Humans spread to North America way longer ago than we thought

[Muloghonto]

LETTER

doi:10.1038/nature22065

A 130,000-year-old archaeological site in southern

California, USA

Steven R. Holen

1,2

, Thomas A. Deméré

2

, Daniel C. Fisher

3,4

, Richard Fullagar

5

, James B. Paces

6

, George T. Jefferson

7

,

Jared M. Beeton

8

, Richard A. Cerutti

2

, Adam N. Rountrey

3

, Lawrence Vescera

7

& Kathleen A. Holen

1,2

The earliest dispersal of humans into North America is a

contentious subject, and proposed early sites are required to meet

the following criteria for acceptance: (1) archaeological evidence

is found in a clearly defined and undisturbed geologic context;

(2) age is determined by reliable radiometric dating; (3) multiple

lines of evidence from interdisciplinary studies provide consistent

results; and (4) unquestionable artefacts are found in primary

context

1,2

. Here we describe the Cerutti Mastodon (CM) site, an

archaeological site from the early late Pleistocene epoch, where

in situ hammerstones and stone anvils occur in spatio-temporal

association with fragmentary remains of a single mastodon

(Mammut americanum). The CM site contains spiral-fractured

bone and molar fragments, indicating that breakage occured

while fresh. Several of these fragments also preserve evidence of

percussion. The occurrence and distribution of bone, molar and

stone refits suggest that breakage occurred at the site of burial. Five

large cobbles (hammerstones and anvils) in the CM bone bed display

use-wear and impact marks, and are hydraulically anomalous

relative to the low-energy context of the enclosing sandy silt stratum.

230

Th/U radiometric analysis of multiple bone specimens using

diffusion–adsorption–decay dating models indicates a burial date of

130.7 ± 9.4 thousand years ago. These findings confirm the presence

of an unidentified species of Homo at the CM site during the last

interglacial period (MIS 5e; early late Pleistocene), indicating that

humans with manual dexterity and the experiential knowledge

to use hammerstones and anvils processed mastodon limb bones

for marrow extraction and/or raw material for tool production.

Systematic proboscidean bone reduction, evident at the CM site, fits

within a broader pattern of Palaeolithic bone percussion technology

in Africa

3–6

, Eurasia

7–9

and North America

10–12

. The CM site is, to

our knowledge, the oldest in situ, well-documented archaeological

site in North America and, as such, substantially revises the timing

of arrival of Homo into the Americas.

 

 

https://www.nature.com/articles/nature22065.epdf?referrer_access_token=1t1lKZ6FY4hqLiDSO784nNRgN0jAjWel9jnR3ZoTv0Odq55Wqltd4FPUqYwCTOB2IrOnkHrOr5WzFT30V6_TbXGUzczcXolggqU9hpovjhwGjCY64hkCCLNXHIws6HxpoUbnbwPB6bXMM7zKgQUEORyJBmhLufu7eh73zDEskusj7RuDnfkyvPV3C9zT1MResAFLodrWxAnV5w8hxrANw81wC2Fs5Qb2DVAohoUNG2T8_bXqQlafrolgoknUoaBr4YnqAC9kMHDGEQzXpYyb3AgfWzHbtnvY1NCCQ4zTdfPd3UiY_o8A1Koyd4u6mBku&tracking_referrer=www.iflscience.com

[gattaca]

The question is who put them bones there