A team of archaeologists working in the Santa Elina caves, in central Brazil, discovered artifacts that do not fit into the generally accepted theory of the settlement of the territory of South America. The age of the finds is at least 25 thousand years.
The study was published in Proceedings of the Royal Society B and appears briefly in Live Science. The discovery made may force scientists to reconsider the theory of the settlement of South America. Until now, it was believed that people came to these lands a maximum of 10-12 thousand years ago. However, the age of the new findings is twice that indicated.
The fact is that in the caves of Santa Elina, archaeologists found the remains of an extinct giant sloth. These were bone deposits – osteoderms, which form a kind of protective armor on the skin of animals. Now armadillos or crocodiles can boast of such protection. Analyzing the bones, the scientists found traces of tools, including small holes. Later, stone tools were also found at the survey site.
The surface of the sloth’s bones was carefully polished. In their work, the researchers describe these artifacts in detail, focusing on traces of processing. They show that the small holes could not have been created naturally. This is important because, as the analysis showed, the artifacts were made 25-27 thousand years ago, that is, millennia before a person, according to the generally accepted theory, even appeared on the territory of modern Brazil. Previously, scientists had already found traces that indirectly indicated the presence of humans in South America 22,000 years ago. But there has been no reliable archaeological evidence so far.
Now in the hands of scientists were objects that, according to the authors of the study, could only be made by one person. They test it using a combination of microscopic and macroscopic imaging techniques. The most modern equipment made it possible to correct traces of incisions made with stone tools in the bones, as well as scratches on the artifacts.
For persuasion, the researchers performed a comparative analysis with the marks left on the bones as a result of bites. After all, it can be assumed that scavengers or rodents ate the carcass of a giant sloth. “Our observations indicate that these three osteoderms were turned into artifacts by humans, possibly as personal adornment,” the researchers wrote in their paper.
