The Paleoamerican Occupation of the Plains of Uruguay: Technology, Adaptations, and Mobility

Abstract

This paper presents results of investigation of an early archaeological site in Uruguay, and considers its position on a regional scale. Pay Paso 1 is the first early site of Uruguay to yield both artifacts and faunal remains including records of Pleistocene fauna (Equus sp. and Glyptodon sp.) in a radiocarbon-dated stratigraphic context. From stratigraphic, chronological and archaeological observations, three cultural components for the Pleistocene-Holocene transition have been identified, together representing one of the most intensively AMS dated sites in South America. This solid chronological base allows the positioning of the peopling of Uruguay in the context of the early settlement of the surrounding region including northeastern Argentina and southern Brazil. The site is also remarkable because it yielded evidence of a blade technology at 12,802 cal yr BP, with numerous blades and a depleted blade core, which, together with the records from Laguna Canosa and K87 (Arroyo del Tigre), permit the definition of the Tigre and Pay Paso Paleoamerican cultural complexes. Tigre and Pay Paso bifacial points were produced in post-Fishtail times in the Low Plains, a vast open territory in Uruguay and southern Brazil.

Keywords:

• Peopling of America
• South America Paleoamerican cultural complexes
• lithic technology
• plains
• Uruguay

8. Acknowledgements

I am grateful to Ted Goebel for inviting me to present this paper in the inaugural issue of the journal PaleoAmerica. A previous version of this paper was presented in the “V International Symposium on Early Man in America: A Hundred Years after the Ameghino-Hrdlicka Debate (1910–2010),” which took place in La Plata (Argentina) in 2010. The research and archaeological excavation of Pay Paso 1 were carried out through projects financed by the National Geographic Society (research grant 7892-05), the Wenner Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research (research grant 7864), CONICYT-Fondo Clemente Estable (project 5093), and ANII (National Agency for Investigation and Innovation) (grant FCE-2009-1-2453). The ongoing research on the early human occupation of Uruguay was developed with funding from the Universidad de la República CSIC I+D (2012). The community of Bella Unión (Department of Artigas) collaborated on different occasions with the field research. The fauna from the Pay Paso 1 site was identified by paleontologist Andrés Rinderknecht.

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Notes on contributors

Rafael Suárez

Rafael Suárez, is an Assistant Professor at the Department of Archaeology FHCE, Universidad de la República, Magallanes 1577, CP 11200, Montevideo, Uruguay. His research interests include South and North American Paleoamerican archaeology, organization of lithic technology, Fishtail Tigre and Pay Paso point technology, and hunter-gatherer lifeways.