Missing the point: re-evaluating the earliest lithic technology in the Middle Orinoco.

ABSTRACT: The Culebra site, located in close proximity to the Atures Rapids, is one of the very few open-air occupations in the entire Orinoco valley that is thought to date to the early Holocene. Following renewed excavations in this location, we characterize the stone technology in unprecedented detail and perform both quantitative and qualitative analyses of the assemblage deposited in the first cultural layers. Additionally, we directly date the sediment forming the depositional context of the assemblage using stratigraphically stable components of soil organic matter. Coupled with our stratigraphic and paedological data, the deposit is, contrary to established estimates, shown to date to the late Holocene, well after the appearance of ceramics in the region. The toolkit identified through the l

SUBMITTER: Riris P 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6030296 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature