The Volcano of Osorno nearby the site where scientists uncovered 14,000-year-old tools. (Photo by Claudio Sepúlveda Geoffroy/Flickr)Posted on 04/28/2012 8:46:32 AM PDT by Theoria
University archaeologists found 14,000-year-old knives while studying elephant ancestors.
Archaeologists and anthropologists excavating a site in the south of Chile have uncovered stones that are believed to have been used as tools by humans 14,000 years ago.
Scientists from Universidad Católica de Temuco and Universidad Austral de Chile (UACh) were able to determine these were tools because they exhibit the marking congruent with ancient knives and cutting utensils.
The Volcano of Osorno nearby the site where scientists uncovered 14,000-year-old tools. (Photo by Claudio Sepúlveda Geoffroy/Flickr)
“There are rock detachments from a simple, intentional blow that demonstrate that they were doctored, and that means this is a product of a human being. It lets us postulate that cultural diversity was present in this epoch,” UACh archaeologist Efe Ximena Navarro told El Mostrador.
The discovery occurred near Osorno by accident while paleontologists were studying the fossilized remains of gomphotheres, ancestors of modern elephants presumed to have been hunted by human communities in the area.
The artifacts provide some of the oldest evidence of human existence in the Americas.
Researchers note that this group would have been contemporary to the Monte Verde society found near Puerto Montt, also located in the south of Chile, where the continent’s most ancient archaeological deposit exists.
"This means that there were other areas, other nearby areas in the south of Chile, that were inhabited by the first settlers," said Navarro, adding that this discovery uncovers new information about how the first inhabitants in South America lived.
Research confirmed that these settlers crossed the Bering Strait from Asia into the Americas rather than traveling south via Alaska. Passing over the ice bridges into Alaska would have delayed their settlement so far in the Southern Hemisphere several thousand years.
Unlike the more settled camp in Puerto Montt, this new site is believed to have been strictly used for scavenging. River stones have been found near the site that were most likely used for breaking apart endemic produce to consume with local game.
“This is a scavenging site, surely for the collection of fauna, and there exists the possibility that they picked fruits,” said Navarro.
Researchers will now use microscopes to perform further analysis of the new findings.
Down yonder, ping.
” ... the oldest evidence of human existence in the Americas”
http://themoderatevoice.com/wordpress-engine/files//2010/06/Helen-Thomas-ChildFund.jpg
Impossible! Clovis first! /s
How do you do that?
Upstarts, Austrailia was already settled by 36,000 years.
Impossible! Boats didn't exist 14,000 years ago!
/s?
Yeah, that sentence doesn’t make much sense.
It's funny how the supporters of the Bering Strait Pedestrians avoid that.
From what is talked about a lot around it could have been made by a Mapuche a few weeks ago! The Yaghan people, today’s Mapuche, you know, the people who greeted Darwin while standing naked in the snow!
Yaghan people - Wikipedia, the free encyclopediaen.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yaghan_peopleCached
You +1’d this publicly. Undo
... they routinely went about completely naked in the frigid cold and biting wind of ... including Ferdinand Magellan, Charles Darwin, Francis Drake, James Cook, and ... Andy Burnham; ^ http://www.mapuche.nl/english/extinction051020.htm ...
For the love of God: NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO, not that!
They also found bumper stickers calling for class warfare against the Rich CavePeople. /s
ping
Humboldt reported the same about these people.
He said he met two different peoples in the area...one was short, plump, wore few clothes and made their living from the sea. The other was tall,slim wore animal hides as clothes and made their living on the land.
Re your map; If you pivot the Seward penninsula into the Gulf of Anddyr they fit very neatly together along with the rest of the coast of Alaska
bazinga
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You just ruined a great King salmon dinner.
After I am dead, I am going to haunt you.
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