Location of the Salar Punta Negra site in the Atacama
desert, northern Chile
(24o 28' S, 69o 53' W, at 2,976 m
above sea level)
54. Possible Relatives in the Americas
Salar Punta Negra site (Antofagasta, Chile)
by George Weber
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Location of the Salar Punta Negra site in the Atacama
desert, northern Chile |
The spread of the earliest known human populations in South America after 14,600 can be followed - among other methods - by the distribution and dates of more-or-less standardized stone tools.Fell points (first identified and named from Fell cave site of Tierra del Fuego) are known from many areas all over South America and parts of central America. Tuina points are much more concentrated, mostly in dry areas in northern Chile, Peru and Argentina and are associated with hunters of guanaco and other camelids.
The Salar de Punta Negra site had been prospected earlier but was discovered as archaeological site only in 2002 by Jay and Barbara Quade of Arizona University and was investigated in two field seasons 2003 and 2004. Not only an extraordinary number of unifacial stone tools and tools of the Fell and Tuina types were found (around 1,000 pieces) but also of a third type of stemmed stone point called the "Punta Negra points" (see illustrations below). Such a combination of stone tool types at one site had not previously been found, not even in other SPN site of the area and it is this that makes SPN-1 remarkable.Such multi-component sites are rare - and it is not clear why that should be so.
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The dried salt lake of Salar Punta Negra today: a spectacular but inhospitable and bone-dry high-altitude environment. For a few thousand years around 13,000 years ago this same area was green land and there was plenty of water and animal life, including human hunter-gatherers. |
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Detailed map of the Salar Punta Negra sites. Only site SPN-1 is further described here.
SPN = Salar Punta Negra sites Blue line: shore of ancient lake. Map left and details below adapted from Grosjean M., Núñez L., and Cartajena I. 2005. "Palaeoindian occupation of the Atacama Desert, northern Chile". Quaternary Science, 20: 643-653. |
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The SPN1 excavation. light green background: not excavated white square: test pit (see following illustration black squares: Punta Negra stone point (a - below)
found
(adapted from Grosjean M. et al, 2005). |
Artefacts and bones were found in surface collection only, which is in the nature of open sites at palaeolakes. The artefacts had a thin patina on their exposed sides which speaks for a long period of exposure in the open.
All bones found belong to camelid species ( e.g.vicugna).
Human habitation in this extreme location was possible only during the relatively brief (a few thousand years) wet period during the transition between the late pleistocene and the early holocene. At that time the "lake" was mostly marshland with little open water. Today there is only only 20-40 mm of rainfall per year in brief, thundery events at the site which is now one of the driest areas in the very dry Atacama desert.
The test pit indicates an earliest date of human presence in the area of 12,600 calibrated C14 years before the present (the dates given in the graph below are uncalibrated). Around 10,200 calibrated C14 years the climate had become dry again and human occupation of the site ceased. The nearest site with signs of mid-holocene human occupation is the permanent water hole SPN-7, 20 km south of SPN-1.
As the authors in Grojean M. et all note:
The assemblage and typology of the 1,000 large unifacial flakes found at SPN-1 is very similar to the collections found in the typical Patagonian sites of Los Toldos, Ceibo and Fell,suggesting that (i) the solitary Fell point found at the surfcace of SPN-1 is most likely not a stray find but a logical component of the whole asswemblage... This is interesting as the typical early site in the other sectors of Salar Punta Negra (SPN-1 to -6) ; and .... the numerous other early sites in the central Andes of the Atacama desert maianly resemble the Tuina pattern.
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The stratigraphy of the SPN1 site and its dates (adapted from Grosjean M. et al, 2005). Dates given an Except for the test pit, the sedimentary exploration pits shown here lie on the red line of the map above. |
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The SPN1 site also produced points that were named Salara Punta Negra points after the site (adapted from Grosjean M. et al, 2005). |
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Elongated lanceolate unfiface tools from SPN1(adapted from Grosjean M. et al, 2005). |
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A discoidal unface scraper from SPN1 (adapted from Grosjean M. et al, 2005). |
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Last change 5 April 2007
