The location of Bano Nuevo cave in the province Aisen, southern Chile.
54. Possible Relatives in the Americas
Baño Nuevo cave (Aisen, Chile)
by George Weber
|
|
The location of Bano Nuevo cave in the province Aisen, southern Chile. |
The Baño Nueva cave 1 is important above all because of the human burials found there. In 2006 Francisco Mena and his team have found there 10 of the 20 most ancient human remains in Latin America. Wood remains from the cave have been dated back to 13,500 years and human ramains to around 9,500 years.
Five of them are:
- BN1: baby less than 6 weeks old at death, associated with vegetable
fibres, canine teeth
- BN2: male, 160 cm in height, aged between 20-25 years at death,
associated with vegetable fibres, canine teeth; covered with stones;
dated to just under 9,000 years old (see drawing below)
- BN3: female, aged between 40-45 years at death, associated with
vegetable fibres, canine teeth; covered with stones; dated to around
8,600 years old
- BN4: baby less than 6 weeks old at death
- BN5: baby less than 6 weeks old at death
The two adults were buried in flexed positions against a back cave wall.
The Bano Nuevo human remains show some differences to later populations in the area, above all that the skeletons foundwere Mongoloid but more gracile (L.B. Borrero, 1999. "The Prehistoric Exploration and Colonization of Fuego-Patagonia", Journal of World Prehistory, 13(1):321-352)
xcavation of cave 1 has yielded the skeletal remains of more human individuals. Two of them were complete and preserved well enough to allow determination not only of basic characteristics (i.e. sex, age) but also observations related to health and activity patterns. There were also the remains of three new born babies, although their bones were fragmented and in poor condition. The babies were buried at around the same time as the adults (ca. 8-9,000 years ago) and were given some of the same funerary patterns as the adults, i.e. an association with canid bones and plant remains. This would suggest that all individuals belonged to the same people, roughly the same time and the same culture. The main difference between the adult and newborn skeletons is that the former are covered by stone piles.
As the excavators, F. Mena and O. Reye observe, this information complemented by other recorded evidence, suggests that the construction of funerary stone piles took place earlier in Central Patagonia than further south. In Southern Patagonia, funerary stone piles (commonly called chenques) are never found in caves and are associated with late occupations. Other relatively early funerary traits in Southern Patagonia (i.e. collective inhumation, use of ochre and cremation) are unknown in Central Patagonia.
|
|
The Bano Nueva 1 cave |
|
|
Left: The BN 2 skeleton
|
|
|
|
Excavation at Bano Nuevos with the archaeological grid.In grid squares marked yellow, human remains have been found. -- Human remains BN2 and vegetable fibres belonging to it were found in squares 7D and 7E (darker yellow) -- Human remains BN3 and vegetable fibres belonging to it were found in squares 7E and 8E (darker yellow) Other human finds predating 8,000 years ago and vegetable fibres belonging to them are marked in ligher yellow.
(map adapted from H. Velazquez and F. Mena, 2006, "Distribuciones Óseas de Ungulados en la Cueva Baño Nuevo-1 (XI Region, Chile): un primer acercamento", Magellania, vol. 34(2):91-106) (distribution of human finds from F. Mena and O. Reyes, 2001, "Montículos y Cuevas Funerarias en Patagonia: una visión desde Cueva Bañ o Nuevo-1, IX Region", Chungará (Arica), vol. 33(1):1-15) |
Among web-sites with furtherinformation are:
- http://www.scielo.cl/scielo.php?pid=S0717-73562001000100004&script=sci_arttext
- http://www.scielo.cl/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0718-22442006000200009&lng=es&nrm=
-
|
[ Go to HOME ] [ Go to CONTENTS OF OUT-OF-AFRICA CHAPTERS ] [ Go to CONTENTS OF AMERICA CHAPTERS ] |
Last change 27 April 2007
