Late Pleistocene Archaeology in Argentina 47 years later

Summary

In the 1970s Ruth Gruhn and Alan Bryan spent several weeks in Argentina as part of a one-year trip around South America. In those years, Ruth and Alan started to challenge the Clovis-First Model for the peopling of the America, and their visit to South America was instrumental in consolidating their ideas as well as stimulating the research of Late Pleistocene archaeological sites. Subsequent travels to the region, especially the one made by Alan in 1980, contributed to generating the hypothesis that there were people in the Southern Cone before Clovis and promoted the investigation of local archaeologists. While both had the pioneering attitude of supporting Monte Verde, Alan was the first foreign archaeologist to visit Arroyo Seco 2 and La Moderna in the Pampas region.

After more than 45 years since their inspirational visit, many things have changed in the archaeology of Argentina, and today several research teams are investigating the early peopling of the country in almost every region. In this paper I summarize the recent advances in the study of these early archaeological sites (ca. 14 to 12 cal. kyr BP) and focus on the sites of the Pampas region.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Alternative Perspectives on the Peopling of the New World: A Symposium in Honor of Ruth Gruhn, the "First Lady" of First Americans Studies   •
• Society for American Archaeology 82nd Annual Meeting, Vancouver, BC (2017)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 16124