Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-g8jcs Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-28T14:22:26.317Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

A Review of Lynch's Descriptions of South American Pleistocene Sites

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Ruth Gruhn  and
Alan L. Bryan
Ruth Gruhn
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada T6G 2H4
Alan L. Bryan
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada T6G 2H4
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The description of major South American Pleistocene sites by Lynch (1990) contains significant errors and omissions. The artifact assemblage at the Colombian site of Tibitó, dated at 11,740 ± 140 B.P., is much larger than indicated by Lynch and well represents the Abriense industry, which features small unifacially retouched flake tools and core tools, with no stone projectile points. Lynch did not describe the 1976 stratigraphic profile at the Venezuelan site of Taima-Taima, and he failed to refer to the evidence for butchering of the juvenile mastodon with which an El Jobo projectile point fragment and a utilized flake were associated directly. The descriptions of Brazilian sites also feature serious mistakes. For the site of Alice Boër, Lynch overlooked a thick sterile stratigraphic unit (Bed IV) that intervenes between Bed III, with its thermoluminescence dates as early as 10,970 ± 1020 B.P. and radiocarbon dates as early as 14,200 ± 1150 B.P., and the artifact-bearing surface of Bed V. For Lapa Vermelha, Lynch failed to indicate that several artifacts were recovered from an older cemented cave fill that yielded radiocarbon dates of 22,410 B.P. and > 25,000 B.P. Lynch’s description of the site of Toca do Boqueirào da Pedra Furada does not correspond to eyewitness reports, and his description of the nearby Toca do Sitio do Meio was incomplete and confused. Finally, in his description of the stratigraphy of the Patagonian site of Los Toldos, Cueva 3 Lynch misquoted and misconstrued the original reports, which indicate clearly the stratigraphic priority and integrity of the Level 11 industry. For accurate descriptions of early South American archaeological sites, readers are urged to examine the original sources.

Résumé

Résumé

La descripción de los sitios Pleistocénicos más importantes en Sudamérica, escrita por Lynch (1990), contiene serios errores y omisiones. El conjunto artefactual del sitio colombiano Tibitó (11,740 ± 140 B.P.) es mucho más extenso de lo indicado por Lynch, representando Men la industria Abriense, la que incluye herramientas pequeñas fabricadas por retoque unifacial de lascas y núcleos, pero no tiene puntas de proyectil de piedra. Lynch no describió el perfil estratigráfico (1976) del sitio venezolano Taima-Taima, o mencionó la evidencia de la matanza de un mastodonte juvenil asociado con una punta de proyectil de tipo El Jobo y con una lasca con huella de uso. La descripción de los sitios brasileños también contiene errores serios. En cuanto al sitio Alice Boër, Lynch ignoró una unidad estratigráfica densa y estéril (Estrato IV) localizada entre el Estrato III, que tiene fechados de termoluminiscencia de 10,970 ± 1020 B.P. y fechados de 14C de 14,200 ± 1150 B.P., y la superficie del Estrato V, la cual contiene artefactos. Con relación a Lapa Vermelha, Lynch no indicó que varios artefactos fueron recuperados en el relleno cementado de una cueva más antigua, el que rindió fechas de 14C de 22,410 B.P. y > 25,000 B.P. La descripción del sitio Toca do Boqueirao da Pedra Furada no corresponde a los informes de quienes visitaron el sitio, y su descripción del sitio cercano Toca do Sitio do Meiofue incompleta y confusa. Finalmente, en su descripción de la estratigrafia del sitio patagónico Los Toldos, Cueva 3, Lynch citó incorrectamente y malinterpretó los informes originales, que indican claramente la prioridad e integridad estratigráfica de la Industria del Nivel 11. Si el lector desea descripciones exactas de los sitios arqueológicos sudamericanos tempranos, él debe examinar los informes originales.

Type
Comments
Information
American Antiquity , Volume 56 , Issue 2 , April 1991 , pp. 342 - 348
Copyright
Copyright © The Society for American Archaeology 1991

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

References Cited

Bednarik, R. G. 1989 On the Pleistocene Settlement of South America. Antiquity 63 : 101–111.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Beltrao, M. C. de M. C. 1974 Datacoes arqueologicas mais antigas do Brasil. Anais da Academia Brasileira de Ciencias 46(2) : 211–251.Google Scholar
Beltrao, M. C. de M. C, Enriquez, C. R., Danon, J., Zuleta, E., and Poupeau, G. 1986 Thermoluminescence Dating of Burnt Cherts from the Alice Boer Site, Brazil. In New Evidence for the Pleistocene Peopling of the Americas, edited by Bryan, A. L., pp. 203–213. Center for the Study of the First Americans, University of Maine, Orono.Google Scholar
Bryan, A. L. 1973 Paleoenvironments and Cultural Diversity in Late Pleistocene South America. Quaternary Research 3 : 237–255.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bryan, A. L. 1975 Paleoenvironments and Cultural Diversity in Late Pleistocene South America : A Reply to Thomas Lynch and a Rejoinder to Vance Haynes. Quaternary Research 5 : 151–159.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bryan, A. L. 1979 The Stratigraphy of Taima-Taima. In Taima-Taima : A Late Pleistocene Paleo-Indian Kill Site in Northernmost South America— Final Reports of 1976 Excavations, edited by Ochsenius, C. and Gruhn, R., pp. 41–52. Programa CIPICS, Monografias Cientificas. Universidad Francisco de Miranda, Coro, Venezuela.Google Scholar
Bryan, A. L., and de, M. C. Beltrao, M. C. 1978 An Early Stratified Site Near Rio Claro, East-Central Sao Paulo State, Brazil. In Early Man in America from a Circum-Pacific Perspective, edited by Bryan, A. L., pp. 303–305. Department of Anthropology, University of Alberta, Edmonton.Google Scholar
Bryan, A. L., and Gruhn, R. 1979 The Radiocarbon Dates of Taima-Taima. In Taima-Taima : A Late Pleistocene Paleo-Indian Kill Site in Northernmost South America— Final Reports of 1976 Excavations, edited by Ochsenius, C. and Gruhn, R., pp. 53–58. Programa CIPICS, Monografias Cientificas. Universidad Francisco de Miranda, Coro, Venezuela.Google Scholar
Bryan, A. L., Casamiquela, R. M., Cruxent, J. M., Gruhn, R., and Ochsenius, C. 1978 An El Jobo Mastodon Kill at Taima-Taima, Venezuela. Science 200 : 1275–1277.Google Scholar
Cardich, A. 1978 Recent Excavations at Lauricocha (Central Andes) and Los Toldos (Patagonia). In Early Man in America from a Circum-Pacific Perspective, edited by Bryan, A. L., pp. 296–300. Department of Anthropology, University of Alberta, Edmonton.Google Scholar
Cardich, A. 1984 Paleoambientes y la mas antigua presencia del hombre. In Las culturas de America en la Epoca del Descubrimiento : Seminario sobre la situacion de la investigacion de las culturas indigenas de la Patagonia, pp. 13–35. Ediciones Culture Hispanica, Madrid.Google Scholar
Cardich, A., and Flegenheimer, N. 1978 Descripcion y tipologia de las industrias liticas mas antiguas de Los Toldos. Relaciones de la Sociedad Argentina de Antropologia 12 : 225–242.Google Scholar
Cardich, A., Cardich, L. A., and Hajduk, A. 1973 Secuencia arqueologica y cronologia radiocarbonica de la Cueva 3 de Los Toldos (Santa Cruz, Argentina). Relaciones de la Sociedad Argentina de Antropologia 7 : 85–123.Google Scholar
Cardich, A., Miotti, L. L., and Castro, A. S. 1987 Paleoindians in the Patagonian Region : Los Toldos Archaeological Locality, Santa Cruz Province, Argentina. Current Research in the Pleistocene 4 : 145–147.Google Scholar
Casamiquela, R. M. 1979 An Interpretation of the Fossil Vertebrates of the Taima-Taima Site. In Taima-Taima : A Late Pleistocene Paleo-Indian Kill Site in Northernmost South America— Final Report of 1976 Excavations, edited by Ochsenius, C. and Gruhn, R., pp. 59–76. Programa CIPICS, Monografias Cientificas, Universidad Francisco de Miranda, Coro, Venezuela.Google Scholar
Correal Urrego, G. 1981 Evidencias culturales y megafauna pleistocinica en Colombia. Publication No. 12. Fundacion de Investigations Arqueologicas National, Banco de la Republica, Bogota.Google Scholar
Correal Urrego, G. 1986 Apuntes sobre el medioambiente pleistocenico y el hombre prehistorico en Colombia. In New Evidence for the Pleistocene Peopling of the Americas, edited by Bryan, A. L., pp. 115–131. Center for the Study of the First Americans, University of Maine, Orono.Google Scholar
Cruxent, J. M. 1967 El paleo-indio en Taima-Taima, Estado Falcon, Venezuela. Acta Cientifka Venezolana Suplemento 3 : 3–17.Google Scholar
Cruxent, J. M. 1970 Projectile Points with Pleistocene Mammals in Venezuela. Antiquity 44 : 2211–225.Google Scholar
Delibrias, G., and Guidon, N. 1986 The Rock Shelter Toca do Boqueirao do Sitio da Pedra Furada. L' Anthropologie 90 : 307–316.Google Scholar
Dillehay, T. D., and Collins, M. B. 1991 Monte Verde, Chile : A Reply to Lynch. American Antiquity 56 : 331–341.Google Scholar
Dincauze, D. F. 1984 An Archaeo-Logical Evaluation of the Case for Pre-Clovis Occupations. In Advances in World Archaeology, vol. 3, edited by Wendorf, F. and Close, A., pp. 275–323. Academic Press, New York.Google Scholar
Gruhn, R., and Bryan, A. L. 1984 The Record of Pleistocene Megafaunal Extinction at Taima-Taima, Northern Venezuela. In Quaternary Extinctions : A Prehistoric Revolution, edited by Martin, P. S. and Klein, R. G., pp. 128–137. University of Arizona Press, Tucson.Google Scholar
Guidon, N. 1986 Las unidades culturales de Sao Raimundo Nonato— Sudeste del Estado de Piaui— Brasil. In New Evidence for the Pleistocene Peopling of the Americas, edited by Bryan, A. L., pp. 157–171. Center for the Study of the First Americans, University of Maine, Orono.Google Scholar
Guidon, N. 1989 On Stratigraphy and Chronology at Pedra Furada. Current Anthropology 30 : 641–642.Google Scholar
Guidon, N., and Delibrias, G. 1985 Inventaire des sites Sud-Americains anterieurs a 12. 000 ans. L' Anthropologie 89 : 385–408.Google Scholar
Guidon, N., and Delibrias, G. 1986 Carbon-14 Dates Point to Man in the Americas 32, 000 Years Ago. Nature 321 : 769–771.Google Scholar
Haynes, C. V. 1974 Paleoenvironments and Cultural Diversity in Late Pleistocene South America : A Reply to A. L. Bryan. Quaternary Research 4 : 378–382.Google Scholar
Hurt, W. R. 1986 The Cultural Relationships of the Alice Boer Site, State of Sao Paulo, Brazil. In New Evidence for the Pleistocene Peopling of the Americas, edited by Bryan, A. L., pp. 215–220. Center for the Study of the First Americans, University of Maine, Orono.Google Scholar
Laming-Emperaire, A. 1979 Missions archeologiques franco-bresiliennes de Lagoa Santa, Minas Gerais, Bresil—le Gran Abri de Lapa Vermelha (P. L.). Revista de Pre-historia 1 : 53–89. Sao Paulo.Google Scholar
Laming-Emperaire, A., Prous, A., Moraes, A., and de, M. C. Beltrao, M. C. 1975 Grottes et abris de la region de Lagoa Santa, Minas Gerais, Bresil. Cahiers d'Archeologie d'Amerique du Sud. Paris.Google Scholar
Lynch, T. F. 1974 The Antiquity of Man in South America. Quaternary Research 4 : 356–377.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lynch, T. F. 1990 Glacial-Age Man in South America? A Critical Review. American Antiquity 55 : 12–36.Google Scholar
Ochsenius, C, and Gruhn, R. (editors) 1979 Taima-Taima : A Late Pleistocene Paleo-Indian Kill Site in Northernmost South America— Final Reports of 1976 Excavations. Programa CIPICS, Monografias Cientificas, Universidad Francisco de Miranda, Coro, Venezuela.Google Scholar
Owen, R. C. 1984 The Americas : The Case Against an Ice-Age Population. In The Origins of Modern Humans, edited by Smith, F. H. and Spencer, F., pp. 517–563. Liss, New York.Google Scholar
Prous, A. 1981 Fouilles du Gran Abri de Santana do Riacho (MG), Bresil. Journal de la Societe des Americanistes 67 : 163–183.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Prous, A. 1986a L'archeologie au Bresil : 300 siecles d'occupation humaine. L' Anthropologic 90 : 257–306.Google Scholar
Prous, A. 1986b Os mais antigos vestigios arqueologicos no Brasil Central (estados de Minas Gerais, Goias e Bahia). In New Evidence for the Pleistocene Peopling of the Americas, edited by Bryan, A. L., pp. 173–182. Center for the Study of the First Americans, University of Maine, Orono.Google Scholar
Tamers, M. 1970 IVIC Natural Radiocarbon Measurements IV. Radiocarbon 12 : 509–525.Google Scholar
van der Hammen, T. 1974 The Pleistocene Changes of Vegetation and Climate in Tropical South America. Journal ofBiogeography 1 : 3–26.Google Scholar