54. Possible Relatives in the Americas

Taimataima site (Falcon, Venezuela)

by George Weber

Location of the Taimataima site, the Paraguana peninsula and and the Pedregal river area which are rich in ancient archaeological sites. The Taimtaima site was excavated by Jose M. Cruxent in the 1960s and 1970s. Later excavattions were carried out by Ruth Gruhn and Allan Bryan.

 

The Taimataima site was first excavated by J.M. Cruxent in the 1960s and 1970s. It is one of the earliest archaeological sites that is undoubtedly pre-dates Clovis (see Clovis). It is now thought that the large-game hunters arrived in the area sometime before 13,000 years ago. Taimataima is the pride of Venezuela and a major tourist attraction with all facilities, including a remarkable shelter of the site itself. Taimataima is the pride of Venezuela and a major tourist attraction with all facilities, including an architecturally remarkable shelter of the site.

Most of the tools found at the site were "informal and expedient", i.e. they were rough-and-ready-made on the spot from local sandstone and other materials available and discarded after the work had been done.

A few tools found were of locally unavailable red chert flakes and all of the projectile point fragments (especially the El Jobo points) were made of fine-grained quartzitic sandstone.They may have been widely used but were not left behind at the site and so are less commonly found.

Unfortunately, most artefacts from the Pedregal river area and and the Paraguana peninsula are surface finds, making any dating highly speculative. Consensus has it that El Jobo pointds are earliest (13,000 years before the present).) while the Clovis-like projectiles may date after 11,000 years before the present. The more securely dateable finds from the Taimtaima layers support this supposition.

In l976 a broken El Jobo point (red arrow) was found inside the pubic cavity of a partially disarticulated and butchered young mastodon whose bones had been cut, with a jasper flake found near the left ulna of the animal. The heavy bones clearly had not been moved by water action but by humans. A concentration of chewed twigs near the butchered animal (probably the mastodon's stomach contents) allowed several C14 dates. They indicated that the young mastodon had died around 13,000 before the present. These dates confirmed earlier dates from different materials found in the sand of the site. Some of the bones show cut marks, and one femur was likely used as an anvil.

Archaeological layers at Taimataima. The red arrow points at the inverted carapace of a Glyptodon (an extinct large mammal related to the armadillo) that sits on the Unit 1/2 uncomformity. Red numbers indicate the layers (see text immediately below).

The archaeological strata at Taimataima:

Layer 4 (yellow-brown) - the most recent layer, a colluvium of clay and in some areas mixed with brown sand (layer C14-dated to 9,650 to 10,300 years before the present).

X - marks an erosional unconformity

Layer 3 (dark) - a clay sedimentary layer rich in plant and organic remains (peat-like)

Layer 2 (yellowish-red) - Ta layer of sand that incorporates scattered and fragmented animal bones displaced by surface erosion of Layer 1. This layer was deposited slowly, perhaps in a shallow pond. The inverted carapace and pelvis of a Glyptodon (red arrow) was the only articulated bone found. There were no clear signs of human intervention.

Layer 1 (dark grey) - a fine sand containing sorted clay. The dark coloration is the result of an oxygen-starved environment, i.e. persistent waterlogging (layer C14-dated to 11,900 to 14,000 years before the present(..

Below Layer 1 - a basal 'cobblestone' pavement of Miocene rocks (not visible on the photograph)

The mandibula of a juvenile mammoth, butchered by human hunters at the site. Found in Layer 2 of the Taimataima site.

El Jobo type projectile points (so named after a tributary river of the Pedregal River) were made from fine-grained quartiztic sandstone. These points occur over wide areas of coastal Venezuela, including the Pedregal Valley and Taimataima. The specimen shown on the left is complete. Many such points are found damaged through use. In these areas, a fuller range of formal (as well as informal/expedient) tools, including the ubiquitous El Jobo points (named after an affluent of the Pedregal River), suggest a wide range of activities. According to Cruxent, most of the lithic tool types in the Pedregal Valley were designed to work with wood, or materials of similar hardness.

al context which remained saturated with seeping water that moved sand and concentrated twigs into pockets, but was not strong enough to move or mix bones or stone artifacts. Reported in great detail, the data constitute the only solid evidence for a megamammal kill site anywhere in South America.

Clovis-like projectile points (fluted and unfluted) made from chert, have been found in western Venezuela in the early 1980s by Miklos Szabadics, an amateur-collector, on the the Paraguaná peninsula.

Among web-sites with further information are:

- http://www.bradshawfoundation.com/journey/taima-taima-text3.html

- http://encontrarte.aporrea.org/venezuelaconocer/1/a9389.html

- http://www.ele.net/art_folsom/pre-clovis_2004/preclovis2004.htm

- http://encontrarte.aporrea.org/venezuelaconocer/1/a9389.html (Spanish)

- http://www.panoramio.com/photo/197664 (Spanish)

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Last change 1 March 2007