54. Possible Relatives in the Americas

Tres Arroyos rock shelter (Magallanes, Chile)

by George Weber

Tres Arroyo rock shelter on the main island of Tuerra del Fuego. Do not confuse this site with the Arroyo Seco site at Tres Arroyos town in Buenos Aires province, Argentina.

The cave has been known to locals for a long time but was only investigated during the first half of the 1980s. Only two layers layers (Va. at 60-80 cm, and Vb. at around 125 cm yielded signs of early human occupation. The oldest C14 date (taken from the charcoal of fires that once burnt in ther cave) is is 11,880 ± 250 years before the present. A number of tools have also be found: end and lateral scrapers, retouched stone knives, a core and two projectile point fragments from the oldest levels that are thought to be part from Fell's cave type points. A hearth of size 40 x 30 x 12 cmwas found, surrounded by the remains of extinct forms of animals that had been consumed there (fox, guanaco, ground sloth and snail shells). Remains of a horse were found below the dated level.

Tres Arroyos probably functioned as a temporary shelter for passing hunters and no human remains have been found. The shelter lies deep in what later would become Ona territory but whether the earliest users more than 10,000 years ago were among the ancestors the Ona many thousands of years later must remain unknown.

Some views of the Tres Arroyos rock shelter.

The environment of the Tres Arroyos rock shelter.

Among web-sites with further information are:

- http://www.ele.net/LaBelle/pampas/pamframe.htm

- http://www.scielo.cl/scielo.php?pid=S0717-73562004000300040&script=sci_arttext

- http://www.cadic.gov.ar/articulos/poblamientopatagonia.htm

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Last change 31 March 2007