54. Possible Relatives in the Americas

Tlapacoyan sites (Vera Cruz, Mexico)

by George Weber

The location of the Tlapacoyan sites (included in the 'Filo Bobos' archaeological project of the state government of Vera Cruz).

The two Tlapacoyan sites are located what in pre-Columbian time was an island at the foot of a volcano. The sites were uncovered during the construction of a Mexico City-Puebla freeway in the 1960s to 1970s.

What are thought to have been hearths were excavated by Lorena Mirambell and Jose Luis Lorenzo in the 1960s and 1970s. C14 dates indicate a first human occupation of the sites at 24,000+/-4000 and 21,700+/-500 years ago. Bones of black bear and two species of deer were found in kitchen middens associated with the hearths.

An obsidian hydration date on a curved obsidian blade strenghtened the case of such an early occupation by giving a date between 21,250 and 25,000 years ago. This date had additional confirmation because the blade was found under a fallen tree-trunk that itself was dated to 24,000 years ago.

These very early dates were and still are disputed. But with ever more such ancient dates being found (see for example Topper and Meadowcroft), such very early dates are beginning to look distinctly less "off the map" today.

Left:a skull was found at Trapacoyan in 1966 and dated by Dr. Silvia Gonzalez to 9,730 ± 65 years ago, placing it among the oldest human remains found in the Americas. Below: arrow points were also found:

Tools of various stone types (including quartz and obsidian) were found at the site.

The wider area in which the Tlapacoyan site is located is dotted with many active volcanoes. The stratigraphy of the site shows that there have been many eruptions in the past ,depositing layers of ash and causing lahars. In extreme cases killing an eruption could kill all life in a wide area. At Tlapacoan, there is evidence for at least two such major volcanic events in the past 15,000 years: one at 14,450 and another at 11,600 years ago.

 

A simple rock carving of a hand at Tlapacoya. Its age and meaning is not known.

 

This Olmec-style clay figurine with the baby-face and -pose was excavated at Tlapacoya. It had been made some time after 3,800 years ago. It is 41.5 cm high and is now kept at the National Museum of Anthropology, Mexico. Although rather outside the time and subject parameters for us here, the Olmec civilization is the oldest American civilization known and it has so many unusual ("un-American") and alien aspects of potential interest to us that we have included it on this site. The African-like facial features are typical of Olmecs styles. These faces have often been "explained" as stylized Jaguar faces. In later classic Olmec facial representations, the stylization went much further and "Jaguar" may then be a possible explanation. But in this very early and not-yet Olmec figurine it is not. The plain fact is that we do not have the faintest idea what these figurines and their strange features meant to their creators.

 

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Last change 15 January 2007