Paleoamerican Artifacts from Cerro Largo, Northeastern Uruguay

Abstract

A research program directed at deepening the knowledge and understanding of Paleo-American “Fishtail” points is being carried out. In pursuit of this goal, lithic remains from Cerro Largo Department, northeastern Uruguay were examined. One of the samples comes from Paso Centurión, a surface site that has yielded the greatest number of Fishtail points in Uruguay. There, and at the Paso Taborda site, several examples were reworked as scraping tools, constituting a peculiar case of stone-tool recycling and reclaiming by post-Pleistocene hunter-gatherers. The examined collection sheds new light on regional lithic assemblages, stone-tool use, and the early colonization of southeastern South America.

Keywords:

• Fishtail points
• projectile technology
• morphological variation
• South America
• Uruguay