean swells. Because
the Atlantic coast is quite stable, the gradually rising sea level
reached its maximum after about 8,000 BP, so the submerged bases of
the oldest known sambaquis, such as Maratuá near Santos, are dated
after 7800 B. P. ([55]Laming-Emperaire l968: 93-94). Most sambaquis
date after 6,000 BP and had been abandoned before the introduction of
ceramics in late prehistoric times. Flaked stone is usually rare;
amorphous quartz flakes were used for cutting and scraping. Large
percussion flaked bifaces were sometimes shaped as preforms for ground
axes ([56]Bryan l978). Pecked axes, chisels, mortars, netsinkers,
pounders and hammerstones, often with pecked depressions for cracking
palm nuts, also occur. Zooliths, beautifully polished stone
representations of animals were reportedly associated with burials,
but none have been properly excavated. Bone was used for projectile
points, fish hooks, fish gorges, spatulas, beads, and pendants.
Whalebone was made into braziers, containers, and other tools,
including clubs and spindle whorls. Mammal and shark teeth were
perforated for suspension; and shell was used for ornaments, knives,
scrapers, and containers.

Because of the preponderance of shells relative to artifacts, the
impression is gained that the occupants mainly gathered shellfish;
however, the abundance of fish, and sea and land mammal bones in many
sambaquis indicates that the people were very successful general
hunters and gatherers. Nevertheless, huge sections of shellmounds
often yield very few artifacts, an unattractive situation for
archaeologists, so sambaquis were often ignored. But shellmounds are
very significant because if it were not for preservation of the
relatively abundant bone and shell artifacts, the few amorphous flakes
and occasional hammerstone with pecked depressions (quebra cocos),
coastal occupation sites may have gone unrecognized; and we would have
had a very biased view of the prehistory of the productive Atlantic
coastal zone, which was well populated in early historic times.

Future search by underwater archaeologists in protected and resource
rich bays, lagoons, and estuaries should reveal older submerged
sambaquis, possibly some containing waterlogged perishable materials.

Limestone caves and rockshelters have been excavated in the forested
interior of the State of Minas Gerais since early in the last century.
The original purpose was to procure bones of the Pleistocene fauna;
however, human bones and artifacts were also recovered. The Danish
palaeontologist, Wilhelm Lund, excavated many caves near Lagoa Santa,
north of the city of Belo Horizonte. He concluded that the majority of
human remains had been deposited long after the extinct ground sloths,
mastodons, and other animals, except at one site where he found
fossilized human bones in apparent association with extinct mammal
bones. The human skulls from Sumidouro Cave, later studied by Pöch
(l938), included some with heavy browridges, a feature that is absent
on the later skeletons ("Lagoa Santa man") excavated by Lund and
others. About the time of Pöch's study, other less well controlled
excavations were carried out in Lund's and other caves in the area.
The animal and human bones from these excavations were stored in
crates in the State University in Belo Horizonte. Examination of the
contents of the crates in l970 revealed evidence of human workmanship
(chopping) on a few fossil bones ([57]Prous l986), but also a human
calotte with features similar to those included in Pöch's study except
that the browrideges were even more pronounced ([58]Bryan l978, figs.
7-12; Beattie and Bryan 1984). The calotte was misplaced before it
could be studied properly, although the similar state of
permineralization and the morphological features suggest that it came
from Sumidouro Cave. The calotte may or may not date to the
Pleistocene. Populations with heavy browridges are known elsewhere in
the Americas from Holocene contexts. The calotte is significant not so
much because it may be old but because it suggests that a transitional
form of early _Homo sapiens_ was present in America as well as in east
Asia. In fact, the closest morphological similarities are with
transitional _Homo Sapiens_ in China and Australia.

Excavations by the French archaeologist, Annette Laming-Emperaire, in
Lapa Vermelha IV, a large rock shelter in the Lagoa Santa region,
finally confirmed the association of extinct fauna with human remains.
Scattered bones of a giant ground sloth were recovered from a fissure
at the rear of the cave, and human bones of the Lagoa Santa type
without heavy browridges were found below in a level dated LL,600 and
l0,200 B. P. ([59]Laming-Emperaire, et al. l975; Prous l986a; Prous
l986b). Minimally retouched quartz flakes and cores were excavated
from a statum dated 22,400 in the main part of the cave, while a
unifacially retouched side scraper came from just above charcoal dated
>25,000 B. P. Excavations farther north in Minas Gerais yielded
several quartz crystal flakes and red ochre associated with an
extensive hearth dated 11,960 + 250 B. P. in the Gran Abrigo de
Santana do Riacho ([60]Prous l986a; [61]l986b).

Many other caves and rockshelters have been excavated in Minas Gerais,
Goias, and Bahia, although only preliminary and summary reports have
been published. Some of these caves have yielded worked fossil bones
of mastodon, sloth, and horse; but the lack of collagen in the bone
has precluded radiocarbon dating. Charcoal dates on later levels are
available back to about l0,000 B. P. The flaked stone industry from
these caves is always unifacial. In fact, except for the occasional
exotic trade item, the flaked stone technology remained unifacial
until ceramics were adopted in the late First Millennium A. D. In most
areas, shaped flaked stone artifacts are rare and late; however, in
southern Goias a distinctive unifacially shaped limace (lesma in
Portuguese) appeared between about 11,000 and 9,000 B. P. associated
with unifacial choppers, knives, scrapers, and perforators. Heavy wear
on one edge near one end suggests that the lesmas were used as
scrapers ([62]Schmitz, et al. l976; l989). Small and medium-sized
mammals, reptiles, and birds, as well as fish and freshwater mollusks

were hunted, presumably with wooden spears, or gathered along with
palm nuts, that were broken open with hammerstones containing pecked
depressions on the sides. In the semiarid region of southern Piauí,
several rock shelters at the base of a metamorphosed sandstone
escarpment have been excavated near Sao Raimundo Nonato by a
Franco-Brazilian team. The original intent was to date the rock art on
the rear walls, but extensive and deeply buried evidences of
occupation altered the prime objective, and there is now a research
institute and a museum which is attracting tourists to the town
([63]Guidon l986; [64]Delibrias and Guidon l986; [65]Delibrias, et al.
l989; [66]Parenti, et al. 1990). The Toca do Sitio do Meio was
extensively tested in l978 and l980, but roof fall, consisting of
large boulders, has prevented excavation of the lower layers.
Nevertheless, pebble core choppers and unifacial flake tools were
found associated with hearths dated 14,300, 13,900, 12,440, and 12,200
B. P.

Between l978 and l988, major excavations were carried out at the
nearby Toca do Boqueirão da Pedra Furada because the roof of this
large rock shelter collapsed only in front, creating a lip mound or
rampart which would have screened occupants from view by anyone in the
valley 20 m below. An alluvial fan, composed of quartz pebbles eroded
from a formation high on the cliff face, has built up at one corner of
the shelter. This fan contained a ready source of flakeable pebbles,
although exotic quartzite pebbles were also found on several
occupation floors, and chert was added in the upper layers. Except for
one exotic bifacial point in an upper layer, the entire flaked stone
industry is unifacial. Flake scrapers, notched flakes, pointed
pebbles, pebble choppers, and hammerstones were identified, in
addition to many cores and unretouched flakes, which are workshop
detritus. A few artifacts examined under a scanning electron
microscope revealed evidence of use striations, so the site is much
more than simply a quarry/workshop where people also drew pictures on
the walls.

The original objective of dating the rock art was successful. A
sandstone wall spall bearing traces of red paint was found directly
associated with a hearth dated 17,000 + 400 B. P. Extensive beds of
charcoal, similar to hearths found elsewhere in Brazilian caves where
people evidently dragged in limbs and logs to keep fires burning
overnight, were found from near the surface to almost five m deep. The
earliest people broke up some boulders with fire and rearranged them
to make level areas for rock-lined hearths. Charcoal from this early
horizon has been dated 41,000, 42,400 and  47,000 B. P. More than a
dozen stratigraphically consistent radiocarbon dates on hearths built
on later occupation floors have been dated between 32,160 and 6,100 B.
P. The problem of the lack of bone preservation in the sandstone
shelters has been overcome by excavations in nearby limestone caves,
where bones of many Pleistocene animals have been recovered in
addition to the fragment of a highly permineralized and thick-walled
human calotte ([67]Guérin l99l), study of which may help confirm the
calotte from Lagoa Santa.

Announcement of these dates in preliminary reports has created
consternation among North American archaeologists who have accepted
the model that the Clovis people were the earliest Americans. None of
these sceptic have visited the site, but they feel secure in their
conviction that the artifacts must be naturefacts, the hearths are
really from forest fires (e.g., [68]Lynch l990), and even that the
excavators are inadequately trained ([69]Fagan l990b). Probably only a
final report on the evidence from these sites will finally quell the
controversy.

In the end these and all other sites dated as early as or earlier than
Clovis will force rejection of the currently popular "Clovis-first"
model and acceptance of an alternative explanatory model that does not
have to explain away much of the actual reported archaeological data
found throughout South, Central, and North America. Such a model would
allow east Asians with a general hunting/fishing/gathering economy and
a simple unifacial flaked stone technology gradually to expand their
territory around the Northwest Pacific onto the unglaciated Bering
Land Bridge, and then down the Northwest Coast of North America before
it finally became glaciated. People with a maritime orientation would
have stayed along the coast, although some groups would have budded
off and moved up unglaciated river valleys, which would also provide
productive ecosystems for general hunters and gatherers. Eventually,
in a few open grassland areas which supported herds of herbivores
having predictable habits but few edible vegetal foods, some people
moving inland from the coasts and rivers would experiment with more
effective methods for obtaining game, including innovation of
bifacially flaked stone projectile points by a process of transference
from similarly shaped wood and bone points. Exactly when the long
process of the peopling of the Americas began will be determined by
future archaeologists who are not hampered by a model with untenable
assumptions that unduly restricts free scientific thought and action.

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