In Argentina, found a parking lot of people who came to America before the Clovis culture

Archeologists have long ago obtained indirect evidence that people belonging to the Clovis culture were not the first settlers in South and North America. Clovis culture is the forerunner of the Indians, who left behind quite a lot of artifacts. They are studied, in general, not bad. It is known that representatives of the Clovis culture were genetically close to modern Indians of North and Central America, and are also relatives of Asians of Siberia and the Far East.

But about people who lived in the Americas to the Clovis culture, while virtually nothing is known. Scientists suggest that they appeared 15000-17000 years ago. These people left behind very few traces. Until today, there were no more than 12 artifacts at the disposal of experts, which archaeologists consider to belong to this ancient culture. Now archaeologists are lucky to come across the site of ancient people, which is about 14 thousand years old. The parking lot was found near the town of Tres Arroyos, Buenos Aires Province, Argentina.

As mentioned above, the date of arrival of the ancient people in South and North America is not yet possible to find out. It is assumed that they arrived at the end of the ice age. Then the glaciers still blocked northern Canada. Therefore, it is extremely unlikely that these people crossed the land bridge leading from Siberia to North America. Most likely, they got there from Asia, having sailed on boats. This may be explained by the fact that the artifacts of the most ancient civilization of the Americas are often found on islands or estuaries of rivers that flow into the ocean.
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These first settlers were hunters and gatherers who used primitive stone and bone tools. Some stone tools were made by striking each other for a sharp cutting edge. In the site, which was discussed above, archaeologists found about 50 such tools, made of silicon and quartzite. It was possible to establish that the ancient people settled around a deep lake, and were engaged in hunting, fishing and gathering.



Thousands of fragments of the mineralized bones of animals were found at the site. The age of most bones is estimated at 14,000 years. Archaeologists have found and several graves of ancient people. True, the age of these graves is not 14,000, but 9,000 years old. Most likely, scientists believe, the parking was seasonal. People came here for thousands of years, stayed for a while and left to return again.

According to experts who studied the ancient site , the presence of people in this place is indicated not only by stone tools, but also by the accumulation of bones. These fragments are found in a vast area. There are cases when the bones of animals in large quantities are found in natural traps - vertical caves or similar places. Animals fall into such traps themselves. But here the area of ​​distribution of fragments is too large to talk about this possibility. Most likely, the animals were killed, brought to the parking lot and already eaten here.

And stone tools were made of rocks that can be found 110 km from the parking lot. This fact also indicates that the ancient people carried tools with them, going over long distances.

One question still remains. Can we be sure that the parking lot is really 14,000 years old? This assessment was the result of radiocarbon analysis of animal bones. This analysis was conducted at once by several laboratories located in different countries.

A stratigraphic analysis could be carried out, but the site was repeatedly eroded, therefore such an analysis is not possible. Therefore, even if some instrument is in a certain layer, the age of which is known to scientists, it is impossible to say that the instrument came here initially. It may well be that under the influence of erosion, the layers of soil mixed with the displacement of artifacts and rock samples.



But scientists have found a split bone of Equus neogeus, a fossil horse from South America. This bone, according to experts, was split, while still fresh. And she was not bitten by the predator's teeth, namely, split. Most likely, stone tool, samples of which are found here in the set. And this is not the only such bone. Other fragments of several skeletons of Equus neogeus were found on the same site of ancient people. There are about 600 such fragments in total. Scientists have found that the diet of ancient Americans consisted of the meat of these horses, ancient sloths, camels, mammoths and giant armadillos.

When the ancient people arrived in South America, they probably did not need to look for food for too long: there were many large animals and it was easy to hunt them. Archaeologists believe that the ancient people in South America may be one of the factors that led to the extinction of all these giants. Perhaps not the main factor, but one of the main.

An interesting fact is that some parts of the skeletons of animals are missing at the parking lot in Arroyo Seco. First of all, it concerns the skulls, breasts and pelvic bones. Most likely, archeologists say, the ancient people could not bear the carcass of a dead animal weighing 600-750 kg (for example, a megatherium carcass). Carcasses, most likely, butchered into smaller pieces. Some bones with meat on them were transferred to the camp, while others were left. Ancient hunters hardly considered it necessary to carry the huge head or bones of the sternum to their camp. They were butchered, removing parts needed for sustenance, and left in place.

Most of all on the site of the ancient site is still not the bones of mammoths or armadillos. It seems that the inhabitants of these places preferred horse meat, since the maximum of bones refers specifically to the species Equus neogeus. There are probably a lot of horses in South America 14,000 years ago. But the Incas, who lived in our time, these animals did not know and did not even imagine that they can exist.

Now the study of the ancient site continues, because it can reveal many more secrets to a person about the origin and lifestyle of his distant ancestors.

DOI: 10.1371 / journal.pone.0162870