/Pendejo Cave (New Mexico, USA)/ Pendejo cave is at 1396 m above sea level (photo A. H. Harris, 2 February 1991) The human figures in front of the cave provide a sense of scale. At the 63rd Annual Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology, Seattle WA, 26 March 1998, Presenter, D. Chrisman, University of Massachusetts Amherst, Department of Anthropology, the following scientific points were made (and illustrated). Presenting dates of 13,000, 36,000 and even an eye-watering 51,000 years before the present took some guts at a time when the "Clovis First" orthodoxy still ruled! We reproduce only the introductory text here. If you want to see the whole presentation and the illustrations, click here: Pendejo Cave . /Human Modification of Animal Bones in Pre-Clovis Zones of Pendejo Cave, Orogrande, New Mexico, USA/ by R. S. MacNeish, D. Chrisman and G. Cunnar The Andover Foundation for Archaeological Research Pendejo Cave sits in a mid-Permian limestone cliff overlooking Rough Canyon and the dry beds of glacial lakes that attracted herds of now-extinct elephants, bison, horses, and camels. It is 48 km south of Alamogordo, New Mexico; about 16 km to the northeast is the southern end of the Sacramento Mountains, which was the furthest southern extent of the last Wisconsin glaciation. The north-facing cave is dry and was formed by earth movement rather than stream action. The cave is 13 m deep north-south, 6 m wide, and about 8 m high. Before excavation, about 2.5 m of dry deposits covered the floor in the center of the cave. Twenty-two extremely well-defined strata were uncovered within the cave, and they yielded 72 radiocarbon dates on charcoal, wood, and other botanical remains, 60 of these determinations being in the pre-Clovis period (earlier than 11,500 years before the present). Accelerator testing of the zone C2 hair, very probably human (per lateral view), yielded two radiocarbon dates - 12,370 ±80 years before the present (UCR3276A) and 12,240 ± 70 years before the present (UCR3276B). Under the auspices of the Fort Bliss Environmental Management Office headed by Glenn DeGarmo, excavation of the cave was carried out between 1990 and 1993. During excavation, the materials recovered were submitted to analysis by a variety of interdisciplinary scientists whose studies on the geology, climatology, paleontology, botany, palynology, and dating are being prepared for a forthcoming report on the site and its environment. Among the artifacts and features found during excavation were a number very suggestive of human occupation; these included hearths, clay-lined pits, cordage, animal bones with evidence of modification (probably by humans), and many possible crude stone tools, about half of them made from minerals foreign to the cave. More direct evidence of human occupation was signaled by human friction skin imprints (fingers and palms) on river clay brought up to the cliff cave and packed into pits which were hardened by fire (Chrisman, Donald, Richard S. MacNeish, Jamshed Mavahwalla and Howard Savage, 1996, Late Pleistocene Human Friction Skin Prints from Pendejo Cave, N.M., /American Antiquity /61 (2):357-376) and by discovery of forensically human hair found in zones 19,200 and 12,400 years old. From among many probable artifacts from pre-Clovis zones of Pendejo Cave, we selected 6 specimens showing evidence of human modification of animal bones. These indicate manufacture of bone tools and ornaments and marrowing. They come from well-defined and dated layers, ranging from ca 13,000 to 50,000 years before the present. Included are a pendant, an awl-knife and a serrated knife, all showing incised or ground grooves. Of three broken bones-one was probably caused by a worked stone wedge; another by impact of a tool or spear point whose broken tip remains stuck; and a bison humerus which was broken, marrowed, then retouched. Techniques used include stereolithography and 3D groove reconstruction. Pendejo is a small limestone cave with an entrance about 5 m wide, a length of about 12 m and a maximum height of 3 m. The cave was discovered in 1989 by Macneish who also excavated there in 1990 and 1991. On 2 Feb 1991 Harris visited the cave in company of MacNeish and Bonnichsen. The following stratification is reported (description adapted from http://www.utep.edu/LEB/paleo/site62.htm which site also has a list of animal bones found at Pendejo. (Zone) - A (5-13 cm depth), bird droppings, vegetation, and other recent material. Zone - B to F: mainly archaic material. Zones - C1 to C5: alternating vegetal and ash layers. Zone - D (20 cm): ash, overlying D1, a thin localized charcoal floor (zone) - E a layer of gray ash overlying E1, (20 cm) white ash layer heavily cemented by water and so preventing vertical movement of materials. Zone - F (20 cm) charcoal floor, probably Early Archaic (6,300-8,000 before the present). Zones E1 and F1 contain a few extinct mammal bones, thought to be intrusions from older levels (zone) - G (20 cm-) ash produced a large number of extinct animal remains. Associated with the fauna "was a small artifact assemblage that included three snub-nosed end scrapers, a prismatic blade, and a graver...." For lower layers, the test trench was expanded to a width of 3 m, then extended downward in centre 1 m. - H (5-15 cm) charcoal floor; - I (15-20 cm) gray-brown ash; - J ( 5-10 cm) charcoal floor; - K (20 cm) cemented white ash; - L (10-30 cm) intermixed charcoal and sediment - M: thin gray ash; - N: (10-30 cm) orange sand; - O: (10-30 cm) white ash Tools: About 90 chipped tone tools from the lower cave levels, of which there are 12 in G and about 10 in each of the layers beneath. G can possibly be assigned to Clovis. In H to J, there is a change to a more generalized flake-tool assemblage, including unifacial side scrapers, large spokeshave-like implements, utilized flakes, and large ovoid cores. Spokeshaves and utilized flakes continue into Zone K with the addition of a bifacial core tool and a knife made from a rib bone. Zones L-N dominate by unifacial points, bifacial choppers, utilized flakes, and possible worked bone. Zone O is heavy on choppers and pebble tools and has a bone awl made from the scapula of a horse. Most of stone tools of quartzite pebbles which have to have been brought in. Among web sites with much further information are: - http://www.utep.edu/LEB/paleo/site62.htm - http://www.angelfire.com/indie/anna_jones1/pendejo.html - http://www.desertusa.com/mag01/may/main/cave.html [ Go to HOME <../../../index.htm> ] [ Go to CONTENTS OF OUT-OF-AFRICA CHAPTERS <../../text-group-Migration.htm> ] [ Go to CONTENTS OF AMERICA CHAPTERS <../text54.htm> ] Last change 9 April 2007