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Volume 33, Number 3 ■ July, 2018
Center for the Study of the First Americans
Department of Anthropology
Texas A&M University
4352 TAMU
College Station, TX 77843-4352
www.centerfirstamericans.com
Caught in the act!
A bearded capuchin monkey smashes a quartz
cobble on an anvilstone in the Serra da Capivara
National Park in Brazil. Witnessed and filmed by
archaeologist Tiago Falótico of University of São
Paulo, the monkey shattered the cobble, then
threw it aside and licked up the dust, apparently to
ingest the mineral and vegal content. Of interest
to archaeologists is a sharp-edged fragment
created by the monkey as a by-product, which
exactly mimics a conchoidal fragment made by a
human flintknapper.
Lithics analysts consequently caution of the need
to refine the “criteria commonly used to distinguish
intentional hominin lithic assemblages.” This
instance of monkey handiwork also challenges
definitions in archaeology: Is the rock fragment an
artifact? By definition that’s an object created by
humans. Since the monkey wasn’t observed using
the rock fragment in any manner, is it a tool? For
our story, see page 9. Photo by Michael Haslam
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Volume 33, Number 3 Center for the Study of the First Americans Department of Anthropology
July, 2018 Texas A&M University, 4352 TAMU, College Station, TX 77843-4352 ISSN 8755-6898
World Wide Web site http://centerfirstamericans.com and http://anthropology.tamu.edu
From Three Waves
to a Standstill 5 Arroyo Seco 2 (Dry Gulch 2,
an ordinary kind of name)
is extraordinarily rich in
➙
➙
evidence for animals and
An humans that predate Clovis
Argentinian archaeologist
Gustavo Politis and his team
Evolving put on a grand show for visitors
and local schoolchildren.
UNLESS NOTED, ALL PHOTOS: G. RICHARD SCOTT
9 Bioturbation, cryoturbation,
Story geofacts . . . now another
headache for archaeologists
Based on Resourceful South American
monkeys create sharp-edged
stone fragments that may be
Teeth American Indian dentition exhibiting
two classic traits of Sinodonty: upper-
impossible to distinguish from
a human flintknapper’s work.
15 Just call him Dr. Monte Verde
central incisor shoveling and winging. Discovering the ancient Chilean
occupation that toppled the
established. Another piece of the puzzle Clovis-First model is only one
by G. Richard Scott
C
was an intermediate 3RM1 frequency of the feats accomplished by
hristy g. turner II published of 15% noted in the X-rays of Navajo Tom Dillehay over a career that
an article in 1971 on a single den- individuals, which fell between the two spans more than 40 years.
tal trait that would have lasting other Native American extremes. Turner 10 Remembering Ruthann Knudson
ramifications. The trait, 3RM1 (3-rooted recalled a proposal by world-renowned
lower first molars), revealed a distinctive linguist Joseph Greenberg, who argued
pattern of variation among Native Ameri- that New World languages fell into three Greenland). Given this agreement,
can populations. This extra root was very large groups: Macro-Indians (most North Turner went out on a limb and pro-
common in Eskimos and Aleuts, who had American and all Middle, Central, and posed that 3R M1, in conjunction
frequencies between 30% and 50%, and South American Indians); Na-Dene (Tlin- with Greenberg’s linguistic infer-
North American Indians, who had a fre- git and Athapaskan groups of southeast ences, suggested a three-wave model
quency around 5%. Both frequencies were and central Alaska and northwest Can- for the peopling of the Americas.
based on many samples and hundreds of ada); and Eskimo-Aleuts (from the most Over the next 20 years, Turner
individuals, so the dichotomy was firmly westerly Aleuts to Inuit populations in visited dozens of museums and ex-
2 Volume 33 n Number 3
amined thousands of dentitions, with Eastward to Beringia, then whoa! site, excavated by Vladimir Pitulko and
special emphasis on populations of the Backtracking a bit, Erica Tamm and her his Russian colleagues (MT 19-3. -4,
Americas, Asia, and the Pacific. In the colleagues in 2007 published an article 20-1, “Yana River, Siberia: Implications
1980s, he published a series of articles in PLOS One that suggested mtdna evi- for the Peopling of the Americas”). This
that proposed, based on his analysis, dence showed a pattern consistent with exceptionally well preserved site, located
that multiple dental traits were consis- a Beringian Standstill. The standstill, or on the banks of the Yana River, lies at 71°
tent with his original 3-wave model. incubation, model proposes that Upper N latitude, a brutal environment for hu-
The best-known article was coauthored Paleolithic populations from northeast man existence then and now. Excellent
with Greenberg and geneticist Steven Asia colonized the Far North over 30,000 organic preservation and a broad suite
Zegura, who believed that three inde- years ago. The key supporting archaeo- of C-14 dates firmly established an early
pendent lines of evidence supported a logical site was the Yana Rhino Horn human presence at high latitudes.
3-wave model for the settlement of the
Americas.
The teeth of New World colonizers
Turner was the first researcher of Asian
and Pacific populations to identify two
distinct dental patterns in Asia, Sinodonty
and Sundadonty. The Sinodont pattern
was characterized by intensified traits
like shoveling, winging, and UP1 (upper
first molar) root reduction, compared with The Mammoth Trumpet (ISSN 8755-6898) is published quarterly by the Center for
the Study of the First Americans, Department of Anthropology, Texas A&M University,
the more-generalized Sundadont pattern. College Station, TX 77843-4352. Phone (979) 845-4046; fax (979) 845-4070; e-mail
Significantly, he concluded that two major csfa@tamu.edu. Periodical postage paid at College Station, TX 77843-4352 and at ad-
peopling events could be identified by ditional mailing offices.
these dental patterns: New World popula- POSTMASTER: Send address changes to:
tions were derived from East Asian Sin- Mammoth Trumpet
odont populations, while Polynesian and Department of Anthropology, Texas A&M University
Micronesian populations were Sundadont 4352 TAMU
derivatives from Southeast Asia. College Station, TX 77843-4352
For 25 years following the 1986 publi- Copyright © 2018 Center for the Study of the First Americans. Permission is hereby
cation of Greenberg et al. in Current An given to any non-profit or educational organization or institution to reproduce without
cost any materials from the Mammoth Trumpet so long as they are then distributed at
thropology, the 3-wave model was almost no more than actual cost. The Center further requests that notification of reproduction
invariably considered by geneticists and of materials under these conditions be sent to the Center. Address correspondence to the
skeletal biologists, who either supported editor of Mammoth Trumpet, 2122 Scout Road, Lenoir, NC 28645.
it or rejected it. With papers on mtdna Michael R. Waters Director and General Editor
(mitochondrial dna) ramping up, espe- e-mail: mwaters@tamu.edu
cially following the development of pcr Ted Goebel Associate Director and Editor, PaleoAmerica
(polymerase chain reaction), which made e-mail: goebel@tamu.edu
the study of ancient dna practicable, the James M. Chandler Editor, Mammoth Trumpet
e-mail: wordsmiths@touchnc.net
model was often mentioned, then rou-
Christel Cooper Office Manager
tinely dismissed in favor of proposals that
e-mail: csfa@tamu.edu
focused on either simpler (one wave) or
C & C Wordsmiths Layout and Design
more complex (greater than three waves)
Newman Printing Co.,Inc. Printing and mailing
models for the peopling of the Americas. Web site: www.newmanprint.com
Despite these setbacks, research in ge- World Wide Web site http://centerfirstamericans.com
nomics by David Reich and his colleagues
The Center for the Study of the First Americans is a non-profit organization. Subscrip-
on over 375,000 snps (single-nucleotide tion to the Mammoth Trumpet is by membership in the Center.
polymorphisms) found a pattern of varia-
tion consistent with the neglected 3-wave Mammoth Trumpet, Statement of Our Policy
model—and gave it new life. Moreover, Many years may pass between the time an important discovery is made and the acceptance of research
results by the scientific community. To facilitate communication among all parties interested in staying
when Reich et al. acknowledged that den- abreast of breaking news in First Americans studies, the Mammoth Trumpet, a science news magazine,
tal morphology yielded valid taxonomic provides a forum for reporting and discussing new and potentially controversial information important to
markers traceable to specific founding understanding the peopling of the Americas. We encourage submission of articles to the Managing Editor
and letters to the Editor. Views published in the Mammoth Trumpet are the views of contributors, and do
populations, they vindicated Turner’s pro-
not reflect the views of the editor or Center personnel.
posal, which for years had been brutally –Michael R. Waters, Director
criticized.
July n 2018 3
If people had the cultural means to adapt to this harsh en- sure of the order of these latter two groups, just that they were
vironment, what kept them from pressing on to the east for an more recent than American Indians.)
early entry into the Americas? The answer is ice. North Amer-
ica was enveloped by two enormous ice sheets, the Cordilleran In the footsteps of the master
Ice Sheet in the west, the Laurentide Ice Sheet in the east, that After a long, productive, and often controversial career, Christy
extended across the breadth of Canada, from the Gulf of Alaska Turner passed away in August 2013. As his first Ph.D. student,
to Newfoundland (MT 32- long-time collaborator, and
4, “Was the Ice-free Cor- friend, I took it upon myself
ridor the route followed by to salvage the dental por-
the First A mericans?”). tion of his enormous data-
These ice sheets blocked gathering efforts. To this
terrestrial travel to the end, I repeatedly visited
south, and massive glaciers Tempe and with the kind as-
along the Gulf of Alaska sistance of daughter Korri
and Pacific coast made hu- and second wife, Olga, I
man movement along the
coast no easier or any more Three-rooted lower first
feasible. The hardy popula- molar (3RM1), the key trait
tions that made their way that initially led Christy G.
to Greater Beringia during Turner II to propose a 3-wave
the Upper Pleistocene were model for the peopling of
left with two choices. They the Americas.
could retreat farther south,
or remain in Beringia and find habitats that would sustain a scanned hundreds of computer printouts, 30,000 individual
hunting-gathering economy. Some groups may have followed data sheets, and over 3,000 slides. This effort, which received
the path of least resistance, falling back to more moderate cli- no support from other persons or agencies, has been informally
matic regimes in East Asia. Accumulating evidence, however, dubbed the Christy G. Turner II Legacy Project. Given that
suggests that some groups stayed the path and remained in Turner not only laid the foundation for the anthropological uses
Greater Beringia for 8–12 millennia until, by 15,000–17,000 of dental variation but also pioneered the study of cannibalism
alybp, climatic conditions of the Upper Pleistocene amelio-
c and violence in the American Southwest, it was hardly any
rated and made southerly movement along the coast possible. wonder that he wasn’t able to analyze fully the mountain of
What are the biological ramifications of a Beringian Stand- data he amassed through the years. With the Legacy Project,
still? Ironically, Turner never contemplated this possibility. his efforts will be utilized and recognized for decades to come.
The final decade of his life was devoted to a detailed study of In 2014, I was invited to participate in an SAA symposium
Siberian cave taphonomy. He never wavered from the general in honor of Gary Haynes. Dr. Haynes, known primarily for
notion that Native Americans came in three successive waves his foundational research in taphonomy, devoted part of his
from northeast Asia: Macro-Indians in the first wave, Na Dene professional life to issues surrounding the peopling of the New
and Eskimo-Aleuts in the second and third waves. (He wasn’t World. Since my own research didn’t touch on taphonomy, I
decided that my contribution should
address Haynes’s ancillary research on
Southeast Asia late
Native American origins. Now that I had
Southeast Asia early all Christy’s data sheets and not simply
East Asia the large combined samples used in our
Australia
NaDene–NW Coast
A dendrogram with Asian, Pacific, and
New World populations. Note that East
Eskimo–Aleut
Asia clusters with Southeast Asia, while all
Mesoamerican New World groups cluster together. This
North American Indian level of differentiation from Old World
South American Indian groups required an extended period of
time and spatial isolation, which supports
South America early
the idea that populations ancestral to
North America early
Native Americans were isolated from other
New Guinea Asians in Greater Beringia during the latter
stages of the Pleistocene. The dotted line
0 0.05 0.1 0.15 0.2 0.25 0.3 0.35 0.4 0.45
Dissimilarity
marks the depth of divergence of Asian
populations from New World populations.
4 Volume 33 n Number 3
1997 publication The Anthropology of Modern Human Teeth, I consistently show higher frequencies and more pronounced trait
could do a much more thorough analysis. expressions. Thus they cluster together as a coherent group, but
one differentiated from East Asians long ago.
Verifying Turner’s insistence Turner never noted this because Beringian
on exclusive Sinodonty Standstill as a concept hadn’t been broached.
Some physical anthropologists, The difference between China–Mongolia and
notably skeletal biologists who New World groups has long been known but
measure crania, have long con- never emphasized; the emphasis was on their
tended that early American Indi- commonalities, not the differences. Moreover,
ans didn’t look like later American without a standstill, there would be no obvious
Indians. In many biodistance anal- mechanism for proto-Native Americans to
yses, they often found similarities differentiate radically from populations in
with Pacific Island populations or northeast Asia.
Australian aboriginals. Some den-
tal anthropologists also took issue The Beringian Standstill to the rescue
with Turner’s proposal that all Although Turner’s original formulation for
New World groups were derived the peopling of the New World requires modi-
from northeast Asian Sinodont fying, his recognition of three distinct groups
populations. Instead, they pro- in the New World still stands. North and
posed that some groups exhibited South American Indians are like one another
and are the most distinct from East Asian
Christy Turner at work. groups. Eskimo-Aleuts, although part of
the standstill population, nonetheless show
Sundadonty, which intimated possible ties to Southeast Asian closer ties to East Asians than any other Native Americans.
groups. These contentious points provided an issue to focus This is indicated by both genetic and dental data. As usual,
on: Was there any evidence in the massive Turner dataset that Na Dene–Greater Northwest Coast remains the muddle in the
would support the presence of Sundadont groups in the Ameri-
cas? Considering that many researchers favored at least two About the author G. Richard Scott is a Foundation Pro-
major waves of migrants, I evaluated each trait in the context fessor of Anthropology at the University of Nevada, Reno. He
of Sundadont-early, Sinodont-late, or Sinodont-only. No one has earned his B.A. and Ph.D.
ever suggested a Sundadont-only model, which could be easily degrees in Anthropology
and immediately disproved. I compared histograms of 24 crown at Arizona State Univer-
and root trait frequencies for Australians, New Guineans, sity. A fter completing
Southeast Asia early, Southeast Asia late, East Asia, American his degree under Christy
Arctic, Northwest Coast/Na Dene, North American early, G. Turner II in 1973, he
North American late, Mesoamerica, South American early, and taught at the University
South American late. Seven traits showed little variation among of A laska Fairbanks
any of the 12 groups and contributed nothing to the problem. from 1973 to 1997. After
Most traits, however, were consistent with the Sinodont-only a short-lived retirement,
model. Ironically, of the three traits consistent with Sundadont- he resumed his academic
early, Sinodont-late, 3RM1 was the single trait that precipitated career at the University
the formulation of the three-wave model. of Nevada, Reno in 2001.
Although it wasn’t a surprise that most dental traits supported His specialty is dental an-
the Sinodont-only model, the next step of the analysis led to an thropology, with a focus
unanticipated result. I recruited three graduate students to do on human tooth crown
a biodistance analysis of the Asian/New World data set. Dif- and root morphology. He has written or edited four books
ferent distance measures and clustering algorithms all pointed in this area, including The Anthropology of Modern Human
in the same direction. Turner had viewed Native Americans as Teeth (1997), which will come out as a second edition in
Sinodonts, with dental linkages to China, Japan, and Mongolia. 2018. Geographically, he has worked in the American
No dendrogram, however, supported a close link between Native Southwest, Alaska, the North Atlantic, and Spain. He col-
Americans and East Asians. Instead, East Asians clustered with laborated with Turner on a dozen articles, many of which
Southeast Asians. All distance measures indicate that Native focused on how tooth morphology informs the early settle-
Americans are more like East Asians than Southeast Asians, but ment of the Americas.
they are still distinctly different from East Asians. In the original
2016 article in Quaternary International, we referred to Native middle. Without question, North and South American Indians
Americans as Sinodonts on steroids or super-Sinodonts. Native deviated first from the standstill population. As detailed in the
Americans do share Sinodont traits with East Asians, but they continued on page 8
July n 2018 5
Indisputable evidence
Prehistory in the Southern Cone Gustavo Politis, Professor of Archaeology
at the Universidad Nacional del Centro de
la provincia de Buenos Aires, Argentina,
who worked on the site as an undergraduate
student in the late ’70s and has been return-
ing ever since, cites undeniable evidence for
human occupation and reoccupation of AS2
over thousands of years. First, stone tools
bear sharp edges from intentional flaking
and many show evidence of use wear from
scraping hides. These early settlers were
ARROYO SECO 2
hunter-gatherers who used stone tools for
hunting, butchering, scraping hides, pre-
paring food, and making other tools of bone
and wood.
Second, most of the toolstone, quartzite
and chert, can only be obtained from two
outcrops in the area. AS2 lies 150 km from
the closest outcrop and 60 km from the
coast. These hardy settlers, who predate
the North American Clovis culture by at
least 1,000 years, were highly mobile,
traveling to the hills and the coast to ob-
tain what they needed.
Third, the profusion of animal bones
from a diversity of species grouped in one
place can’t be accidental. The Pampas
is a grassland, a superb environment for
large herbivores. Horses, for example,
have few predators except for humans. The
landscape, like an African savannah, was
home to diverse animals that grazed the
GUSTAVO POLITIS
Schoolchildren from the city of lush grasses (MT 29-2, “Footprints of the
Tres Arroyos visiting the Arroyo Seco 2 site. Pampas: A past worth saving”). Moreover,
a large paleo lagoon, which formed a back-
drop to this late-Pleistocene scene, made
A rchaeological evidence gathered in recent plenty of water available and was undoubtedly visited often by
years suggests that humans reached the Americas land animals and fowl. AS2 has the hallmark of a prime process-
16,000 to 18,000 years ago, after the Last Glacial ing site that was visited and revisited seasonally for thousands
Maximum, when glaciers and an icy, barren environment of years.
blocked easy access to the Americas by way of northern Can- This processing site served as a way station between kill
ada. So it’s likely humans came from Asia via a coastal route. sites and the residential camp. “Several African models show
That would also explain why many early sites lie on or near the same thing,” Politis says, “with hunters moving from kill
the coast, or near rivers that meet the sea. Earlier-than-Clovis sites to process sites, then returning home.” The kill site was
humans left evidence in sites where they processed animals purely opportunistic. Foragers left the residential campsite on
during hunting excursions. One such processing site, Arroyo trips for food, raw material, and information. And most impor-
Seco 2 (AS2), provides a multidimensional look at these early tant, according to Politis, was information. Technology spread
occupations. rapidly among bands of people. “What was transmitted was the
Located just 5 km outside the city of Tres Arroyos in Buenos knowledge,” says Politis, “not the people.”
Aires province in the Pampas region of Argentina, AS2 is one
of the oldest archaeological sites in the Southern Cone. Dat- A site replete with frustration for the archaeologist
ing the occupation of the Southern Cone is important because Viewing the complete assemblage of artifacts and animal re-
it could be the last stage in the expansion of Homo sapiens mains unearthed at AS2 brings evidence of human activity into
throughout the world. The occupants of AS2 were one of the sharp relief. “The bones aren’t just on their own in the middle of
first groups that moved into this region some 14,000 to 15,000 nowhere,” says Daniel Rafuse, a postdoctoral fellow at the Uni-
calendar years ago. versidad Nacional del Centro in Buenos Aires. A wide variety
6 Volume 33 n Number 3
of animal bones are intermingled with stone tools, “all part of for scientists to refine their techniques of taphonomy and
this larger, general site. We don’t have a natural accumulation geoarchaeology and thereby refine the site chronology. He
of material. Looking at the whole assemblage, we can tell this states frankly that “because of this low resolution, we study
must have been brought there by humans.” things that are sometimes not very strongly studied at sites.”
Radiocarbon dating of
associated organic materi- What the bones tell us
als dates tools found at Ar- The cataloguing of animal remains recovered at
royo Seco 2 at 14,000 years Arroyo Seco 2 has yielded a staggering record.
old. Erosion at the site, Of more than 100,000 faunal remains recovered,
however, has disturbed the about 6,200 have been classified taxonomically
stratigraphy. So even if a and 40 different taxa identified. In all, 272 ex-
tool appears next to a bone tinct Pleistocene mammal remains have been
in a given layer, it may have identified. Besides guanaco and rodents, which
migrated from a later stra- are the most numerous, remains have also been
tum under the influence of recovered of giant ground sloth (Glossotherium
wind and water. Further- robustum, Megatherium americanum, Mylodon,
more, natural processes and Lestodon), extinct horse (Equus neogeus and
sometimes affect bone. Hippidion), South American ungulates (Tox
“When we see weathering odon platensis and Macrauchenia), Glypotodon,
of a bone,” Politis explains, and giant armadillo (Eutatus seguini).
“we can tell it wasn’t buried Researchers detect human interaction with
quickly but exposed and animals by modifications made on the bones.
“We look for cutmarks from a stone tool, or frac-
MARIA GUTIERREZ
Quartz crystal associated tures on the bone to see if the bone was broken by
with a human burial. humans to make tools or to get bone marrow for
grease or consumption,” Rafuse explains, “and
reexposed. These processes give us clues to reconstruct the we find a lot of natural processes happening to those bones af-
story.” On the other hand, natural processes like calcium car- ter humans used them, too. We might find carnivore marks, or
bonate precipitation can obscure cutmarks and other evidence whether it was weathered or broken down. So all these things,
of human modification, and diagenic processes sometimes im- the human activity and natural activity, are how we piece to-
poverish the collagen content of bone and prevent radiocarbon gether the history of that bone.”
dating. Some of the animal bones bear clear evidence of human con-
Reoccupation introduces yet another layer of difficulty. sumption, particularly on the guanaco, which was a main food
“There’s a long record at this site, showing it was occupied source at AS2. Gutierrez notes that an extinct horse species,
and reoccupied by humans,” says Maria Gutierrez, Profes- E. neogeus, shows clear evidence of human processing. A front
sor of Taphonomy at the Universidad Nacional del Centro de leg bone from this species about 14,200 years old bears distinct
la provincia de Buenos Aires and marks from a hammerstone and
researcher at INCUAPA-CONICET. green-bone fractures (MT 23-1,
To identify a specific occupation, she Brazil “Early mammoth bone flaking on the
reminds us, you need a cultural floor, but Great Plains”), evidence for humans
at AS2 14,000 years of occupation have been
Paraguay shattering bones to extract marrow.
telescoped into a depth of less than 2 m. “We found a lot of extinct fauna, but we
Of more recent origin is the problem of hu- Argentina can’t say that all of them were consumed,”
man burials by local residents. “They mixed she says. “It’s not always easy to find evidence
up some sectors of the site, and that just Chile Buenos Aires Uruguay of human consumption of bones. But with these
makes things more difficult,” says Politis. Arroyo
Seco 2
[horse bones] and Megatherium, we’re convinced.”
“The formation processes—both natural
and cultural—are very complex. We’ve been Monte
Verde Earning a living at Arroyo Seco 2
studying it for decades now, and there are From the firm association found between human tools and
still so many questions to answer. When you animal bones emerges an understanding of the lifestyle of
believe you can answer one question, you re- these early occupants. Although the oldest human bones
Piedra
Museo
alize new questions open up, and it obligates date to no earlier than 8,000 years ago, people were camp-
you to return with a new perspective or line of ing here much earlier. We know because they left their
evidence. You never say, ‘This is the last time mark on animal bones.
I’ll come here.’ ” Analysis of more than 600 bone fragments out of thousands
The vast chronology and uncertain resolution found at AS2 reveal that a major part of the diet was meat from
are formidable problems. For Politis, AS2 is an opportunity various extinct horse species, such as E. neogeus, and other
July n 2018 7
extinct megamammals like giant ground sloths, camelids, and on rocks, finding human burials is a direct look into what kind
giant armadillos. of ritual activity they were doing.” Politis is intent on exploring
The absence of certain bones also tells us a lot about how the “symbology or ideology behind this funerary activity” to
these people went about their work. Researchers found no grasp the semiotic and contextual importance of these burials.
megafaunal skulls or bones of chest or pelvis. For Rafuse, the The earliest level, dated 7600–7800 calybp, contains five
reason is simple: It’s because “people were transporting certain human burials with triangular projectile points lodged between
sections of the animal from the the ribs and vertebrae. So
kill site to the archaeological site.” far, the team has found 15
Given, for instance, the enormous projectile points among
body of Megatherium (4–5 tons), its group of 50 human
to transport the entire carcass, skeletons. For Politis,
or even complete hindquarters or this evidence of violent
forequarters, would be a herculean deaths “indicates ethnic
task. Therefore the animal was violence or cultural con-
hunted or scavenged near the site, flict between bands in the
the skeleton butchered into smaller early to middle Holocene
parts, which were then carried to in the Pampas.” He hy-
AS2 for further processing.
The most common extinct mam- Politis (standing, center)
mal discovered here is the horse, explaining the Arroyo
DANIEL RAFUSE
E. neogeus. Skeletal parts recov- Seco 2 site to visitors,
ered are almost entirely from the 2009 field season.
appendicular skeleton, including
limb bones, phalanges, and carpal and tarsal bones. A single pothesizes that the people might have had two different kinds of
molar is the sole item found of the axial skeleton. In fact, ex- points, one for killing people and one for killing animals.
cept for the molar, a single piece of rib bone, and a piece of the When projectile points are absent, the cause of death is un-
acetabulum (hipbone cavity), the extinct-horse assemblage known. “Last year,” Politis recalls, “for the first time we found
consists entirely of bones of the appendicular skeleton. In the the burial of a young boy maybe 12 to 14 years old, with two
assemblage of skeletal remains from other Pleistocene mega- bola stones wrapped around his shoulder. Maybe it was a burial
mammals, fragments of skull, vertebrae and rib are likewise practice, or maybe he was killed. When we get a date from this
largely absent. burial we can get a direct date from the stone because they are
By the time the Inca and other great South American civi- absolutely contemporaneous—the stone and the burial.”
lizations appear, the horse species were gone. The continent
wouldn’t be populated again with horses until the European dna analysis and future aims
invasions. Researchers have found 50 hu-
man skeletons, a robust sample
Later came human for dna analysis. Because they
burials are buried in the same place, they
Thousands of years af- are likely members of the same
ter the first colonizers cultural group. Politis has enlisted
arrived at AS2, humans the help of Lars Fehren-Schmitz
started bur ying their at University of California–Santa
dead there. According Cruz to perform mitochondrial and
to 30 radiocarbon dates nuclear dna analyses on the hu-
obtained from human man skeletons. Fehren-Schmitz’s
skeletons, the site was human paleogenomics lab has col-
used for burying people lected data from different human
between 8500 and 4500
alybp. Found with them
c Gutierrez and Politis conferring at the
DANIEL RAFUSE
were burial ornaments Arroyo Seco 2 excavation, 2009 field
consisting of shells used season.
for headdresses or neck-
laces, and canine teeth pierced with holes. Rafuse recounts that bones in the Americas. Those from AS2 rank among the oldest.
“it’s not like digging up an animal bone where there’s not a per- The aim is to study the microevolutionary process over 3,000
sonal relation with that bone, but when you find these personal years. “The earliest skeleton isn’t far from the first people
items you can have a connection with that material. And since who entered the continent,” says Politis, “so we have clues to
these people had no written language and didn’t make artwork understanding the peopling of the Americas. Fehren-Schmitz
8 Volume 33 n Number 3
recently collected new results, and he and Politis are polishing visiting the site decided to become archaeologists. “So we’re also
the data for future publication. Politis, justifiably proud, boasts uncovering professions. Uncovering dreams,” she muses.
that “there aren’t many places in the Americas where you get Much of the materials recovered from the Arroyo Seco 2 site
this kind of variety from early and middle Holocene times, are on display at the Jose A. Mulazzi Municipal Museum in Tres
right? Here we have 50, a great sample.” Arroyos, which features a reconstruction of how Pleistocene
With human skeletons, animal bones, and tools, archaeolo- occupants lived. These learning centers offer opportunities for
gists have collected important pieces of the complete image locals to connect with their past.
of the Arroyo Seco 2 site. Now Gutierrez plans to reconstruct –Katy Dycus
the paleoenvironment more fully to enlarge our knowledge of
human-animal interactions. For his part, Rafuse is concentrat- How to contact the principals of this article:
ing on pinpointing the dimensions of the AS2 site: “We need to Department of Archaeology
keep digging to see where this site ends physically, to find the Universidad Nacional del Centro de la provincia de Buenos
outer limits.” AS2 offers ample opportunity for archaeological Aires
research for many years to come. Buenos Aires, Argentina
Gustavo G. Politis
Local support is a bonus Professor of Archaeology
The people of the Pampas are curious about their deep past, about e-mail: gpolitis@fcnym.unlp.edu.ar
a world inhabited by animals unrecognizable to them. Research- Maria A. Gutierrez
ers can rely on support from the local community. “We’re grateful Professor of Taphonomy
to the people of the Pampas,” says Gutierrez. “The site is close e-mail: mgutierr@soc.unicen.edu.ar
to the city of Tres Arroyos, and the local people are always very Daniel J. Rafuse
interested in their past and they’re so helpful in many ways. They Postdoctoral Fellow
really think that past is there, even though it’s 12,000 years away e-mail: drafuse@soc.unicen.edu.ar
from them. It’s not just our work, but our work in relation to them
and how much our work contributes to our knowledge of their
past.” Gutierrez and her colleagues invite local schools to visit the
Suggested Readings
Politis, G. G. , M. A. Gutiérrez, D. J. Rafuse, and A. Blasi. “The Ar-
site and learn about what archaeologists are doing there. Their rival of Homo sapiens into the Southern Cone at 14,000 Years Ago.”
efforts have paid off: Over the last 10 or 20 years, 3 students after PLOS ONE 11.9 (2016):1–27.
From Three Waves to a Standstill Suggested Readings
Greenberg, J. H., C. G. Turner II, and S. Zegura 1986 The settle-
continued from page 4 ment of the Americas: A comparison of the linguistic, dental, and
genetic evidence. Current Anthropology 24, 477–97.
2008 article by Scott and Turner in Alaska Journal of Anthropol
ogy, the intermediacy of Na Dene–Greater Northwest Coast Hoffecker, J. F., S. A. Elias, D. H. O’Rourke, G. R. Scott, and N. H.
Bigelow 2016 Beringia and the global dispersal of modern
likely developed in the New World through admixture.
humans. Evolutionary Anthropology 25, 64–78.
In sum, while all lines of biological evidence support the
affinities of Native American populations with East Asians, Pitulko, V. V., P. A. Nikolsky, E. Y. Girya, A. E. Basilyan, et al. 2004
The Yana RHS site: Humans in the Arctic before the last glacial
significant dental differences exist between these broad geo- maximum. Science 303, 52–56.
graphic groups. In all analyses, Native Americans from Alaska
to Tierra del Fuego form a coherent dental cluster set apart Scott, G. R., C. G. Turner II, G. C. Townsend, and M. Martinon-Torres
2018 The Anthropology of modern human teeth: Dental mor-
from all Old World populations. The homogeneity of Native phology and its variation in recent and fossil Homo sapiens. Cam-
American groups and their striking difference from Asian bridge University Press.
populations required two key elements, time and isolation. The
Scott, G. R., K. Schmitz, K. Heim, K. A. Paul, R. Schomberg, and M. A.
Beringian Standstill model provides both. Pilloud 2016b Sinodonty, Sundadonty, and the Beringian Stand-
–G. Richard Scott still model: Issues of timing and migrations into the New World.
How to contact the author of this article: Quaternary International doi.org/10.1016/j.quaint.2016.04.027
G. Richard Scott Tamm, E., T. Kivisild, M. Reidla, M. Metspalu, et al. 2007 Berin-
Department of Anthropology/0096 gian standstill and the spread of Native American founders. PLOS
University of Nevada Reno One 2, e829.
Reno, NV 89557 Turner, C. G. II 1985 Dental evidence for the peopling of the Ameri-
e-mail: grscott@unr.edu cas. National Geographic Society Research Reports 19, 573–96.July n 2018 9
m e r i c a n M o n k e ys
South A u d o To o l s
Make S to n e P s e
W hen jane goodall informed the late Louis Leakey
of her epic discovery that chimpanzees modified sticks
so they could use them as termite fishing poles, he
famously responded that “now we must redefine man, redefine
tools, or accept chimpanzees as humans.” New observations
late last year in the journal Nature, are similarly revolutionary
for our understanding of the technological capabilities of early
human ancestors as well as for interpreting the significance
of stone tools at very early sites in South America and other
regions inhabited by monkeys.
of capuchin monkeys making stone flakes and cores, reported continued on page 12
How a capuchin
monkey emulates a
human flintknapper.
1, the monkey selects a quartz
cobble as a hammerstone
from colluvium aggregate
and c arries it to a suitable
anvilstone;
2, the monkey grasps the
hammerstone, exactly as a
human knapper might do it,
and smashes it against the
1 2 anvilstone;
3, the monkey sets the
hammerstone aside and licks
the anvilstone at the point
of impact, possibly to ingest
either nutritious plant matter
or stone particles for their
mineral content.
4. In a variation of the
process, the monkey sets a
fragment of quartz on the
anvilstone and attempts to
shatter it using the hammer
MICHAEL HASLAM
stone. This attempt wasn’t
successful: The fragment flew
3 4 off with the first blow.10 Volume 33 n Number 3
R uthann was a solid, no-nonsense person when it came
to science, a natural leader and born to organize––and
at the same time, friendly, respectful, pitching in to
help, truly good-hearted. Lithics was her passion, especially Paleo
american lithics, along with a love of cooking and pickling that
BLM in Montana, and 1990–2005 with the National Park Service.
Her last position was Superintendent of Agate Fossil Beds Na-
tional Monument, on the Niobrara in northwest Nebraska. Taking
retirement, Ruthann chose Great Falls, Montana, as an affordable
residence from which to work independently as Knudson Associ-
filled her cupboards, and relaxing with embroidery that covered ates. Her e-mail address, paleoknute@optimum.net, reflected her
the walls of her pleasant home. Around the house were fruit trees preference for working on Paleo materials.
she planted, flowers and veggies masking the High Plains natural It was Ruthann who led the break-out of women in SAA. During
landscape. Ruthann lived life to the fullest, with an energy that an SAA meeting in the early 1980s, I was waiting outside a room
seems to still vibrate when we think of her. where the SAA Board of Directors was meeting. Dena Dincauze,
When Ruthann began her professional career in archaeology my classmate in college and grad school, was editor of American
in the 1960s, Plains and Paleo research
were dominated by men, and I do mean
dominated. We women were called girl
archaeologists, literally looked down upon
(Ruthann would stare at the man she was Remembering
talking to, minimizing that he might be
taller than she). Washington State Univer-
sity at Pullman, in the desert eastern part
of the state, had one of the few graduate
RUTHANN KNUDSON
programs in archaeology that seemed
to acknowledge the potential of women 1941‒2018
students, although Ruthann confided that
she and the other women known as Daugh-
erty’s Daughters, after the major professor
Richard Daugherty, still had to assert themselves to succeed. Ruth- Antiquity at that time, requiring her to attend the Board meeting,
ann and Leslie Wildesen (died 2014) were especially prominent in and we were going to have dinner together after the meeting.
that cohort. Wildesen chaired an SAA committee, which reported The door of the conference room opened and five men walked
in 1980 that “becoming accepted as a professional” was the major out, arms around each other’s shoulders, laughing and talking
issue women members said they dealt with. about getting a beer. Then the women in the meeting marched
We women were advised that if we wanted to do fieldwork, the out, shoulder to shoulder, Ruthann in the middle. They stood
degree we needed was the MRS.: marry a man archaeologist who watching their erstwhile colleagues. Ruthann spoke, “There go
would take you into the field the Old Boys. Well, here’s the Old Broads. Let’s go
with him. I was lucky that mine to dinner!”
was comfortable with me as For several years, the Old Broads dined together
collaborator, not just a silent at SAA, talking about women’s issues. Ruthann,
helpmate. Ruthann married Dena, Leslie Wildesen, Annetta Cheek, and I were
Tom Shay, then W. Raymond joined by more and more women, until the dinner
Wood, a fact she noted he did group grew so large that restaurant space had to
not mention in his recently be reserved, and conversations were limited. By
published autobiography, and then, only a few years later in the ’80s, the chilly
the marriages did not last. As climate was warming a bit. Dena Dincauze became
Wildesen stated in the 1980 President of SAA, its third woman president (pre-
SAA report, women archae- decessors were H. Marie Wormington and then
ologists found discrimination her protégée Cynthia Irwin-Williams). CRM was
against them in job opportu- growing into a major employer of archaeologists,
nities and research support, Ruthann included, during the 1980s. Consulting
MONDAK HERITAGE CENTER
resulting in women’s being with Native Americans was growing, too, a highly
employed in lesser-ranked uni- contentious issue that came to a head in 1990 when
versities or in lab rather than Congress passed nagpra, Native American Graves
professor positions, or taking Protection and Repatriation Act. Ruthann’s employ-
jobs outside academia—this ment with the National Park Service brought her
survey covering the late 1970s into discussions with Native Americans and work-
when CRM archaeology was not yet a major employer. Wildesen ing on protocols. While living in Great Falls, she taught an online
forged her own career in consulting; Ruthann taught at the Univer- course on Montana’s American Indians, in addition to Introduction
sity of Idaho, 1974–81, then worked for Woodward-Clyde Consul- to Anthropology, for Montana State University–Great Falls College,
tants, 1981–88, and finally took government work, 1989–90, for and was pleased with the appreciation from Native Americans tak-July n 2018 11
ing the course. In my experience, at least, Ruthann’s straight-arrow she saw her efforts nurture understanding of scientific method
talk, respectful but not naïve, won her goodwill from tribes and and of the human dimensions hidden in the archaeological record.
from activists––she was invited to attend the reburial of the Clovis- The history of women in archaeology includes substantial
era Anzick Child, under Crow auspices. research by Ruthann, particularly about women in River Basin
Ruthann had both superb organizational skills and a penetrat- Survey projects. In a session on River Basin Surveys at the 2014
ing knowledge of the ar- SAA meeting, and in the edited book
chaeological record. That of papers from the session, Ruthann
talent for organizing car- astounded the audience by assert-
ried into her studies of ing that the majority of employees
lithics, where she was in River Basin projects were women.
concerned not only with How could that be, when we all knew
figuring out the knapping that RBS notoriously did not employ
and sourcing of stone, women? Ruthann’s straight-arrow
but with working out the gaze saw hundreds of women work-
range of variation that ing as typists, lab personnel, cooks.
seemed appropriate for a Indeed, she figured about three-
named type. Not too long quarters of RBS employees were
ago, that approach was women. True, after a hushed-up as-
sneered at by a pair of sault by a professor upon a woman
younger men archaeolo- Ruthann with avocational archaeologist crew member in an RBS camp, the
ALICE B. KEHOE
gists, who told her that Weber Greiser on a field trip to Sun River Survey announced it would not hire
she “didn’t know Plain- outside Great Falls, April 2016. women as crew members. Guys were
view” when she insisted paid $40 per week, we young women
they consider its range. When she recounted the episode to me, I at best got $18 per week as assistant field supervisors if (like Dena
was aghast: WHAT?! For 30 years, Ruthann studied all the lithics Dincauze and me) we had already a couple summers of fieldwork.
anyone wanted to label Plainview, she drew thousands of specimens Ruthann’s eyes-wide-open view of women in archaeology was
as a record and a means to better understand the technology, she more than feminist, it was also throwing light on the social class
finally drew upon all those data to set out what seems legitimately structure Americans don’t usually see. How many of those work-
the products of a community of practice. Those younger dudes ing women could have been professional archaeologists if they
were so poorly educated, they were thinking in nineteenth- had been encouraged and supported?
century science, picking out type specimens Ruthann’s own background was northern Midwest,
instead of apprehending processes Heartland. Her family included forebears who had been
and range of variation. Of course, outcast by Roger Williams because they were too her-
that’s faster and easier than Ruthann’s etic for even that heretic Puritan. Seventh-Day Baptists
searching out every collection and became a small sect (not Seventh-Day Adventists) that
painstaking ordering of the factors settled in Milton, Wisconsin, a farm village south of
involved in each artifact. Probably the Madison, when colonization began in that area in
dudes don’t experience as she did, as all the 1840s. She lived in Milwaukee as a child, and
good scholars do, what Dena Dincauze matriculated at Hamline University in St. Paul, MN,
called “recursive ignorance”—transla- then completed her B.A. and M.A. in Anthropology
tion: the more you know, the more you at the University of Minnesota before her doctoral
know you don’t know. That drove Ruthann
from Plainview into the project she was Ruthann’s final published work, the fruit of
pursuing when the stroke broke, creating a years of attention and firsthand detailed study.
PRESS
definitive study of lithics labeled Goshen.
F U TA H
The drive to collect and analyze data work at Washington State University. It happens
SIT Y O
propelled Ruthann into leadership among that my in-laws were farmers in Milton; steady
professionals and avocationals alike. At Mon- hard work, no highfaluting nonsense has been the
U NIV ER
tana Archaeological Society meetings, she way of life there. Ruthann Knudson reflected that ethos and the
was a magnet. Around Great Falls, she identified endangered sites unstinting neighborliness of the farmers. She accomplished a great
and those worth investigating for information, taking groups out deal as a scientist and in service to the profession and government
for tours to see as she did. Her expertise and broad experience agencies. Above and beyond, she was a real human being. The
were called upon to serve on the Montana Burial Preservation stroke that cut off her busy life left a hole in our world.
Board, and earlier in Idaho and Nebraska, to advise on archaeo- –Alice B. Kehoe
logical matters when she lived in those states. Because she never Professor of Anthropology emeritus,
talked down to non-professionals (or to women), she was a true Marquette University
educator, an endeavor that brought her great satisfaction when akehoe@uwm.edu12 Volume 33 n Number 3
continued from page 9 sharp-edged flakes and cores that have the characteristics and
Three years previous to the publication of this research, when morphology of intentionally produced hominin tools.” This has
Brazilian archaeologists announced that they had discovered implications potentially even more far-reaching than Goodall’s
stone tools at the Toca da Tira Peia rockshelter in the Serra da observations of chimpanzee tool use.
Capivara National Park in Brazil that dated to as early as 22,000
years ago, archaeologist Stuart Fiedel told the New York Times Why do monkeys knock rocks together?
that monkeys might have made the tools. Supporters of the claim Proffitt, Luncz, and their colleagues report that the bearded
for the surprisingly early tools responded with incredulity. capuchin monkeys of the Serra da Capivara National Park
It turns out, however, that Fiedel may have been on to some- “use stone tools in more varied activities than any other
thing. Susana Carvalho, an archaeologist and primatologist known non-human primate.” These uses include “pounding
at the University of Oxford, responding to the recent paper foods, digging and in sexual displays.” They also are “the only
in Nature, told Science News that the notion that some of the wild primates” that engage in stone-on-stone percussion “for
earliest stone tools might have been made by monkeys “is the purpose of damaging those stones.” The research team
not a wild idea anymore.” Although Carvalho was referring to hasn’t observed the monkeys using the sharp flakes they
the oldest documented stone tools from Africa, the artifacts produce “to cut or scrape other objects,” so the production
recovered from the earliest levels of the Toca da of these flakes evidently is a by-product of some other, so far
Tira Peia rockshelter, described by the undetermined, activity.
excavators as simple pebble tools and Coauthors Tiago Falótico and Eduardo Ottoni ob-
flakes, are not all that different from Venezuela served the monkeys, engaged in stone-on-stone
Br.Guiana
the ancient African tools. Perhaps, in Colombia
Surinam percussion, licking or sniffing the crushed
Fr. Guiana
retrospect, Fiedel’s suggestion wasn’t surfaces of the battered rocks. Based on
such a wild idea either. this behavior, they propose that
Ecuador
Pedra Pintada the monkeys might be ingest-
Monkey the toolmaker ing either powdered quartz
Tomos Proffitt and Lydia Luncz with the Peru Brazil Capivara
Serra da or crushed lichens that were
Park
Primate Archaeology Research Group at growing in the cracks and
the University of Oxford, Tiago Falótico Santa Elina Lapa do
Boquet
crevices of the rocks. Silica
and Eduardo Ottoni with the Institute of Psy- Bolivia from the powdered quartz
Santa do
chology at the University of São Paulo, Ignacio Riacho could be an important mineral in
de la Torre with the Institute of Archaeology at Paraguay their diet that would, for example,
University College London, and Michael Haslam, contribute to the growth of bones,
with the Oxford Primate Archaeology Research whereas the lichens might have some
Group, reported in Nature that wild bearded capu- Chile medicinal benefit.
chin monkeys (Sapajus libidinosus) in the Serra Argentina
Uruguay
de Capivara National Park use rounded quartzite Arroyo Seco Monkey archaeology
cobbles as hammerstones to bash other quartzite After watching the capuchins create a variety of
cobbles. In the process, the monkeys produced Monte hammerstones, battered rocks resembling anvil
flakes and cores that “are indistinguishable from Verde Range of capuchin monkeys stones that Proffitt, Luncz, and
Evidence for capuchin-monkey
some archaeological examples of intentionally stone-on-stone percussion their coauthors refer to as “pas-
flaked early hominin stone cores” and “unifacial
Fishtail-point site
Map after Stuart Fiedel, sive hammers,” and sharp-edged
choppers.” Paleoamerica, January 2017
flakes at the Oitenta site in the
The team repeatedly observed capuchin mon- Fell’s
Cave Serra da Capivara National Park, the researchers
keys “deliberately crushing the surface of both the collected these various fragmented stones. In addition,
active and passive hammerstones” as well as uninten- they collected similar objects from “surface surveys and
tionally fracturing the stones during use. They additionally an archaeological excavation in the same area.” The total as-
observed a capuchin “place a newly fractured stone flake on top semblage of monkey-made stone tools analyzed by the team
of another stone, and then strike it with a hammer” in a way that consisted of “111 capuchin-modified stone artefacts [sic]” [per-
resembled bipolar flaking practiced by human flintknappers. It haps better described as faux artifacts; artifacts by definition
might seem odd that the monkeys “were not observed using the are only made by humans. –Ed.], including complete and bro-
sharp edges of fractured tools to cut or scrape other objects.” ken hammerstones, passive hammers, flaked hammerstones,
But the fact that capuchins produce stones with sharp edges and complete and fragmented flakes. One goal of the analysis
without intending to do so and then do not take advantage of the was to determine to what degree these incidentally produced
sharp edges when they are produced suggests that the context monkey-modified stones resemble intentionally produced hu-
for the earliest hominin stone-tool production need not have man stone tools.
been the production of sharp-edged cutting tools. That may
have come later. It also demonstrates that you don’t have to be When is a broken rock a stone tool?
human, or a human ancestor, to make “conchoidally fractured, Proffitt, Luncz, and their coauthors first reviewed the hall-You can also read
