The Human Presence in the Americas during and before the Late Glacial Maximum under the Light of New Investigations at Chiquihuite Cave, the Older-Than-Clovis Site in Mexico

Summary

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2019: General Sessions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

The 2016-2017 excavations at Chiquihuite Cave (northeastern Zacatecas, Mexico) produced solid evidence in favor of a sustained human occupation of the Northern Mexican Highlands during and before the Late Glacial Maximum (LGM) (in process of publication at the time of the submission of this abstract); an occupation that lasted for thousands of years in the form of recurrent visitation of this high-altitude site at almost 3,000 m a.s.l. The multi-proxy evidence included an entirely new lithic industry and a long sequence of radiocarbon and luminescence dates. Explorations are scheduled to resume during the winter of 2018-2019 (dry season), with new excavations to be performed over a period of two months of continuous work inside the vast cavern. The goals of this new season are to corroborate the data obtained during previous fieldwork and replicate the intriguing evidence that set the early peopling of America to a much earlier date. This presentation presents preliminary results of these explorations that will contribute new evidence to the LGM occupation of the continent.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 84th Annual Meeting, Albuquerque, NM (2019)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 24273