2023-07-12 19:31:56
Scientists analyzed triangular and teardrop-shaped pendants made from bone material from sloths. They concluded that the carved and polished shapes as well as the drilled holes were the result of deliberate craftsmanship.
Dating of ornaments and sediments at the site in Brazil where they were discovered indicate an age of 25,000 to 27,000 years, the researchers reported. This dates back several thousand years before what some previous theories suggested regarding the arrival of the first peoples in the territory of the Americas, following their migration from Africa and then Eurasia.
“We now have good evidence, along with other sites in South and North America, that we need to rethink our ideas regarding human migration to the Americas,” said co-author Mirian Liza Alves Forancelli Pacheco. study and archaeologist at the Federal University of Sao Carlos in Brazil.
Over the past decade, other research has challenged the traditional view that humans only reached the Americas a few thousand years before rising waters covered the Bering land bridge between Russia and Alaska, possibly regarding 15,000 years ago.
The ornaments were discovered regarding 30 years ago in a rock shelter called Santa Elina, in central Brazil. The new study is the first to thoroughly analyze them and rule out the possibility that humans discovered and carved them thousands of years following the animals died out.
The team of researchers from Brazil, France and the United States said their analysis shows that this manual work was done within days to years of the animals’ death, and before the materials fossilized. The researchers also ruled out natural abrasion and other factors that might explain the shapes and holes. They published their findings on Wednesday in the UK’s Proceedings of the Royal Society B journal.
“We believe these are personal items, possibly for personal ornament,” said Thais Rabito Pansani, co-author and paleontologist at the Federal University of Sao Carlos in Brazil.
Once among the largest animals in South America, giant ground sloths were 10 to 13 feet (3 to 4 meters) in length and typically moved on all fours, using their sharp claws to dig burrows. They weighed over a ton (450 kg) and their skin featured bony structures under their coat, somewhat similar to the bony plates of modern armadillos.
Two years ago, another team of researchers reported that fossilized human footprints discovered near White Sands, New Mexico, dated back 21,000 to 23,000 years, although some research disputes those dates. Other evidence from Mexico suggests human presence around 26,000 years ago, and finds in Uruguay may suggest human occupation dating back around 30,000 years.
Jennifer Raff, an anthropological geneticist at the University of Kansas, who was not involved in the study, said the new paper was “an important addition” to the conversation, but like any discovery on the subject, it might also elicit negative reactions.
Still, evidence from multiple sites is forcing scientists to reconsider old assumptions that people only arrived in a great wave of migration via the Bering Land Bridge, said Briana Pobiner, co-author and paleoanthropologist at the Museum. National Institute of Natural History at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington.
Some groups may have disappeared, “but it is very likely that several waves of people came to the Americas,” she said.
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