Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-gxg78 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-26T16:46:12.444Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Paleoenvironments and Cultural Diversity in Late Pleistocene South America

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Alan L. Bryan
Alan L. Bryan*
Affiliation:
University of Alberta, Edmonton 7, Alberta, Canada
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

After a summary assessment of certain selected early man sites in various parts of America, the environment of the Venezuelan coastal plain is discussed in order to evaluate the stratigraphy and radiometric dating of the Taima-Taima site, near Coro, Venezuela, where mammals, many now extinct, were killed by people making El Jobo points about 13,000 years ago.

Potentially important areas in Peru, Chile and Brazil are mentioned. Certain problems in the models and interpretation of South American paleoclimates are pointed out.

The presence of at least four different bifacially flaked stone projectile point traditions in widely separated and environmentally diverse parts of America between 11,000 and 13,000 yr ago suggests that the immediate cultural antecedents of these traditions were essentially independent of one another. From this it is argued that several early American flaked-stone point traditions developed indigenously in America from technological bases which were present in the Old World Middle Paleolithic.

Type
Original Articles
Information
Quaternary Research , Volume 3 , Issue 2 , August 1973 , pp. 237 - 256
Copyright
University of Washington

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Ackerman, Robert E., (1968). The archaeology of the Glacier Bay region, Southeastern Alaska. Washington State University. Laboratory of Anthropology, Report of Investigations 44, Pullman.Google Scholar
Allee, W.C., Schmidt, Karl P., (1951). Ecological Animal Geography. John Wiley & Sons New York.Google Scholar
Allen, Glover M., (1942). Extinct and vanishing mammals of the Western Hemisphere. American Committee for International Wildlife Protection, Special Publication 11, Lancaster.Google Scholar
Atlas Forestal de Venezuela. Direccion de Recursos, Naturales Renovables Caracas.Google Scholar
Bartholomew, George A., Dawson, W.R., (1968). Temperature regulation in desert mammals. Brown, G.W. Jr., Desert Biology Academic Press New York 395–421.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bennett, Charles F., (1968). Human influences on the zoogeography of Panama. Ibero Americana 51, Berkeley.Google Scholar
Berger, Rainer, Libby, W.F., (1969). UCLA Radiocarbon Dates IX. Radiocarbon 11, 1 194–209.Google Scholar
Bigarella, João José, Osorio de Andrade, Gilberto, (1965). Contribution to the study of Brazilian Quaternary. Geological Society of America, Special Paper 84, 433–451.Google Scholar
Bird, Junius B., (1970). Paleo-Indian discoidal stones from southern South America. American Antiquity 35, 2 205–209.Google Scholar
Bryan, Alan, Gruhn, Ruth, (1972). A Great Basin small tool tradition. Paper presented at the Basin Anthropological Conference Salt Lake City.Google Scholar
Churcher, C.S., (1966). The insect fauna from the Talara tar-Seeps, Peru. Canadian Journal of Zoology 44, 6 985–994.Google Scholar
Cressman, Luther S., (1970). Fort Rock Report. Paper read at Northwest Anthropological Conference Oregon State University, Corvallis.Google Scholar
Cruxent, J.M., (1967). El Paleo-Indio en Taima-Taima, estado Falcón, Venezuela. Acta Cientifica Venezolana, Suppl. 3, 3–17.Google Scholar
Cruxent, J.M., (1970). Projectile points with Pleistocene mammals in Venezuela. Antiquity 44, 175 223–225.Google Scholar
Curray, Joseph R., (1970). Quaternary influence, coast and continental shelf of western U.S.A. and Mexico. Quaternaria 12, 19–34.Google Scholar
Damuth, John E., Fairbridge, Rhodes W., (1970). Equatorial Atlantic deep-sea arkosic sands and Ice-Age aridity in tropical South America. Geological Society of America Bulletin 81, 189–206.Google Scholar
Delaney, Patrick J.V., (1963). Quaternary geological history of the coastal plain of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil. Louisiana State University Coastal Studies No. 7Baton Rouge.Google Scholar
Federmann, Nicolas, (1945). Viaje a las Indias del Mar Oceano. Editorial Novo Buenos Aires.Google Scholar
Flannery, Kent, (1967). Vertebrate fauna and hunting patterns. Douglas Byers, , The Pre-history of the Tehuacan Valley Vol. I, R. S. Peabody Foundation. University of Texas Press Austin 132–177.Google Scholar
Fuezalida, V.Humberto, Cooke, R., Paskoff, R., Segerstrom, K., Weischet, W., (1965). High stands of Quaternary sea level along the Chilean coast. Geological Society of America Special Paper 84, 473–496.Google Scholar
Funk, Robert E., Fisher, Donald W., Reilly, Edgar M. Jr., (1970). Caribou and Paleo-Indian in New York State: a presumed association. American Journal of Science 268, 181–186.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gruhn, Ruth, (1965). Two early radiocarbon dates from the lower levels of Wilson Butte, Cave, South-central Idaho. Tebiwa 8, 57.Google Scholar
van der Hammen, T., Gonzalez, E., (1960). Upper Pleistocene and Holocene climate and vegetation of the “Sabana de Bogotá”. Leidse Geologische Mededelingen 25, 261–315.Google Scholar
Haynes, C.Vance Jr., (1971). Time,environment and early man. Arctic Anthropology 8, 3–14.Google Scholar
Hurt, Wesley, van der Hammen, Thomas, Correal Urrego, Gonzalo, (1972). Preceramic sequences in the El Abra rock-shelters, Colombia. Science 175, 1106–1108.Google Scholar
Hurt, Wesley, Blasi, Oldemar, (1969). O projecto arqueologico “Lagoa Santa,” Minas Gerais, Brasil. Arquivos do Museu Paranaense, Arqueologia No. 4Curitiba.Google Scholar
Irving, William N., Harington, C.R., (1973). Upper Plcistocene radiocarbon-dated artefacts from the northern Yukon. Science 179, 335–340.Google Scholar
Irwin-Williams, Cynthia, (1967). Associations of early man with horse, camel and mastodon at Huyeatlaco, Valsequillo (Puebla, Mexico). Martin, P.S., Wright, H.E. Jr., Pleistocene Extinctions Yale University Press New Haven 337–347.Google Scholar
Lamb, H.H., Woodroffe, A., (1970). Atmospheric circulation during the Last Ice Age. Quaternary Research 1, 29–58.Google Scholar
Lemon, R.R.H., Churcher, C.S., (1961). Pleistocene geology and paleontology of the Talara Region, Northwest Peru. American Journal of Science 259, 410–429.Google Scholar
Liddle, Ralph A., (1946). 2nd ed. The Geology of Venezuela and Trinidad Paleontological Research Institution Ithaca.Google Scholar
Lorenzo, JoséL., (1971). Problèmes du peuplement de l'Amérique à la lumière des découvertes de Tlapacoya (Mexique). Origine de l'Homme Moderne. Ecologie et conservation 3 Unesco Paris 261–264.Google Scholar
Lynch, Thomas F., Kennedy, Kenneth A.R., (1970). Early human cultural and skeletal remains from Guitarrero Cave, Northern Peru. Science 169, 1307–1309.Google Scholar
McKennan, R.A., Cook, J.P., (1968). Prehistory of Healy Lake, Alaska. Proceedings of VIII International Congress of Anthropological and Ethnological Sciences Vol. III, 182–184Tokyo-Kyoto.Google Scholar
MacDonald, George F., (1968). Debert: A Paleo-Indian site in central Nova Scotia. National Museum of Canada, Anthropology Papers No. 16.Google Scholar
MacNeish, R.S., (1970). Second Annual Report of the Ayacucho Archaeological-Botanical Project. R. S. Peabody Foundation for Archaeology, Phillips Academy Andover.Google Scholar
Martin, Paul S., (1973). The Discovery of America. Science 179, 969–974.Google Scholar
Miller, George, (1969). Man and Smilodon. A preliminary report on their possible coexistence at Rancho La Brea. Los Angeles County Museum, Contributions in Science No. 163.Google Scholar
Miller, Tom O. Jr., (1969). Pre-historia da região de Rio Claro, S. P.: Tradicões em divergencia. Cadernos Rioclarenses de Ciencias Humanas No. 1 22–52Rio Claro.Google Scholar
Montané, Julio, (1968). Paleo-Indian remains from Laguna de Tagua-Tagua, Central Chile. Science 161, 1137–1138.Google Scholar
Orr, Phil C., (1960). Late Pleistocene marine terraces on Santa Rosa Island, California. Geological Society of America Bulletin 71, 1113–1120.Google Scholar
Orr, Phil C., Berger, Rainer, (1966). The fire areas on Santa Rosa Island, California. National Acedemy of Sciences Proceedings 56, 1409–1416Part IOrr, Phil C., Berger, Rainer, The fire areas on Santa Rosa Island, California. National Academy of Sciences Proceedings 56, 1678–1682Part II.Google Scholar
Richards, H.G., Broecker, W., (1963). Emerged Holocene South American shorelines. Science 141, 1044–1045.Google Scholar
Rouse, Iriing, Cruxent, J.M., (1963). Venezuelan Archaeology. Yale University Press New Haven.Google Scholar
Royo y Gomez, José, (1960). El yacimiento de vertebrados Pleistocenos de Muaco, Estado Falcón, Venezuela, con industria litica humana. International Geological Congress Norden Copenhagen 154–15721st Report, Part 4.Google Scholar
Schobinger, Juan, (1969). Prehistoria de Suramerica. Nueva Coleccion Labor 95, , Barcelona.Google Scholar
Sutton, F.A., (1946). Geology of Maracaibo Basin, Venezuela. American Association of Petroleum Geologists Bulletin 30, 10 1621–1741.Google Scholar
Tamayo, Francisco, (1964). Ensavo de clasificcacion de sabanas de Venezuela. University Central de Venezuela Caracas.Google Scholar
Tamers, M.A., (1966). Instituto Venezolano de Investigaciones Cientificas natural radiocarbon measurements II. Radiocarbon 8, 204–212.Google Scholar
Tamers, M.A., (1969). IVIC Natural radiocarbon measurements IV. Radiocarbon 12, 509–525.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tamers, M.A., (1971). IVIC Natural radiocarbon measurements VI. Radiocarbon 13, 32–44.Google Scholar
Thornthwaite, C.W., (1965). Average climatic water balance data of the continents, Part VIII, South America. Laboratory of Climatology, Technical Report No. 8Associates.Google Scholar
Trewartha, Glenn T., (1961). The Earth's Problem Climates. University of Wisconsin Press Madison.Google Scholar
Tuohy, Donald R., (1969). Breakage, burin facets, and the probable technological linkage among Lake Mohave, Silver Lake, and other varieties of projectile points in the Desert West. Nevada State Museum, Anthropological Papers No. 14 133–152Miscellaneous Paper No. 6.Google Scholar
Vila, Pablo, (1960). Geografia de Venezuela. Comisión Redactora de una Geografia de Venezuela Caracas3 volumes.Google Scholar
Walter, H., (1964). Productivity of vegetation in arid countries; the savannah problem and bush encroachment after overgrazing. The Ecology of Man in the Tropical Environment. International Union for the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources, Proceedings 221–229.Google Scholar
Willey, Gordon R., (1971). An Introduction to American Archaeology. Vol. II, Prentice-Hall Englewood Cliffs, NJSouth America.Google Scholar
Zeuner, Frederick, (1952). 3rd ed. Dating the Past Methuen London.Google Scholar