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PALEOINDIAN ARCHAEOLOGY
A. Dates of Paleoindian
1. Adams says "as late as 30,000 years ago"
B. Paleoindian
1. Valsequillo
a) located in the state of Puebla
b) excavated by Cynthia Irwin-Williams and Juan Armenta
c) at least five sites show human habitation
d) tools found in gravels from the Wisconsin glaciation
1) ended about 7000 BC
e) unifacial stone tools near the bones of extinct animals
f) some dates were 200,000 years old
1) most find these dates unbelievable
g) shell near stone flakes dated to ca. 22,000 BP
2. Tlapacoya
a) located in the Valley of Mexico
b) mammoth bones with simple flakes dated to ca. 27,000 -
22,000 BP (25,000 - 20,000 BC)
1) dates based on radiocarbon from one of three fire hearths
c) hearths associated with bones of Ice Age fauna
1) bear, deer, and stag
2) 2500 stone flakes, blades and cores found in this level
3. Tequixquiac
a) site in the Valley of Mexico north of Lake Texcoco
1) 42 mi north of Mexico City
b) carved sacrum of a Pleistocene camelid
1) find made by Mariano Barcena in 1870
2) was 12 m (40 ft) below the surface
3) represents face of a dog, wolf, or coyote
c) simple stone scrapers, pressure-flaked unifacial blades
d) splinters of mammoth bone made into bone awls found at the
same site
1) indicate butchering and scraper hide processing
e) find situated near the bottom of the Becerra formation
1) level of Pleistocene lake deposits in the Valley of Mexico
2) bottom of deposits thought to have been laid down 40,000
years ago
4. Tepexpan
a) found by Helmut de Terra in 1949
b) located on the northern shore of Lake Texcoco
c) skeleton, called "Tepexpan Man" found with a mine detector
d) bones in association with Becerra formation
e) was actually a female individual
1) found face down, with legs flexed
a> common form for Archaic period burials
2) no associated offerings
3) height estimated at 5'5" tall
4) between 25 and 30 years of age
5) skeleton is morphologically similar to modern Indians
6) within normal range of present-day Indian populations
f) no associated artifacts
g) actual stratigraphic position is not well known
h) fluorine content in bones very close to that of the mammoths
from Santa Isabel Ixtapan
5. Santa Izabel Iztapan
a) located in the northern Basin of Mexico, just a few miles
south of Tepexpan
b) first discovery was in 1952 by workers opening a drainage
ditch
1) excavated in the 1960's by Luis Aveleyra Arroyo de Anda
2) kill sites with two mammoth (Mammuthus imperator) skeletons
a> bones mired in the Becerra formation
b> animal had been butchered in situ
3) six stone tools found with one mammoth, three artifacts with
the second
a> include obsidian side scrapers, flint blades, fragment of a
bifacial knife, three projectile points, and prismatic
obsidian blades
b> one of the points was of a North American type known as
Scottsbluff
c) second mammoth found in 1954
1) tools found associated with mammoth bones
2) hind leg of animal had apparently caught in the muck
3) bones had deep cut marks
4) artifacts included an Angostura point, a Lerma point of
flint, and a bifacial chert knife
a> point types are post-Clovis, ca 8000 BC
d) datable charcoal from hearth next to third mammoth
1) radiocarbon dates fall between 14,000 and 9000 BP
a> generally accepted range is 7700-7300 BC
2) problem because stone points are similar to North American
examples dating from 7000 to 5000 BC
e) argument is that the resemblances are not exact
6. Other locations
a) Guatemala
1) Los Tapiales in Guatemala
a> base of a Clovis point, bifaces, burins, scrapers, and
blades
b> dated at 8760 BC
2) another complete point was found west of Guatemala City
3) ancient sloth bone with butchering marks from the Rio Pasion
drainage
4) Totonicapan mountains
a> stone points, knives, scrapers, engraving tools, and flakes
b) Belize
1) Ladyville in Maya lowlands near Belize City
c) Yucatan
1) Loltun Cave
a> stone tools found with the bones of Pleistocene animals
d) Costa Rica
1) Turrialba
7. Cave sequences in Tehuacan Valley
C. Tehuacan
1. Geography
a) Valley in state of Puebla, Mexico
b) chosen by Richard S. MacNeish as promising area in which to look for
origins of domesticated maize
1) maize appeared too late at sites to north and south
2) problem of preservation in many areas
c) seasonality
1) dry season
2) wet season
d) total of 12 sites excavated
2. Research
a) conducted between 1948 and 1975
b) 10,000 pieces of plant remains
c) more than 11,000 animal remains
d) over 100 coprolites
3. Sequence
a) Ajuereado (12,000-9000 BP)
1) dates from >10,000 - 8000 Cal BC
2) known from ca. 20 small sites and components
a> only 10 excavated
3) represents "Early Man" occupation
a> spanned period of the extinction of megafauna
b> little evidence for big game hunting
c> MacNeish suggests that if someone killed a mammoth, he
probably never stopped talking about it
4) settlement
a> peopled lived in small, nomadic "microbands"
1> seasonal camps
a: dry and wet season encampments
b: situated in oasis zone, thorn forest, grasslands, and river
alluvium
2> estimated that 30-40% of time was available for leisure time
a: much time expended in travel
3> no evidence for food storage
5) technology
a> recognized as a distinct culture from Clovis
b> flintknapping
c> some working of wood and bone
d> string made of agave fiber may have been used for making
baskets or bags
6) subsistence
a> development of "broad spectrum" hunting techniques is
apparent
1> estimate that 50-60% of food came from game
a: decreases to 30-40% in next phase
b> lance ambushing of game
1> indicated by chipped stone points
2> horse, antelope, deer, mammoth
c> rabbit drives and small game hunting
1> could be done with simple technology, such as clubs and
rocks
d> some seed collecting and fruit picking ****
****Resume reading about the Tehuacan Sequence in the Archaic
lecture at the El Riego Phase
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