Standards and expectations.

Dillehay, Tom D.

Archaeological site candidates like Vale da Pedra Furada, Boqueirao da Pedra Furada (Parenti 2001) and others (e.g. Dillehay & Collins 1988; Guidon et al. 1994) in South America present different empirical and interpretative problems in the study of the first Americans. These candidates date earlier than the generally accepted age of r.14 500 cal BP for human entry, contain unifacial assemblages unlike anything in North America, and exhibit few, if any, food remains and traditional features (e.g. hearths, artefact clusters). If we judge them by North American standards (e.g. Haynes 1973), they also rarely exhibit clearly defined multi-component cultural strata with discrete use surfaces and reductive lithic industries associated with abundant debitage. Since these candidates do not meet all expected site criteria, what do they represent and how do we assess them? Are they valid archaeological sites indicative of small, highly mobile populations equipped with expedient technologies that left behind ephemeral records? Were they places produced exclusively by natural phenomena (e.g. flooding, falling rocks) that mimicked human activities? Are they specific depositional contexts (e.g. springs) associated with a palimpsest of co-mimicking natural and cultural forces? What is needed is a better empirical understanding of early site candidates and a reconsideration of the standards and expectations employed to judge them.

When I first visited Boqueirao da Pedra Furada (BPF), I had hoped it was an early residential site. I expected it to exhibit recognisable use surfaces, stone tools, hearths, bone remains and artefact clusters. For various reasons, the locality did not meet expected site criteria and its archaeological validity was questioned (Meltzer et al. 1994). Now, after having visited more early localities in South America and in other parts of the world (e.g. unifacial sites in Australia and China), my expectations have changed. I am more open to the idea that portions of BPF were used as quarries and/or short-term campsites by small groups of mobile people. There are three reasons for a shirt in my thinking. First, I have examined the unifacial assemblages from other Brazilian site candidates and have become more convinced that some cobbles (similar to a few at BPF) were shaped or knapped by humans. Second, I recently excavated similar early unifaces (made on exotics) and associated burned features at Monte Verde, Chile (Dillehay 2014). And third, I agree with Boeda et al. that we need more contextual and technological options in evaluating early site candidates.

This does not necessarily imply that all criteria traditionally used to judge site candidates should change. Yet, the earliest human record in South America is more diverse and, in several ways, different from that in North America and should be viewed with more flexible standards and expectations.

In turning to questions regarding Vale da Pedra Furada (VPF), the authors are to be commended for their interdisciplinary study of another potential early site. Although aspects of VPF appear to be archaeologically valid, I am concerned about some issues. There is no discussion of the specific horizontal locations of the knapped/shaped stone tools and charcoal concentrations. Do the lithics and charcoal form discrete use surfaces and activity areas? Are the grey (ashy?) sediments underlying these concentrations burned? How much micro-debitage is associated with knapped stones? Does some debitage conjoin? Although elements of the SEM study of the stones are convincing, I am dubious of use-wear analysis on quartz. Although use-wear can be demonstrated, it is difficult to assign specific functions to quartz implements. In regard to stones in the culturally sterile sediments between 'archaeological horizons', do they have sharp chipped edges? If so, how do they differ from the designated 'cultural' stones? Also, why was VPF selected as a site location? These and other questions need more detailed reporting.

The authors state that the long distances between VPF and other early candidates in South America prohibit an inter-site comparison of their stone tool industries. I disagree. Regardless of the irregular movement and small size of early populations, people had contact and exchanged technologies across vast areas of the continent, as suggested by genetic, skeletal and artefact evidence (e.g. Battaglia et al. 2013). Some quartz assemblages from pre-14 500 cal BP candidates are comparable, especially those with selected morphological traits for knapping. As the authors note, these types of localities appear to represent ephemeral, discontinuous and functionally different episodes of human activity resulting in low levels of archaeological visibility. If this is the case for most of the earliest South American record, then we must redefine our standards and expectations.

References

BATTAGLIA, V., V. GRUGNI, U.A. PEREGO, N. ANGERHOFER, J.E. GOMEZ-PALMIERI, S.R. WOODWARD, A. ACHILLI, N. MYRES, A. TORRONI & O. SEMINO. 2013. The first peopling of South America: new evidence from Y-chromosome haplogroup Q. PLoS ONES(S): e71390. http://dx.doi.org/10.1371 /journal.pone.0071390

DILLEHAY, T.D. 2014. Informe preliminar sobre recientes excavaciones en Monte Verde. Report produced for the Consejo de Monumentos Nacionales, Santiago, Chile.

DILLEHAY, T.D. & M.B. COLLINS. 1988. Early cultural evidence from Monte Verde in Chile. Nature 332: 150-52. http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/332150a0

GUIDON, N., F. PARENTI, M.F. DA LUZ, C. GUERIN & M. FAURE. 1994. Le plus anciens peuplement de l'Amerique: le Paleolitnique de Nordeste bresilien. Bulletin de la Societe Prehistorique Francaise 91: 246-50. http://dx.doi.org/10.3406/bspf.1994.9732

HAYNES, C.V. 1973. The Calico site: artifacts or geofacts? Science 181: 305-10. http://dx.doi. org/10.1126/science.181.4097.305

MELTZER, D.J., J.M. ADOVASIO & T.D. DILLEHAY. 1994. On a Pleistocene human occupation at Pedra Furada, Brazil. Antiquity 6S: 695-714.

PARENTI, F. 2001. Le gisement quaternaire de Pedra Furada (Piaui, Bresil). Stratigraphie, chronologie, evolution culturelle. Paris: Recherche sur les Civilisations.

Tom D. Dillehay *

* Department of Anthropology, Vanderbilt University, 124 Garland Hall, Nashville, TN 37235, USA