54. Possible Relatives in the Americas

The Ultimo Esperanza sites (Tierra del Fuego, Chile)

by George Weber

Around the Seno Ultima Esperanza and approx. 25 km northwest of Port Natales there is a cluster of prehistoric sites within a short distance: 1. Lago Sofia 1 2. Cueva Herraduras 3. Cueva Milodon 4. Cueva Medio

 1. Lago Sofia

There are at least 7 cave and other sites around Lago Sofia. We only show samples of stone tools found in Lago Sofia 1.

Overview of Lago Sofia in Summer.

The earliest finds in a Lago Sofia site are dated to around 11,300 to 12,000 years before the present.

The cave is 5 m wide and 25 m dee and has yielded human stone tools as well as an awl made of bird bone. A hearth surrounded by the bones of still existing (guanaco) and extinct (a type of horse and Mylodon) animals was found.

Unifacial stone tools found at Lago Sofia 1

Bifacial stone tools found at Lagoa Sofia 1

2. Cueva Herraduras

Cueva Herraduras is a natural death site for ground sloth, dated bteween 11, 300 to 12,000 years before the present (not further discussed here)

3. Cueva Milodon

Milodon cave actually is three caves. It is enormous: 122 m at its widest and 207 m at its deepest and 10 m high. It is a major tourist attraction but is not of great importance as far as the archaeology of the earliest humans in the area is concerned. Some human artefacts have been found but are few and difficult to date.

Bones, skin and dung of Milodon (the extinct giant ground sloth Mylodon darwinii) have been found in the cave and the oldest have been dated to between 10,200 and 13,500 years before the present. Whether the animals died a natural death (e.g. during hibernation?) or were killed by humans is not clear. The former seems more probable.

 

The Milodon cave entrance with a full-life model of a Milodon ground sloth. The black line indicates how tall an average adult human would have been next to the animal.

4. Cueva Medio

Cueva Medio is a substantial cave, almost 100 m deep, 40 m wide and with its ceiling 6 m high and located only 1 km from Cueva del Mylodon (see above). The cave has been quarried for palaeontological specimens in the late 19thcentury but serious archaeological excavation has begun only in the late 1980ss onwards, especially by Hugo G. Nami.

Three hearths have been found, a number of Fishtail points (see Fell's cave) and remains of the extinct ground sloth Mylodon listai, fox and other animals. Before the first humans arrived, the cave was used by jaguar.

An earliest date of 12,300 years before the present has been established, which would put Cueva Medio among the earliest human sites in the southern Cone of South America.

One of the hearths found at Cueva Medio. The yellow arrow points to the spot where a fishtail point had been found in asssociation with horse teeth and camelid bones dating back to more than 10,000 years from the present.

Left: What was probably a slingshot round was found at Cueva Medio. The stone ball had been most carefully rounded and smoothed.       Fishtail points (to same scale as slingshot round)

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Last change 1 May 2007