An Instance of the Transport of Artifacts by Migratory Animals in South America

Extract

In an article in this journal some years ago, Heizer (1944) brought together a number of recorded instances of the transport of artifacts by migratory animals. These instances consisted entirely of cases in which a bird, a sea mammal, or a land mammal had been wounded by man and, surviving the wound, had carried part of the weapon imbedded in its flesh, to some area many miles away. The eventual killing of the animal elsewhere led to the discovery of an exotic arrowhead, spear point, or harpoon head in the old wound. The occurrence of undetected instances of this phenomenon would naturally result in the deposition of artifacts far from their native area where, on the basis of ethnographic and archaeological evidence, they would not be expected to occur.