The Rise and Fall of Alice Boer: A Reassessment of a Purported Pre-Clovis Site

ABSTRACT

In this paper we present a review of previous research carried out at the Alice Boer site coupled with new data regarding its lithic industry and ages. Our data suggest that the site, once believed to be at least 14,000 years old, most probably was occupied no earlier than 8000 years ago. The lithic material, comprising both bifacial and unifacial formal artifacts, can be associated to the Rioclarense industry. This industry is now well described and was dated elsewhere (at Caetetuba site) as early Holocene. Therefore, in spite of not being as old as originally thought, Alice Boer can be considered to relate to the late Paleoamerican occupation of South America from a cultural point of view.

KEYWORDS:

• Alice Boer
• lithic analysis
• pre-Clovis
• geometric morphometrics
• Rioclarense industry

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank three anonymous reviewers for their comments, which much-improved the present text. Thanks also to Dr Antonio Carlos Sarti (EACH/USP), Dr Bernadete Castro (UNESP/Rio Claro), and Dr Lluis Mundet (University of Girona, Spain) for support and fruitful discussions; to Dr José Eduardo Zaine (UNESP/Rio Claro) for sharing valuable data about the geology of the area and discussing site-formation processes; and to Dr João Messeti for granting access to his property. Mr João Boer (in memoriam) also provided helpful information about the site. Dr Paulo C. Giannini kindly granted the use of the Laboratory of Sedimentology, Institute of Geosciences, University of São Paulo. To Antoine Lourdeau for providing a copy of Cunha (1980). Aldo Malagó, Ana Cristina Hochreiter, Bruna Pechini, Graziela Rissato, Laina Honorato, Leandro Possadágua, Luciana Zanetti, Lucas Guerrini, Priscila Santos, Rafaela Pascucci, and Thomas Schrage participated in the fieldwork. This work was supported by FAPESP, grants 2009/54.720-9, 2013/13.794-5, and 2016/23.584-6 (AGMA), and 2019/08870-0 (JCMS); CAPES, grants 1478721 and 88881.132729/2016-01 (JCMS); and CNPq, grants 300339/2008-9 and 302024/2019-0 (AGMA). M. Okumura holds a CNPq Productivity Scholarship (302163/2017-4).

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico [grant numbers 302163/2017-4, 302024/2019-0]; Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior [grant numbers 1478721, 88881.132729/2016-01]; Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo [grant numbers 2017/20340-1, 2013/13.794-5, 2009/54.720-9, 2019/08870-0, 2016/23.584-6].

Notes on contributors

Astolfo Gomes de Mello Araujo

Astolfo Gomes de Mello Araujo holds a degree in Geology by the Institute of Geosciences of the University of São Paulo (1989), with a Master's degree in Archeology - Museum of Archeology and Ethnology / USP (1995), PhD in Archeology - Museum of Archeology and Ethnology / USP (2001) and visiting graduate student (SWE) in Anthropology / Archeology at the University of Washington, Seattle, USA (1998). Professor at the Museum of Archeology and Ethnology of the University of São Paulo. Coordinator of the Laboratory for Interdisciplinary Research in Evolution, Culture and Environment (LEVOC).

João C. Moreno de Sousa

João C. Moreno de Sousa holds a degree in Archeology (2010) from the Goiano Institute of Prehistory and Anthropology (IGPA) of the Pontifical Catholic University of Goiás (PUC GO). Master in Archeology from the Museum of Archeology and Ethnology (MAE) of the University of São Paulo (USP), and PhD in Archeology from the National Museum of the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (MN-UFRJ). Currently a Postdoctoral researcher at the Laboratory of Human Evolutionary Studies (LEEH) of the Institute of Biosciences, University of São Paulo (IB-USP).

Letícia C. Correa

Letícia C. Correa holds a degree in History at the Methodist University of Piracicaba (2010), Master in Archeology from the University of São Paulo at the Museum of Archeology and Ethnology (2017) with a PhD in progress at the same Institution.

James K. Feathers

James K. Feathers has been the director of the luminescence laboratory at the University of Washington since 1993. He has nearly 100 peer-reviewed publications, mostly in the luminescence field. One focus of his research has been in dating sediments from Palaeoindian sites, mainly in the southeastern US, the southern Great Plains, Alaska and particularly South America. The latter include several sites in Brazil, Uruguay and Argentina. He has also done work in Peru and Chile.

Mercedes Okumura

Mercedes Okumura, Holds a degree in Biological Sciences from the Institute of Biosciences of the University of São Paulo (1999), a Master's degree (2002) and a PhD from the same institution (2007). Worked as a researcher-curator at the Department of Biological Anthropology at the University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom (2006-2010) and then did a post-doctorate at the Museum of Archeology and Ethnology at USP (2011-2014). Lecturer at the Graduate Program in Archeology (PPGArq) at the Department of Anthropology at the National Museum-UFRJ (2014-June 2018). Currently, lecturer at the Department of Genetics and Evolutionary Biology of the Institute of Biosciences of the University of São Paulo (IB-USP) and coordinates the Laboratory of Human Evolutionary Studies (LEEH).