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Redating Fell's Cave, Chile and the Chronological Placement of the Fishtail Projectile Point

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Michael R. Waters ,
Thomas Amorosi  and
Thomas W. Stafford Jr.
Michael R. Waters
Affiliation:
Center for the Study of the First Americans, Departments of Anthropology and Geography, Texas A&M University, 4352 TAMU, College Station, TX 77843-4352 (mwaters@tamu.edu)
Thomas Amorosi
Affiliation:
Division of Anthropology, American Museum of Natural History, Central Park West at 79th Street, New York, New York 10024-5192, USA; Department of Anthropology, State University of New York, New Paltz, New York 12561 (tamorosi@ix.netcom.com)
Thomas W. Stafford Jr.
Affiliation:
Centre for GeoGenetics, Natural History Museum of Denmark, Geological Museum, Oester Voldgade 5-7, DK-1350, Copenhagen, Denmark; Department of Physics and Astronomy, Aarhus University, Ny Munkegade 120, DK-8000, Aarhus C, Denmark (tws@phys.au.dk)
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Abstract

Fell's Cave lies near the Magellan Straits of South America's Southern Cone. This was the first site to provide evidence of a late Pleistocene occupation of South America, and it is the site where the Fishtail projectile point type was defined. Previous radiocarbon ages from Fell's Cave on charcoal samples from three hearths in the late Pleistocene artifact-bearing levels yielded dates ranging from ca. 11,000 to 10,100 radiocarbon years before present. New radiocarbon dates on curated charcoal samples from these same hearths yield revised ages of ca. 10,800 to 10,400 radiocarbon years before present. These new dates from Fell's Cave agree well with ages from other South American sites in the Southern Cone with Fishtail points and show that the Fishtail projectile point was made from ca. 10,850 to 10,300 radiocarbon years before present or ca. 12,800 to 12,100 calibrated years before present.

Résumé

Résumé

La Cueva de Fell se encuentra cerca del Estrecho de Magallanes del Cono Sur de Sudamérica. Este fue el primer sitio para proporcionar evidencia de una ocupación Pleistoceno de Sudamérica y es el sitio donde se definió el tipo de punta de proyectil Cola de Pescado. Las edades radiocarbónicas en muestras anteriores de la Cueva de Fell en tres hogares de la época del Pleistoceno tardí0 arrojaron fechas que van desde ca. 11.000 a 10.100 años de radiocarbono antes del presente. Nuevas fechas radiocarbónicas en muestras de carbón curadas de estos mismox Hogares rindieron edades revisadas de ca. 10.800 a 10.400 años de radiocarbono antes del presente. Estas nuevasfechas de la Cueva de Fell concuerdan bien con las fechas de otros sitios Sudamericanos en el Cono Sur con puntas proyectiles Cola de Pescado y muestran que el proyectil Cola de Pescado se hizo durante ca. 10.850 a 10.300 años de radiocarbono antes delpresente o ca. 12.800 a 12.100 años calibrados antes del presente.

Type
Reports
Information
American Antiquity , Volume 80 , Issue 2 , April 2015 , pp. 376 - 386
Copyright
Copyright © The Society for American Archaeology 2015

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