Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-q99xh Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-26T21:44:59.613Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

First Report of a Newly Discovered Paleoindian Quarry Site on the Isthmus of Panama

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Georges A. Pearson
Georges A. Pearson*
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, University of Kansas, 622 Fraser Hall, 1415 Jayhawk Blvd. Lawrence, KS 66045-7556 (ftgap@ku.edu)
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

An archaeological survey on the Azuero Peninsula in Panama has recently discovered a Paleoindian quarry/workshop at the base of a quartz outcrop. The Nieto site contains seldom-seen preforms and flake blanks that provide new information on early-stage reduction strategies used by Clovis-like point makers in the Neotropics. Finished tools recovered at the site include gravers, side scrapers, and large scraper planes. The production of flake blanks followed a core reduction and rejuvenation strategy already observed at other Paleoindian sites in Costa Rica and Florida. Although the quartz outcrop is located only a few kilometers away from better-quality sources of jasper and chert, Paleoindians appear to have preferred this translucent stone for their weaponry. This new information, when combined with late-stage production strategies previously recorded from other Panamanian sites, brings us closer to tracing a complete manufacturing trajectory for Clovislike points on the Isthmus. It is hoped that data from the Nieto quarry/workshop will eventually help archaeologists determine if the presence of the fluting technique in Central and South America is attributable to a migration of Clovis-related people or a technological diffusion among pre-established southerly populations.

Investigaciones arqueológicas llevadas a cabo recientemente en la Península Azuero, Panamá, ha dado como resultado el descubrimiento de una cantera/taller perteneciente al Horizonte Paleoindio, localizada en la base de un afloramiento de cuarzo. Sitio Nieto contiene preformas poco comunes, y lascas nodulares que proporcionan nuevos datos en relación a las estrategias tempranas de reducción empleadas en el Neotrópico. Entre las herramientas recuperadas en el sitio se incluyen picos, raspadores laterales, y grandes raspadores pianos. Las lascas obtenidas como resultado del proceso de reducción de talla y estrategias de rejuvenecimiento son similares a las observadas previamente en otros sitios paleoindios de Costa Rica y Florida. Existen algunos afloramientos de jaspes y pedernal próximos a la cantera/taller de cuarzo de Sitio Nieto, por lo que pensamos que los pobladores paleoindios parecen haber tenido una clara preferencia por el cuarzo con el objeto de elaborar su utillaje de piedra. Los nuevos datos obtenidos sobre técnicas de manufactura tempranas conectan con las estrategias tardías registradas en otros sitios de Panamá, gracias a lo cual hemos podido realizar un trazado aproximado de la trayectoria de producción de las puntas Clovis en el Itsmo. Esperamos que los datos de la cantera/taller de Sitio Nieto tarde o temprano ayuden a los arqueólogos a determinar si la presencia de la técnica de acanalado paleoindia, en América Central y América del Sur, es atribuible a una migratión de poblaciones Clovis, o bien si está relacionada con una difusión tecnológica entre poblaciones pre-establecidas del sur.

Type
Reports
Information
Latin American Antiquity , Volume 14 , Issue 3 , September 2003 , pp. 311 - 322
Copyright
Copyright © 2003 by the Society for American Archaeology.

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

References Cited

Adovasio, James M., Gunn, Joel D., Donahue, John, Stuckenrath, Robert, Guilday, John, and Lord, Kenneth 1978 Meadowcroft Rockshelter. In Early Man from a Circum-Pacific Perspective, edited by Alan L. Bryan, pp. 140–180. Occasional Papers No. 1. University of Alberta, Edmonton.Google Scholar
Adovasio, James M., Pedler, David, Donahue, Jack, and Stuckenrath, Robert 1999 No Vestige of a Beginning nor Prospect for an End: Two Decades of Debate on Meadowcroft Rockshelter. In Ice Age People of North America: Environments, Origins, and Adaptations, edited by Robson Bonnichsen and Karen L. Turnmire, pp. 416–431. Center for the Study of the First Americans, Oregon State University, Corvallis.Google Scholar
Anderson, David G., and Christopher Gillam, J. 2000 Paleoindian Colonization of the Americas: Implications from an Examination of Physiography, Demography, and Artifact Distribution. American Antiquity 65:43–66.Google Scholar
Ardila Calderon, Gerardo I. 1991 The Peopling of Northern South America. In Clovis: Origins and Adaptations, edited by Robson Bonnichsen and Karen L. Turnmire, pp. 261–282. Center for the Study of the First Americans, Oregon State University, Corvallis.Google Scholar
Ardila Calderon, Gerardo I., and Politis, Gustavo G. 1989 Nuevos Datos Para un Viejo Problema: Investigatión y Discusiones en Tomo del Poblamiento de América del Sur. Boletin Museo del Oro 23:3–45.Google Scholar
Bell, Robert E. 1965 Investigaciones arqueológicas en el Sitio de El Inga. Casa de la Cultura, Quito.Google Scholar
Bird, Junius B. 1938 Antiquity and Migrations of the Early Inhabitants of Patagonia. Geographical Review 28(2):250–275.Google Scholar
Bird, Junius B., and Cooke, Richard G. 1978 The Occurrence in Panama of Two Types of Paleo-Indian Projectile Points. In Early Man from a Circum-Pacific Perspective, edited by Alan L. Bryan, pp. 263–272. Occasional Papers No. 1. Department of Anthropology, University of Alberta, Edmonton.Google Scholar
Bryan, Alan L. 1973 Paleoenvironments and Cultural Diversity in Late Pleistocene South America. Quaternary Research 3:237–256.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bryan, Alan L. 1983 South America. In Early Man in the New World, edited by Richard Shutler, Jr., pp. 137–146. Sage, Beverly Hills.Google Scholar
Callahan, Errett 1979 The Basics of Biface Knapping in the Eastern Fluted Point Tradition. A Manual for Flintknappers and Lithic Analysts. Archaeology of Eastern North America 7:1–180.Google Scholar
Gonçalves, Carvalho, Luiz, Marcelo, Araújo, Aduato, and Ferreira, Luiz Fernando 2003 Human Intestinal Parasites in the Past: New Findings and a Review. Memorias do Instituto Oswaldo Cruz 98 (Supplement 1):103–108.Google Scholar
Collins, Michael B. 1999 Clovis Blade Technology. University of Texas Press, Austin.Google Scholar
Correal Urrego, Gonzalo 1981 Evidencias culturales y megafauna pleistocénica en Colombia. Fundacion de Investigaciones Arqueológicas Nacionales, Banco de la República, Bogotá.Google Scholar
Correal Urrego, Gonzalo 1986 Apuntes sobre el medio ambiente pleistocénico y el hombre prehistórico en Colombia. In New Evidence for the Pleistocene Peopling of the Americas, edited by Alan L. Bryan, pp. 115–131. Center for the Study of Early Man, University of Maine, Orono.Google Scholar
Correal Urrego, Gonzalo 1993 Nuevas evidencias culturales pleistocénicas y megafauna en Colombia. Boletín de Arqueología 8(1):3–12.Google Scholar
Correal Urrego, Gonzalo, and van der Hammen, Thomas 1977 Investigaciones arqueológicas en los abrigos del Tequendama: 12,000 años de historia del hombre y de sit medio ambiente en la altiplanicie de Bogotá. Biblioteca Banco Popular, Bogotá.Google Scholar
Dillehay, Thomas D. (editor) 1989 Monte Verde: A Late Pleistocene Settlement in Chile: Paleoenvironment and Site Context, vol. 1. Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington, D.C. Google Scholar
Dillehay, Thomas D. (editor) 1997 Monte Verde: A Late Pleistocene Settlement in Chile: The Archaeological Context, vol. II. Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington, D.C. Google Scholar
Dillehay, Thomas D., Collins, Michael B., Pino, Mario, Rossen, Jack, Adovasio, James, Ocampo, Carlos, Navarro, Ximena, Rivas, Pilar, Pollack, David, Gwynn Henderson, A., Saavedra, José, Sanzana, Patricio, Shipman, Pat, Kay, Marvin, Munoz, Gaston, Karathanasis, Anastasios, Ugent, Donald, Cibull, Michael, and Geissler, Richard 1999 On Monte Verde: Fiedel’s Confusions and Misrepresentations. http://www.uky.edu/Projects/MonteVerde/ (February 10th 2000).Google Scholar
Dixon, James E. 1999 Bones, Boats, and Bison: Archaeology and the First Colonization of Western North America. University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque.Google Scholar
Faught, Michael K., and Dunbar, James S. 1997 Paleoindian Archaeology in Two Regions Exhibiting Waisted Lanceolate Projectile Points: Florida and Panama. Paper presented at the 62nd Annual Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology, Nashville.Google Scholar
Fiedel, Stuart J. 1999 Artifact Provenience at Monte Verde: Confusion and Contradictions. Discovering Archaeology. Special Report 1(6).Google Scholar
Fladmark, Knut R. 1979 Routes: Alternative Migration Corridors for Early Man in North America. American Antiquity 44:55–69.Google Scholar
Fladmark, Knut R. 1983 Time and Places: Environmental Correlates of Mid-to-Late Wisconsin Human Population Expansion in North America. In Early Man in the New World, edited by Richard Shutler, Jr., pp. 13–41. Sage, Beverly Hills.Google Scholar
García-Bárcena, Joaquín 1979 Una punta acanalada de la Cueva Los Grifos, Ocozocoautla, Chis. Cuadernos de Trabajo, No. 17, Departamento de Prehistoria, INAH, Mexico.Google Scholar
Gnecco, Cristóbal 1994 Fluting Technology in South America. Lithic Technology 19(1):35–42.Google Scholar
Goldberg, Paul, and Arpin, Trina L. 1999 Micromorphological Analysis of Sediments from Meadowcroft Rockshelter, Pennsylvania: Implications for Radiocarbon Dating. Journal of Field Archaeology 26:325–342.Google Scholar
Goodyear, Albert C. III 1979 A Hypothesis for the Use of Cryptocrystalline Raw Materials Among Paleo-Indian Groups of North America. Research Manuscript Series, No. 156. Institute of Archaeology and Anthropology, University of South Carolina. Columbia.Google Scholar
Goodyear, Albert C. III 1999 Results of the 1999 Allendale Paleoindian Expedition. Legacy 4(1—3):8—13. Newsletter of the South Carolina Institute of Archaeology and Anthropology, University of South Carolina, Columbia.Google Scholar
Goodyear, Albert C. III 2000 The Topper Site 2000. Results of the 2000 Allendale Paleoindian Expedition. Legacy 5(2): 18–25. Newsletter of the South Carolina Institute of Archaeology and Anthropology, University of South Carolina, Columbia.Google Scholar
Gramly, Richard M. 1980 Raw Materials Source Areas and “Curated” Tool Assemblages. American Antiquity 45:823–833.Google Scholar
Gruhn, Ruth 1988 Linguistic Evidence in Support of the Coastal Route of Earliest Entry Into the New World. Man 23:77–100.Google Scholar
Gruhn, Ruth 1994 The Pacific Coast Route of Initial Entry: An Overview. In Method and Theory for Investigating the Peopling of the Americas, edited by Robson Bonnichsen and D. Gentry Steele, pp. 249–256. Center for the Study of the First Americans, Oregon State University, Corvallis.Google Scholar
Gruhn, Ruth, and Bryan, Alan L. 1977 Los Tapiales: A Paleo-Indian Campsite in the Guatemala Highlands. Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society 121(3):235–273. Philadelphia.Google Scholar
Hemmings, C. Andrew 1999 Fossil Hole Site Update. Aucilla River Times 12:10.Google Scholar
Hurt, Wesley, van der Hammen, Thomas, and Urrego, Gonzalo Correal 1977 The El Abra Rockshelters, Sabana de Bogotá, Colombia, South America. Indiana University Museum, Occasional Papers and Monographs, No. 2, Bloomington.Google Scholar
Jackson, Lawrence J. 1995 A Clovis Point Form South Coastal Chile. Current Research in the Pleistocene 12:21–23.Google Scholar
Jaimes, Arturo 1999 Nuevas evidencias de cazadores-recolectores y aproximación al entendimiento del uso espacio geográfico en el noroccidente de Venezuela. Sus implicaciones en el contexto suramericano. Arqueología del Area Intermedia 1:83–120.Google Scholar
Johnson, Michael 1998 The Cactus Hill Site (44SX202) and its Implication for the Early Peopling of the Southeast. Paper presented at the 63rd Annual Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology, Seattle.Google Scholar
Laming-Empéraire, Annette, Prous, André, Vilhena de Moraes, A., and Beltrão, Maria 1975 Grottes et Abris de la Région de Lagoa Santa, Minas Gerais, Brésil: Premier Rapport de la Mission Archéologique Franco-Brésilienne de Lagoa Santa. Cahiers d’Archéologie d’Amérique du Sud, No. 1. EPHE, Paris.Google Scholar
Lynch, Thomas F. 1983 The Paleo-Indians. In Ancient South Americans, edited by Jesse D. Jennings, pp. 87–137. W.H. Freeman, San Francisco.Google Scholar
Lynch, Thomas F. 2001 On the Road Again … Reflections on Monte Verde. Review of Archaeology. 22:39–43.Google Scholar
McAvoy, Joseph M., and McAvoy, Lynn D. 1997 Archaeological Investigations of Site 44SX202, Cactus Hill, Sussex County, Virginia (Virginia Department of Historic Resources, Research Report Series, No. 8, Sandston, Virginia.Google Scholar
Mandryk, Carole A. S. 2001 The Ice-Free Corridor (or not?): An Inland Route by Any Other Name is not so Sweet nor Adequately Considered. In On Being First: Cultural Innovation and Environmental Consequences of First Peopling, edited by Jason Gillespie, Susan Tupakka, and Christy de Mille, pp. 575–588. Chacmool Series. Archaeological Association of the University of Calgary, Calgary.Google Scholar
Mayer-Oakes, William J. 1986a El Inga: A Paleo-Indian Site in the Sierra of Northern Ecuador. Transactions of the American Philosophical Society, Vol. 76, Part 4. Philadelphia.Google Scholar
Mayer-Oakes, William J. 1986b Early Man Projectile Points and Lithic Technology in the Ecuadorian Sierra. In New Evidence for the Pleistocene Peopling of the Americas, edited by Alan L. Bryan, pp. 133–156. Center for the Study of Early Man, University of Maine, Orono.Google Scholar
Meltzer, David J., Grayson, Donald K., Ardila, Gerardo, Barker, Alex W., Dincauze, Dena F., Vance Haynes, C., Mena, Francisco, Nunez, Lautaro, and Stanford, Dennis J. 1997 On the Pleistocene Antiquity of Monte Verde, Southern Chile. American Antiquity 62:659–663.Google Scholar
Morrow, Juliet E. 1996 The Organization of Early Paleoindian Lithic Technology in the Confluence Region of the Mississippi, Illinois, and Missouri Rivers. Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, Department of Anthropology, Washington University, St. Louis.Google Scholar
Morrow, Juliet E., and Morrow, Toby A. 1999 Geographic Variation in Fluted Projectile Points: A Hemispheric Perspective. American Antiquity 64:215–231.Google Scholar
O’Brien, Michael J., and Lee Lyman, R. 2000 Applying Evolutionary Archaeology: A Systematic Approach. Kluwer, Academic/Plenum Publishers, New York.Google Scholar
Claudio, Ochsenius, and Gruhn, Ruth 1979 Taima-Taima: A Late Pleistocene Paleo-Indian Kill Site in Northernmost South America. South American Quaternary Documentation Program, Germany.Google Scholar
Overstreet, David R., Joyce, Daniel J., and Wasion, David 1995 More on Cultural Contexts of Mammoth and Mastodon in the Southwestern Lake Michigan Basin. Current Research in the Pleistocene 12:40–42.Google Scholar
Overstreet, David F., and Stafford, Thomas W. Jr. 1997 Additions to a Revised Chronology for Cultural and Non-cultural Mammoth and Mastodon Fossils in the Southwestern Lake Michigan Basin. Current Research in the Pleistocene 14:70–71.Google Scholar
Pearson, Georges A. 1998 Reduction Strategy for Secondary Source Lithic Raw Materials at Guardiria (Turrialba), 9-FG-T, Costa Rica. Current Research in the Pleistocene 15:84–86.Google Scholar
Pearson, Georges A. 1999 Isthmus Be Here Somewhere. Anthropology News 40(6):22.Google Scholar
Pearson, Georges A. 2000 New Evidence of Early Bifacial Industries on the Isthmus of Panama. Current Research in the Pleistocene 17:61–63.Google Scholar
Pearson, Georges A. 2002 Pan-Continental Paleoindian Expansions and Interactions As Viewed From The Earliest Lithic Industries of Lower Central America. Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, Department of Anthropology, University of Kansas. Electronic version at http://www.ukans.edu/∼oar/phdweb/pan.htm, accessed 05/08/03.Google Scholar
Pearson, Georges A. 2004 Pan-American Paleoamerican Dispersals and the Origins of Fishtail Projectile Points as Seen Through the Lithic Raw Material Reduction Strategies and Tool Manufacturing Techniques at the Guardiria Site, Turrialba Valley, Costa Rica. In Pleistocene Pioneers: The Human Settlement of the American Continents, edited by C. Michael Barton, Geoffrey A. Clark, Georges A. Pearson, and David R. Yesner. University of Arizona Press, Tucson, in press.Google Scholar
Pearson, Georges A., and Bostrom, Peter A. 1998 A New Fluted Stemmed Point from Belize and its Implication for a Circum-Caribbean Paleoindian Culture Area. Current Research in the Pleistocene 15:84–86.Google Scholar
Pearson, Georges A., and Cooke, Richard G. 2002 The Role of the Panamanian Land Bridge During the Initial Colonization of the Americas. Antiquity 76:931–932.Google Scholar
Prous, André 1986 Os Mais Antigos Vestígios Arqueológicos no Brasil Central (Estados de Minas Gerais, Goiís e Bahia). In New Evidence for the Pleistocene Peopling of the Americas, edited by Alan L. Bryan, A. L., pp. 173–182. Center for the Study of Early Man, Orono.Google Scholar
Ranere, Anthony J. 2000 Paleoindian Expansion into Tropical America: The View from Panama. In Archaeological Passages: A Volume in Honor of Claude N. Warren, edited by Joan S. Schneider, Robert Yohe II, and Jill K. Gardner, pp. 110–122. Publications in Archaeology, No. 1, Western Center for Archaeology and Paleontology, Hemet.Google Scholar
Ranere, Anthony J., and Cooke, Richard G. 1991 Paleoindian Occupation in the Central American Tropics. In Clovis: Origins and Adaptations, edited by Robson Bonnichsen and Karen L. Turnmire, pp. 237–253. Center for the Study of the First Americans, Oregon State University, Corvallis.Google Scholar
Ranere, Anthony J., and Cooke, Richard G. 1995 Evidencias de ocupación humana en Panamá a postrimerías del Pleistoceno y a comienzos del Holoceno. In Émbito y ocupaciones tempranas de la América Tropical, edited by Inés Cavalier and Santiago Mora, pp. 5–26. Fundación Erigaie, Instituto Colombiano de Antropología, Bogotá.Google Scholar
Ranere, Anthony J., and Cooke, Richard G. 1996 Stone Tools and Cultural Boundaries in Prehistoric Panama: An Initial Assessment. In Paths to Central American Prehistory, edited by Frederick W. Lange, pp. 49–77. University Press of Colorado, Niwot.Google Scholar
Ranere, Anthony J., and Cooke, Richard G. 2002 Late Glacial and Early Holocene Occupations of Central American Tropical Forests. In Under the Canopy: The Archaeology of Tropical Rainforests, edited by Julio Mercader, pp. 219–248. Rutgers University Press, New Jersey.Google Scholar
Roche, Helen, and Tixier, Jacques 1982 Les Accidents de Taille. In Tailler! Pour Quoi Faire: Préhistoire et Technologie Lithique II, edited by Daniel Cahen, pp. 65–76. Studia Praehistorica Belgica Series, No. 2, Musée Royale de l’Afrique Centrale, Tervuren.Google Scholar
Santamaría, Diana 1981 Preceramic Occupations at Los Grifos Rock Shelter, Ocozocoautla, Chiapas, Mexico. In X Congreso del Unión International de Ciencias Prehistóricasy Protohistoricas, edited by Joaquín García-Bárcena and Fernando Sánchez Martínez, pp. 63–83. Mexico.Google Scholar
Snarskis, Michael J. 1979 Turrialba: A Paleo-Indian Quarry and Workshop Site in Eastern Costa Rica. American Antiquity 44:125–138.Google Scholar
Storck, Peter L. 1991 Imperialists Without a State: The Cultural Dynamics of Paleoindian Colonization as Seen from the Great Lakes Region. In Clovis: Origins and Adaptations, edited by Robson Bonnichsen and Karen L. Turnmire, pp. 152–162. Center for the Study of the First Americans, Oregon State University, Corvallis.Google Scholar