Alan L. Bryan

An El Jobo Mastodon Kill at Taima-taima, Venezuela

Excavation at Taima-taima in 1976 recovered artifacts of the El Jobo complex in direct association with the butchered remains of a juvenile mastodon. Radiocarbon dates on associated wood twigs indicate a minimum age of 13,000 years before the present for the mastodon kill, a dating significantly older than that of the Clovis complex in North America. The El Jobo complex must have evolved independently in northern South America.

Paleoenvironments and cultural diversity in late Pleistocene South America

Abstract After a summary assessment of certain selected early man sites in various parts of America, the environment of the Venezuelan coastal plain is discussed in order to evaluate the stratigraphy and radiometric dating of the Taima-Taima site, near Coro, Venezuela, where mammals, many now extinct, were killed by people making El Jobo points about 13,000 years ago. Potentially important areas in Peru, Chile and Brazil are mentioned. Certain problems in the models and interpretation of South American paleoclimates are pointed out. The presence of at least four different bifacially flaked stone projectile point traditions in widely separated and environmentally diverse parts of America between 11,000 and 13,000 yr ago suggests that the immediate cultural antecedents of these traditions were essentially independent of one another. From this it is argued that several early American flaked-stone point traditions developed indigenously in America from technological bases which were present in the Old World Middle Paleolithic.

A contribution to Pleistocene chronology in southeast Essex, England

Abstract Parallel to the Essex coast north of the mouth of the Thames, a series of gravel spreads ranging in altitude from near sea level westward to more than 200 ft O.D. (mean sea level) proved to be the remnants of an abandoned Thames/Medway terrace system, rather than a series of “raised” beaches, as their location had suggested. The seaward side of the ancient river valley has subsequently been “captured” by subsidence. Evidence is given for five terraces, with surface levels between 5 and 75 ft O.D. Because of subsidence of the Essex coast, the terrace levels are not easily correlatable with either the Thames or Medway terrace levels. Temporal placement is attempted on the basis of one site in the 25 ft Barling terrace, which yielded a Middle Acheulian archaeological assemblage associated with a cool temperate fauna including an early form of mammoth. An ice wedge cast in the Barling terrace was filled with floodloam which weathered to a parabraunerde soil during an interglacial climate warmer than now. For these reasons man is thought to have lived on the floodplain of the Barling terrace either at the onset of the Wolstonian (Riss) glacial or during an interstadial of that stage. The question of possible linkages between Swanscombe and Clacton terraces is discussed.

A Review of Lynch's Descriptions of South American Pleistocene Sites

The description of major South American Pleistocene sites by Lynch (1990) contains significant errors and omissions. The artifact assemblage at the Colombian site of Tibit6, dated at 11,740 ? 140 B.P., is much larger than indicated by Lynch and well represents the Abriense industry, which features small unifacially retouched flake tools and core tools, with no stone projectile points. Lynch did not describe the 1976 stratigraphic profile at the Venezuelan site of TaimaTaima, and he failed to refer to the evidence for butchering of the juvenile mastodon with which an El Jobo projectile point fragment and a utilized flake were associated directly. The descriptions of Brazilian sites alsofeature serious mistakes. For the site ofAlice Bo&r, Lynch overlooked a thick sterile stratigraphic unit (Bed IV) that intervenes between Bed III, with its thermoluminescence dates as early as 10,970 ? 1020 B.P. and radiocarbon dates as early as 14,200 ? 1150 B.P., and the artifact-bearing surface of Bed V. For Lapa Vermelha, Lynch failed to indicate that several artifacts were recovered from an older cemented cave fill that yielded radiocarbon dates of 22,410 B.P. and > 25,000 B.P. Lynchs description of the site of Toca do Boqueirdo da Pedra Furada does not correspond to eyewitness reports, and his description of the nearby Toca do Sitio do Meio was incomplete and confused. Finally, in his description of the stratigraphy of the Patagonian site of Los Toldos, Cueva 3 Lynch misquoted and misconstrued the original reports, which indicate clearly the stratigraphic priority and integrity of the Level 11 industry. For accurate descriptions of early South American archaeological sites, readers are urged to examine the original sources.

DEVELOPMENTAL STAGES AND TECHNOLOGICAL TRADITIONS

North American archaeologists have for a long time accepted certain assumptions concerning early man in America. Because of the historical accident that the first recognized early sites were kill sites containing bifacial flaked stone projectile points in association with bones of large mammals, the generally accepted model has been that the earliest colonists were specialized big game hunters (usually termed Paleoindians), who, only after extinction of most of the proboscideans, giant bison, and several other herd ungulates, subsequently settled in to the various natural regions of America by gradual development of more efficient and varied means of adapting their economy to the available natural resources in their environment. This currently popular general model is based upon certain assumptions: (1) The assumption is implicit that a series of stages of organization can consistently be defined on the basis of assumed major shifts in economy. (2) It is then assumed that it is possible to define more than the single well-verified shift in basic economy from hunting/collecting to farming. (3) It is further assumed that in America this general developmental sequence commenced with at least two pre-agricultural stages a Lithic or Paleoindian Stage, when hunting of large herbivores was predominant and which had general temporal priority over a widespread Archaic Stage, when hunting and collecting were of more equal economic importance. (4) The latter assumption is in turn based upon the assumption that the sequence of early economic stages in North America was essentially the same as in northern Eurasia. Obvious differences are recognized not so much by detailed comparison as simply by changing the terminology from Upper Paleolithic to Lithic or Paleoindian and from Mesolithic to Archaic. By avoiding direct analogs it is conveniently forgotten that nearly all classic Upper Paleolithic sites reveal evidence for a general hunting and collecting economy, including not only mammoth and horse, but also reindeer, red deer, smaller mammals, birds, fish, berries, and nuts.* Also often forgotten is the fact that the Mesolithic has never successfully been defined as a universal stage; it was originally conceived of and is usually still recognized as an economic adaptation to the postglacial reforestation of northwestern Europe, and is extendable only as far as there are forests. (5 ) The basic assumption has to be made that certain technological traditions can be used to infer prehistoric economic adaptations, such as the example above where the innovation of various woodworking tools (adzes, axes, wedges, chisels, etc.) in the Mesolithic can be used to infer an economic adaptation to a forest environment. ( 6 ) By extension, it is assumed that it is permissible to infer the economic organization of a group of prehistoric people from the associated flaked-stone

Archaeological Investigations in the Chief Joseph Reservoir

Chief Joseph Reservoir is located along the Columbia River in southern Okanogan County,Washington (Fig. 108). The general area is a rugged highland, underlain chiefly by pre-Tertiary resistant rocks, and marked by welldefined north-south mountain ranges separated by broad troughs, now well dissected, into which the present main tributary streams, such as the Okanogan and the Sanpoil, have cut deep narrow trenches to the Columbia. The highland, whose summits reach 7000 and even 8000 feet at the international boundary, slopes rather uniformly south and passes beneath the broad expanse of the Columbia Plateau, where flat-lying mid-Tertiary basalt flows conceal the older rocks (Flint, 1935, p. 171). Along the river the country is rather barren of flora and fauna, except for sagebrush and an occasional clump of pine trees (Fig. 109, a ). Several miles north of the river the pine forests begin and extend north into Canada.