54. Possible Relatives in the
Americas
Jaguay and Tacahuay sites (Arequipa and Tacna,
Peru)
by George Weber
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Location of Tacahuay andJaguay sites on the coast of
southern Peru. The two sites represent the oldest known
adaption of early humans in the Americas to a coastal way of
life.
Sources for Jaguay:
-- Tanner B. R. 2001. Lithic Analysis of Chipped Stone
Artifacts recovered from Quebrada Jaguay, Peru, thesis,
Graduate School, The University of Maine
Sources for Tacahuay:--
-- deFrance S. D. and Álvarez A. U.. 2004. "Quebrada
Tacahuay: un sitio maritimo del Pleistoceno tardio en loa
costa Sur del Peru.". Chungara, Revista de
Antropología Chilena, vol. 36:257-278.
-- Wilford J.N., 1998, "In Peru: Evidence of an Early Human
Maritime Culture - the Discovery of Ancient Camps in Peru
and Chile." New York Times, 22 September
1998
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The traditional picture of the first
inhabitants of the Americas is one of big-game hunters who made their
living heroically from large, now-extinct mammals such as mastodons
and mammoths. Only after about 10,000 years ago, as the large mammals
disappeared, did these people turn to other, more diverse sources of
food. The Tacahuay and Jaguay sites shatter this picture.
It is also usually assumed that the first humans in the Americans
(whenever the arrived and from wherever they came) spread over the
Americas mostly on foot and this may indeed have been largely true in
the conquest of the continental interiors. On the other hand, the
Jaguay and Tacahuay sites provide strong evidence that the earliest
major human population movements of which we have archaeological
evidence were much more likely to have been along the coasts - by
boat.
Early coastal archaeological sites such as Tacahuay and Jaguay
show that their people had remarkably advanced technologies adapted
to a coastal way of life from moment they appear on the
archaeological radar. The existence of sophisticated and highly
efficient fishing nets - unlikely to have been be invented "on the
spot" at Jaguay and Tacahuay, for example - speak for a long
preceding period of coastal living.
If the earliest human arrivals in the Americas moved south over
many generations by boat along the western coast from Alaska to
Tierre del Fuego, it would also explain why some dates from South
America are at least as early as any North American dates - and why
the spread of the first humans into the Americas was so astonishingly
rapid.
Why have there not been more coastal sites found? With the
climate-warming after the end of the pleistocene ice age (very
roughly 10,000 years ago) sea levels rose quickly and by as much as
100 m. Most pleistocene coastal sites must now be deep under water
and so be very difficult to find and only sitess on steep coasts
still are above modern sea levels. There is a strong probability that
there were people in the Americas still earlier than those of Jaguay
and Tacahuay - and that their sites simply have not been found yet
because most a5re under water.
The Jaguay site
The Jaguay site (often called "Quebrada
Jaguay" for the gulch or ravine it is located in) was excavated by
D.H. Sandweiss, University of Main, USA, in the 1990s. The site is
located near the bed of a seasonal stream flowing out of the
highlands into the coastal desert. People occupied the site for a
time 13,000 to 11,000 years ago (calibrated C14 years). They seem to
have lived from clams they gathered and by catching small fish with
sophisticated tools and methods.
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The local environment of the Jaguay site (adapted from
Tanner B.R., 2001).
The red arrow points in the general direction from where
the earliest the Jaguay people already procured high-quality
obsidian (a very hard volcanic glass used for making
tools).
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The locations where obsidian is found are between 150 and 200 km
to the North and Northwest of Jaguay in the High Andes. These places
can be reached from the coast only over extremely difficult and
mountainous terrain. It is not known whether the earliest inhabitants
of the Jaguay site went on obsidian-collecting expeditions into
uninhabited territory or whether they traded for the material with
people already living there. Knowledge of sources in such remote and
inhospitable areas 13,000 years ago certainly indicates that humans
had moved around and explored there there for some time before they
appear in the archaeological record.
The connection between the Jaguay and the
Alca obsidian sources is the only definitively proven material link
between coastal and highland locales in all of South America.
Obsidian can be traced to its origin because of its characteristic
chemical signatures and it has been possible to pinpoint the source
ofJaguay's obsidian and to study areas near the Alca obsidian source
in order to find additional early highland archaeological sites. A
2005 expedition to the Alca obsidian source and nearby Nevado Firura
ice cap discovered numerous early sites possibly contemporary with
the early Jaguay site. This early occupation is noteworthy because
they are the world's most elevated late pleistocene sites.
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Excavation work in progress on the Jaguay site in
1996.
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From the start of human settlement of South America people built
houses (among the earliest known in the New World) and carried out
domestic activities such as cooking and finishing chipped stone
tools. During the first occupation, dating to around 13,000-11,000
years ago, obsidian from the highland Alca source 130 km distant
indicates contact with the mountainous interior. Very likely these
people moved seasonally between the coast and the Andes. Later,
during the early Holocene, obsidian is much rarer and many sites
suddenly appear in the surrounding countryside. By this time, some
people may have lived year-round on the coast, moving seasonally from
the quebrada bank where water flows in the summer to the foothills
where dense fog provides water and vegetation in the winter. The site
and region seem to have been abandoned after 8000 years ago, when
many records suggest an extended dry period that lasted for about
4000 years. Though the Quebrada Jaguay site was never reoccupied,
other sites in the region date to about 4000 years ago, but their
contents suggest a different way of life than that of the earlier
settlements.
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Postholes from a late Pleistocene house at the
Jaguaysite. The blue balloons in the post holes that predate
an indurated layer indicate the earliest known human
construction on the site.
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An example of archaeological strata at the Jaguay
site
(adapted from Tanner B.R., 2001).
Archaeologicval strata marked in yellow in the graphic
date to the terminal Pleistocene (i.e. older than very
roughly 10,000 years ago) while grey strata represent early
Holocene human occupation of the site and are less than very
roughly 10,000 years ago.
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Uniface tools from the Jaguay site's oldest (terminal
pleistocene) levels.
(adapted from Tanner B.R., 2001).
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Biface tools from the Jaguay site's oldest (terminal
pleistocene) levels.
(adapted from Tanner B.R., 2001).
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The Tacahuay site
About 10,700 years ago, a series of catastrophic flooding events
(El Nino events) covered and sealed the accumulated signs of previous
human activity (stratum 8) at the Tacahuay site by massive amounts of
debris washed down by torrential rains from the mountains (stratum
7).
Before the late 1990s it had been thought that El Nino was a
relatively recent phenomenon - but Dr. James B. Richardson in 1965 he
discovered the 8,000 year old Siches site near Talara, Peru where he
found evidence of dramatic climate change over a 4,000 year period.
After extensive archaeological research on the coast of Peru, this
led him and his colleague Dr. Daniel H. Sandweiss of the University
of Maine, to propose in 1986 that El Nino was only 5,000 years old.
They met considerable scepticism. But in 1996,with the discovery of
no less than 19 El Nino flood deposits at the site of Tacahuay proved
that El Nino events merely ceased (or were substantially reduced)
between 9,000 to 5,000 years ago.
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The Tacahuay excavation site of 2001 (map adapted from
deFrance et al, 2004)
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The stratification of block 2 of the Tacahuay sit (depth shown: 3
m). The dates shown are unclibrated. The oldest calibrated dates from
the site (from block 1) come from charceal from a hearth and range
from 12,390 to 13,030 years before present (adapted from deFrance et
al, 2004).
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Map of the ancient river bed
in strata 8/9).
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The arrows point at stone flakes still in situ (block
3).
(from deFrance et al, 2004).
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Stone tools from stratum 8 of block 3.
(adapted from deFrance et al, 2004)
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A stone toolf from stratum 8.
(adapted from Wilford 1998)
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A worked rib of a marine mammal - a mesh gauge for
fishing nets?
(from deFrance et al, 2004)
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Although no direct evidence of early net fishing has been found at
Tacahuay (apart perhaps from the possible mesh gauge shown above),
another very early coastal site, Jaguay (near Camana and ca. 350
miles as the crow flies NW from Tacahuay) has yielded bits of knotted
cordage that could well be the remains of fishing nets. At Tacahuay,
the bones of numerous small fish (mostly anchovy) were found. The
small size of these fish argue for the use of nets rather than
hook-and-line, let alone harpoons.
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A clay ball, an artefact of unknown purpose:
(from deFrance et al, 2004)
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A bird bone showing multiple cuts from stone tools,
indicating that it had been butchered by humans. Many other
bones showing similar cut marks have been found at
Tacahuay.
(from deFrance et al, 2004)
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Among web-sites with further information are:
- http://www.scielo.cl/scielo.php?pid=S0717-73562004000200002&script=sci_arttext
- http://www.unl.edu/rhames/monte_verde/peru_clovis.htm
- http://www.carnegiemnh.org/news/06-apr-jun/051006richardson.htm
- http://www.pnas.org/cgi/reprint/0509279102v1.pdf
- http://www.library.umaine.edu/theses/pdf/TannerBR2001.pdf
- http://www.climatechange.umaine.edu/Research/Contrib/pdf/pdfFiles/contribution05.pdf
Last change 20 July 2007
