Black dot: the State capital, São Paulo
Red dot: the Capelinha site area
54. Possible Relatives in the Americas
Capelinha kitchen midden site (São Paulo, Brazil)
by George Weber
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Black dot: the State capital, São Paulo Red dot: the Capelinha site area
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Location of the Capelinha site, near the town of Cajati |
The Capelinho site has confirmed the existence of an early non-Amerind population similar to the Lagoa Santa "Luzia" people (see also Lagoa Santa and Santana do Riacho) with most likely affiliations to Australia, Melanesia and Africa. The site definitively and beyond reasonable doubt establishes a pre-Amerind settlement dating to at least 10,000 years before the present in the southern Americas.
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The countryside of the Capelinha site area. |
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The Capelinha site is a large "sambaqui" (kitchen midden). This is, basically, a pile of prehistoric human refuse. Near the sea, kitchen midden usually consist mostly of sea shells (which tend to be nearly indesrtructible) and other human refuse, broken tools etc. Large midden are also often used by later generations as burial sites - as has been the case at Capelinha. Kitchen midden are found all over the world (see also Andaman Archaeology on this site). Shell midden sites are numerous in the area of Sao Paulo and Santa Catarina and some are very large. Only a few have been excavated. The number and size of these sites argues strongly for a long occupation by a substantial human but (as the Capelinha site indicates) non-Amerind population prior to 10,000 years ago.. 1. 9,250 ± 50 years before present (oldest finds on the site) 2. 8,860 ± 60 years before present 3. 8,725 ± 100 years before present 4. 6,090 ± 40 years before present Hights given in meters above sea level. (map adapted from Kinoshita A., Figuty L. and Baffa O. 2006. "Electron Spin Resonance Dating of Shells from the Sambaqui (Shell Mound) Capelinha, São Paulo, Brazil." Brazilian Journal of Physics, vol. 36:93-96, 1A, March 2006) |
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Excavation starts at Capelinha 1 - and runs into the
obstacle of a network of tough tree roots. |
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The white sea shells gathered and accumulated by humans
over millennia are clearly visible at Capelinha IV.
Below:
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Excavation work in progress at Capelinha site. |
Among the most important finds at the Capelinha site were a number of human remains of clearly non-Amerind type, the oldest dating back to around 10,000 years before the present. To analyse these bone, classic craniometric methods as well as the latest geometric morphometric methods were used.Such remains were also found in other sites in the general area of Capelinho as well as still further south, indicating the presence of a widely-spread and apparently quite large population in much of eastern South America. It should be noted here that the remains buried in the Capelinha kitchen midden were buried when the midden had already reached a considerable size, i.e. that the midden had been growing from human refuse for millennia before the burials took place. Such a widespread and numerous population is most unlikely to have arrived only shortly before 10,000 years ago.
The dating of the first humans in the Americas is still a hotly disputed. It must have been before 15,000 or even 20,000 years ago but archaeological proof, alas, is still lacking. Aiming to solve the many questions presented in this context is the Brazilian Project Investigações Arqueológicas e Geofísicas nos Sambaquis Fluviais do Vale do Ribeira de Iguape.
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A selection of stone tools of various types and ages that have been found at the Capelinha site. |
Details of the stratification tratification differ considerably between various parts of what is a quite sizable site. Here are merely some samples.
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Fotos Filippini |
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Early human burials of the Capelinha site |
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(photos M. Bartolomucci) |
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Among web-sites with further information are:
- http://www.max.org.br/biblioteca/Revista/Caninde-06/Caninde-06-art-03.pdf
- http://www.mae.usp.br/revista%20do%20mae/textos/6_Astolfoetal.pdf
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Last change 27 September 2007
