As readers of this blog must be
aware, I am quite fascinated by the peopling of the Americas. I often look at
websites which take an unbiased view of the possible evidence of the earlier
claims of man in the Americas. Of particular interest is the Center for the
Study of the First Americans (CSFA). A marvellous resource is their archive of
the publications Mammoth Trumpet and Current Research in the Pleistocene. They
are often a goldmine of information about less well known archaeological sites.
Recently, while reading a back issue (1) I came across information on a site I
have long been interested in: Santa Elina rock shelter in Brazil.
The rock shelter was first discovered due to the
thousands of both geometric and human figures, such as this one from Vialou
(6):
One of the 1000’s of human
figures and geometric designs up to ca. 10,000 BP painted at Santa Elina rock
shelter from Vialou (6), original caption: Rock Shelter, Santa Elina: Indian
painting.
Here’s the information from the Mammoth
Trumpet article:
“Another Brazilian site, the Santa Elina rockshelter, located in
central Mato Grosso state, has produced early radiocarbon and
thermoluminescence dates on stratigraphic levels containing remains of
Glossotherium (a giant ground sloth) and associated lithic artifacts. This
large limestone rockshelter is currently under excavation by Agueda and Denis
Vilhena Vialou; and only preliminary reports are presently available (2).
To date, three major units have been identified in the known
stratigraphic record. Unit III, a 60-cm-thick sandy deposit with rock rubble,
is subdivided into four subzones. Bones of one individual Glossotherium,
together with thousands of osteoderms (small spherical bones within the skin of
a ground sloth), were found clustered within a limited area in subzone III-4/3,
in association with 27 retouched tabular pieces and percussion flakes of
limestone or flint. Notched or denticulate tools are common in the assemblage,
and some pieces show use wear. There are also ca. 50 unmodified percussion
flakes. Also found on this level were several small quartz crystals and a
hematite fragment. Two of the sloth osteoderms feature smooth circular
perforations, and the faces of one of these show abrasion.
Radiocarbon dates of 22,500 ± 500 RCYBP and 23,320 ± 1000 RCYBP have
been obtained on wood recovered by flotation from stratigraphic subzone
III-3/2, just above the level of the lithic artifacts and sloth remains in
subzone III-4. A sample of osteoderms from subzone III-4 was dated at 27,000 ±
2000 yr B.P. by the
uranium/thorium method. Further AMS dating of charcoal and OSL dates on
sandy sediments in subzone III-4 are reported to range around 25,000 years ago.
The III-4 subzone is at a depth of ca. 3 m within the rockshelter fill.
One meter above, separated by virtually sterile deposits, is a younger
occupation level (in Unit II-2) with Glossotherium bones and ca. 200 lithic
artifacts. This level has produced a radiocarbon date of 10,010 ± 60 RCYBP on charcoal
from a hearth. Research at the Santa Elina rockshelter continues, so we must
await final results. As of the 2003 report, bedrock had not been reached.”
Location:
About
100km north west of Cuiabá the capital of Matto Grosso state.
Location of Santa Elina rock
shelter within South America. Left hand map of the continent adapted from Cione
(3) showing that surrounding region at the height of the Last Glacial Maxima
(LGM at ca. 20Kya BP) was a mosaic of open forest and savanna. Right hand map
adapted from Bachelet (4), showing similar current vegetation known as cerrado.
Environment
According to Cione at al. (3),
the habitat in the region of the central Matto Grosso was similar to that of
the present if a little cooler around the height of the LGM. Today the habitat
in the area of Santa Elina rock shelter is described by Bachelet and Scheel-Ybert
(5) as “This region is dominated by the
Cerrado biome, comprising wooded savannas (cerrado stricto sensu, veredas),
park and gramineous-woody savannas (campo sujo, campo rupestre, campo limpo),
and forest formations (riparian forest, dry forests, Cerradão). The local landscape
is defined by deciduous and semideciduous forests, cerrado, riparian forests,
and anthropogenic areas (deforested areas, pastures) (Ceccantini, 2005). The
climate is tropical hot (Aw in Köppen
classification), with a dry season of 4-5 months from May to September; mean temperature
is 250C, with maxima over 400C in the summer; mean precipitation
is around 1700 mm.”
Cerrado types (Portugese) from Ecel Capoeira blog (7).
Santa Elina excavation details
The main publication about the
Santa Elina rock shelter is that of Vialou (8), who excavated the site between
1985 and 2005. Unfortunately he published his discoveries in a monograph, in
book form, in Portuguese and thus is unavailable to me. Unlike the situation
with many other American archaeological sites there are few papers by about
this site available on the internet. Thus details about the excavation must
therefore be gleaned from translations of French papers by Vialou and Vilhena
Vialou or from secondary sources.
Excavations at Santa Elina rock
shelter. The cave is ca. 60 m long and situated in the Serra das Araras at the
base of a Precambrian limestone bed of
dimensions 40 to 50 km wide, up to 800 m high and 500 km long. The cave is
tilted in both longitudinal and vertical axes as shown in Vialou (6), original
caption: Fig 1. Rock Shelter, Santa Elina: long stratigraphic sequence, 25 000
years to 2000 years BP.
The discoveries were summarised
by Bachelet and Scheel-Ybert (5) thus:
“Three main archaeological assemblages were identified in the stratigraphy:
The upper archaeological layers (assemblage I), containing the more recent occupations
dated between 2000 and 6000 BP, are characterized by the exceptional
preservation of many plant remains. The anthropogenic sediments, fine and
powdery, are formed primarily of ash. The site shows habitation structures, numerous
combustion structures, rich in charcoal and sometimes containing fruits and
other plant remains, food remains, lithics, and adornments. Fruits, seeds,
braided fibres and ropes, artefacts such as sandals, penian sheaths, and
packages, wooden stakes, wood, charcoal, and even leaves abound. Lithics and
pigments are very common (Vilhena Vialou, 2005).
An intermediate archaeological layer (assemblage II) was dated between
6000 and 10,000 BP, when several human groups are thought to have succeeded
each other in the shelter. In these levels, sediments are sandy and non-charred
plant remains are rare. The material culture is characterized by lithic
material, extinct fauna remains of Glossotherium lettsomi, several hearths, and
charcoal (Vilhena Vialou, 2005). The lower archaeological levels (assemblage
III), dated to the Late Pleistocene (22,500 ± 500 BP), present are many
megafauna remains of G. lettsomi, frequently identified in direct association
with lithic material. The sediments are sandy and stony, and plant remains are scarce.
Only lithics and a few fragments of charcoal dispersed in the sediments were retrieved
(Vilhena Vialou, 2003, 2005).”
A useful stratigraphic diagram is also
included in their paper:
Stratigraphic profile of Santa
Elina from Bachelet and Scheel-Ybert (5), note caption for level III4 ‘couche a
megafaune’ dates to 27,000BP - at variance with the text giving a date of
22,500BP. Original caption reads: Fig. 3. Schematic stratigraphic section of
the square 29-ABCD in Santa Elina rock shelter, representing the three
archaeological assemblages: “assemblage I” (2000-6000 yrs BP) top gray;
“assemblage II” (6000-10000 yrs BP) in white; “assemblage III” (around 25000
yrs BP) bottom gray (from Benabdelhadi, 2005).
Vilhena Vialou and Vialou on the archaeological finds made:
“For various occupation floors uncovered at the base of the upper
sequence, dated by 14C between 9,400 and 10,120 years BP, is
associated with a well characterized lithic industry: many breakdown products
(cores, flakes, cassons), mainly of silicified limestone but also of flint and
sandstone, all rocks encountered near the shelter, within a few hundred meters;
some quartz fragments, material taken in small outcrops visible in the mouth of
the canyon, about 2 km from the site. The
tools consist of summarily retouched pieces and notches, cruder than at higher
levels, also produced little except some remarkable pieces such as large projectile
points (Vilhena Vialou and Vialou 1994 Vilhena Vialou et al. 1999; Vilhena
Vialou 2005; Aubry 2005).
In this large occupation floor of 30 m2 extent, lithic
pieces are clearly associated with many skeletal remains of a giant sloth
(Glossotherium Letsomii), a species of the South American megafauna that became
extinct at the end of Pleistocene.
The lower sedimentary layer of the chrono-stratigraphic sequence was
also stripped of 30m2 between 2.80 and 3.50 m depth from the current
surface. The anthropogenic remains are in
a compacted sediment amongst large weathered limestone blocks. In places, a thin slightly greyish film
contains fine ash and micro-fragments of coals.
The
level of human occupation floor contained about 200 lithic pieces and, in
abundance, the bones of Glossotherium.
Lithics from the lowest human
occupation levels at Santa Elina rock shelter. Image source Vialou (8).
Osteoderms (dermal bones of 1 to 4 cm in length), revealed the number
of 5000, were repeatedly grouped into small piles by prehistoric man. Some are broken and two were redesigned
conclusively by abrasion of their natural surfaces; these may be ornamental
elements. About 200 bones mostly, split
are anatomically identified: ribs, vertebrae, maxilla and mandible. They show that only the front part of a
single animal was introduced into the occupation. The animal died naturally or was killed by
hunters, or was carrion was brought into the shelter (Vilhena Vialou et al
1995. Vilhena Vialou 1997-1998 Vilhena Vialou 2003 and 2005; Cartelle 2005).
Glossotherium
osteoderm [Glossotherium chapadmalense]
from López-Mendoza (9). Original caption: Figure 7a. : An undamaged dermal bone
from Baño Nuevo-1;
The three dating methods have used at the site: Uranium-Thorium on
osteoderms of Glossotherium, optical stimulated luminescence (OSL) on the
quartz grains of sediment coating the archaeological and faunal material (with
dosimeters placed in the layer section), accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS)
from micro-charcoal collected in the layer.
These three methods have provided dating around 25,000 years BP. A Uranium-Thorium dating attempted on
osteoderms collected in the upper archaeological hearths of the upper layers has
provided a date of around 13,000 years, corresponding to 10,000 years BP
obtained by 14C dating.
Similarly, OSL dating on Glossotherium remains of the sandy levels
inserted between the two occupations gave interim dates. The intercalibration of the three methods
(both being the lower limit of their validity) gives a result that further
strengthens the remarkable dating of anthropogenic deep level, the oldest now
obtained in archaeological contexts is stratigraphically well established (
Falguères 2005 Feathers 2005 Fontugne, Hatté and Noury 2005 Valladas 2005).”
Some authors such as Bueno, et al. (10), comment on the
lithic assemblage from Santa Elina:
“During the 10th 14C millennium BP, the Itaparica Tradition
reaches its greatest spatial extent in the cerrado and caatinga biomes of the
Central Plateau and Northeast. On the Central Brazilian Plateau there are at
least 23 known occupation events, fairly evenly distributed across that time
range. With three exceptions e Santa Elina, Morro Furado and Boqueirão do
Soberbo - all the occupied sites can be associated with the Itaparica
Tradition.
..There is one site in this period in Central Brazil that we cannot
assign to the Itaparica Tradition: Santa Elina, MT. The site is a limestone
rockshelter, located at Serra das Araras, 100km northeast from Cuiabá, MT.
Based on a series of different samples that have been dated by different
analytical methods, the researchers responsible for work at this site have
defined four main periods of occupation, extending from 25,000 14C
BP until the colonial period (Vialou, 2005). During their second period,
between 10,000 and 7000 14C BP, one of the most important aspects of the lithic
assemblages is the virtual absence of formal artefacts. In all levels related
to this period a lithic assemblage predominates with simple and cortical flakes
made of limestone, chert and quartz. These raw materials are all found in the
vicinity of the rockshelter and the flaked limestone is the same as the rock of
the rockshelter. Most of the flakes were used without retouch; when it is
present, it is frequently marginal, producing small and abrupt edges. Beside
the absence of retouching and the short extension of the edge, most of the
flakes are large and wide, offering very robust cutting edges (Vialou, 2005).”
Verdict:
1. This site is little known outside Brazil and France due to the
dearth of published material in English. The main source of detail is Vialou
2005, a monograph in book form published in Portuguese. Some review article has
been published in French. Consequently it is a little hard to assess the the
quality of the evidence to support the dating of the site to 25,000BP.
2. Secondary sources largely lend support to the site as being occupied
by humans who utilised Giant Ground Sloth for food at 25,000BP.
3. The three independent lines of dating strongly support each other
lending weight to point 2 above.
4. The lithic assemblage is unusual. It seems more primitive than the
well-known and recorded Itaparica tradition. This fits well with the early
dates obtained by the investigators of the site: If the site is early it should
have primitive lithics.
5. The lithic style of tool production changed little over a long
period of time. A similar phenomena has been noted at similarly controversially
early dated site such as Pedra Furada.
See Here for a post on human migration
rate and the possible early entry date into the Americas.
References
1. Gruhn, R. 2007.
The Earliest Reported Archaeological Sites in South America.
The Mammoth Trumpetv 22/1, Center for the Study of the First
Americans Department of Anthropology, Texas A&M University.
2. Where the South Winds Blow, the 2003 CSFA publication
edited by Laura Miotti, Mónica Salemme, and Nora Flegenheimer).
3. Chione, A.L. et al. 2010. Did Humans Cause the Late
Pleistocene-Early Holocene Mammalian Extinctions in South America in a Context
of Shrinking Open Areas? In American Megafaunal Extinctions at the End of the
Pleistocene, G. Haynes (ed). Springer Netherlands, 2010
4. Bachelet, C. 2014. Pré-História no Cerrado: Análises
antracologicas dos abrigos de Santa Elina e da Cidade de Pedra (Mato Grosso)
[Prehistory in the Cerrado: Anthracological analysis of Santa Elina and Cidade
de Pedra rocks shelters (Mato Grosso)] FRONTEIRAS: Journal of Social, Technological
and Environmental Science v.3, n.2, jul.-dez. 2014, p.96-110.
5. Bachelet, C and R Scheel-Ybert Landscape and firewood
selection in the Santa Elina rock shelter (Mato Grosso, Brazil) during the
Holocene. Quaternary International xxx (2015) 1-9 · JANUARY 2015. DOI:
10.1016/j.quaint.2015.12.019
6. Àgueda Vilhena Vialou et Denis Vialou, « Peuplements
préhistoriques au Brésil », Les nouvelles de l'archéologie [En ligne], 111/112
| 2008, mis en ligne le 15 juin 2011, consulté le 05 avril 2016. URL : http://nda.revues.org/214 ; DOI : 10.4000/nda.214
8. Vilhena Vialou, A., 2005. Habitat e cronoestratigrafia.
In: Vilhena-Vialou, A. (Ed.),
Pre-historia do Mato Grosso, vol. 1. Santa Elina. Edusp,
S~ao Paulo, pp. 87e102.
9. López-Mendoza, Patricio and Mena-Larraín, Francisco. 2011.
Extinct ground sloth dermal bones and their role in the
taphonomic research of caves: the case of Baño Nuevo-1 (Andean Central
Patagonia, Chile)
Revista Mexicana de Ciencias Geológicas, vol. 28, núm. 3,
pp. 519-532 Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México Querétaro, México
10. Bueno, L., et al., The Late Pleistocene/Early Holocene
archaeological record in Brazil: A geo-referenced database, Quaternary
International (2013), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.quaint.2013.03.042
