The Technological Diversity of Lithic Industries in Eastern South America during the Late Pleistocene-Holocene Transition

Abstract

Brazilian archaeological literature has insisted for decades upon associating hunter-gatherer sites dated to the Pleistocene-Holocene transition either to the Itaparica tradition, if located in central or northeastern Brazil, or to the Umbu tradition and Humaitá tradition, if located in southern Brazil, Uruguay, or any other adjacent part of Paraguay and Argentina. These associations have been based almost entirely on the presence or absence of lesmas and "projectile points," regardless of their morphological and technological features. In the Uruguayan archaeological literature, three other cultures are recognised: Fell industry, Catalanense industry, and Tigre tradition, all in the Uruguayan region. However, the last 10 years of systematic studies on the lithic assemblages from these sites have shown that Paleoindian societies from Eastern South America are more culturally diverse than expected and that previously defined archaeological cultures present several issues in their definition, suggesting that many of these "traditions" are not valid and should no longer be used. Instead, new lithic industries and archaeological cultures should be defined only when cultural patterns are observable through systematic analyses.

Early human-Earth interactions and the initial peopling of the lowlands of southeastern South America (São Paulo, Brazil)

“…Furthermore, the absence record of modifications in the technological characterization of at least part of the local lithic industriesas characterized by stemmed points linked to the Rioclarense industry (figure 3E and 3G) being found either in deposits of the Pleistocene-Holocene boundary, and in deposits linked to 14C ages near the end of the Early Holocene (Moreno de Sousa, 2020;Moreno de Sousa and Okumura, 2020;Cheliz et al, 2020), suggests that preestablished lithic industries were resilient to such environmental changes. Constituting, thus, a different pattern from those identified by Haaland et al (2020) and Cascalheira et al (2021), which associates climate and environmental changes with larger shifts in technology of early human groups along Late Pleistocene in South Africa (Haaland et al 2020) and Iberian Peninsula (Cascalheira et al 2021).…”

Introductory Chapter: Pleistocene Archaeology - Migration, Technology, and Adaptation

“…This project aims to analyze an extensive set of relevant field and theoretical data from Asia in order to interpret the nature of distinct patterns in the formation of modern human cultures across Asian region after the Out of Africa event, and has already produced a number of publications (e.g. [13][14][15]). The basic idea and major topics of this book were originally evoked by joining this interdisciplinary project and we are grateful for the opportunity to publish this book in the last year of this important project.…”

Early anthropic occupation and geomorphological changes in South America: human–environment interactions and OSL data from the Rincão I site, southeastern Brazil

“…Faced by this, and also the controversy over the reliability of the record of human presence before 10 ka in the Brazilian Southern Plateau area, the discussion of relationships between early human groups and the natural environment in this part of South America acquires singular importance and complexity (e.g. Renfrew, 1976;Davidson & Schaciley, 1976;Waters, 1992;Neves and Prous, 1998;Pollard, 1999;Araujo and Correa, 2016;Troncoso et al, 2016;Correa, 2017;Cheliz and Ladeira, 2017;Moreno de Sousa, 2020). Two aspects require special consideration: (1) natural landscape changes over time and their impact on resources essential to hunter-gatherers, including sources of drinking water and raw materials; (2) the need to assess whether dating results older than 10 ka for sedimentary deposits with artefacts can be reliably considered as effective ages of human occupation, which requires an analysis of their compatibility with the context of the physical environment where they were found (Bueno et al, 2013(Bueno et al, , 2021.…”