The origin of the American man: the enigma of Pedra Furada
Interview with archaeologist Niède Guidon
The scientific theory initially accepted to explain the arrival of man in America is based on the idea that groups of Homo Sapiens entered the New World through the lands of Beringia, in a period between 14 and 10 thousand years ago.
What is now the Bering Strait, between Asia and North America, was once a snowy plain, precisely because sea levels were lower than they are today, due to ongoing glaciation.
Those groups of Sapiens, perhaps chasing herds of animals or searching for new lands, crossed Beringia and thus entered the New World. Some of them passed through the so-called “ice-free corridor”, others marched along the coast of North America or sailed along the coast with rudimentary boats.
This theory has been supported by the 1932 study of the Clovis archaeological site in New Mexico, whose human remains are 13,500 years old. Genetic studies of Native American populations confirmed the Asian origin of most, but not all, New World peoples.
Indeed, in recent years, very ancient archaeological sites have been found, especially in South America, which leads us to consider other theories that explain the arrival of man in America.
If the Homo Sapiens entered the New World from the north, why were the oldest archaeological sites found in the south?
Is it possible to hypothesize that groups of Sapiens, when they began their expansion across the planet, some 130 millennia ago, headed, apart from Asia and Europe, directly to South America, sailing across the Atlantic Ocean?
The finds in Piedra Museo (in Santa Cruz, Argentina, 13 millennia old), in Monte Verde (in Chile, 33 millennia old) and, above all, in Pedra Furada (Piauí, Brazil, 60 millennia old), make think about other theories to explain the origin of the population of America.
On my recent trip to Brazil, I had the opportunity to visit the Serra de Capivara national park, in the state of Piauí, where the archaeological site of Pedra Furada is located.
It is an arid area, called Sertão, whose vegetation is Caatinga, a name given to a particular type of flora adapted to living in dry environments. In this area, several animals belonging to the so-called “megafauna” lived until 12 millennia ago.
Among these animals were the toxodon (a huge hippopotamus), the eremotherium (a giant sloth), the glyptodont (a relative of the armadillo that weighed 1.4 tons), the saber-toothed tiger, the American lion, the macrauchenia (a large camelid with a trunk), an ancestor of the horse (Hippidion bonaerensis), the mastodon and a species of llama larger than the current one (Palaeolama major).
All of these animals became extinct, for reasons still unknown, about 12 millennia ago.
Some scholars have thought that they became extinct after the ice age and subsequent global climate change, but other researchers believe that their disappearance was caused by man. Indeed, in that period, the human population of America increased, probably after the arrival of Sapiens of Asian origin.
However, in South America and particularly in Brazil, exactly in the Sierra de Capivara, evidence of an older human occupation was found, from approximately 60 millennia ago.
Who were the men who lived in the Piauí caves? Where they came from?
The Serra da Capivara National Park is located not far from the town of São Raimundo Nonato, where the “museum of the American man” is located, directed by archaeologist Niède Guidon.
Studies in the area began in the 70s of the last century and later, in 1991, the park was declared a world heritage site by UNESCO. Within the park, there are hundreds of archaeological sites, where human skeletons, remains of campfires, ceramics, many stone instruments and hundreds of cave paintings and petroglyphs have been found that represent animals, celestial bodies and human beings (scenes of war, hunting , sex, etc.).
Below is the full text of the interview with archaeologist Niède Guidon.
Yuri Leveratto : Doctor, what is the oldest human bone remains found in the region?
Niède Guidon : 12,000 years. The dating was obtained with the Carbon 14 method.
Yuri Leveratto : However, in your museum they talk about older dates, up to 60,000 years. How did they arrive at such results?
Niède Guidon : In the park area we find several remains of campfires dating back 60,000 years. The charred remains of the firewood were analyzed with the carbon 14 test in some laboratories in Texas (USA). Other analyzes that were carried out using the thermoluminescence method proved that there has been human settlement in this place for 100 millennia.
Yuri Leveratto : According to you, how is it possible that human bone remains older than twelve thousand years have not been found?
Niède Guidon : In that area the soil is acidic and unfortunately, it does not allow the preservation of the oldest bone remains.
Yuri Leveratto : I read that some American archaeologists maintain the falsehood of their discoveries. In particular, some scholars believe that bonfires dating back 60,000 years were natural, that is, caused by lightning, what do you think of this?
Niède Guidon : The bonfires were studied by several archaeologists and they all confirmed that they were fires caused and controlled by man, because they were located in small, delimited areas. Lithic material, or stones worked by man, was found around these fires.
Yuri Leveratto : According to you, who were the ancient inhabitants of the area? And above all, where did they come from?
Niède Guidon : They were archaic Sapiens men and came directly from Africa. This is not about discarding the theory of human migration through Beringia from about 14,000 years ago, but about complementing it with other theories. It is unthinkable that the American continent, with an extension of thousands of kilometers from north to south, has been colonized only from the north.
In my opinion, Homo Sapiens left Africa 130 millennia ago. As is known, the ancient continent had already been colonized by Homo Erectus, but Sapiens supplanted it and dispersed throughout the planet (except Antarctica).
Some of them headed towards Asia and Europe, while others, probably fishermen, were carried by the currents and arrived in South America, pushed by the trade winds.
Yuri Leveratto : Is your thesis supported by studies of somatic or morphological anthropology?
Niède Guidon : Yes. Indeed, researchers Walter Neves and Danilo Bernardo from the University of San Paolo (Department of Genetics and Evolutionary Biology), carried out morphological analyzes of the skulls found in the Serra de Capivara area and came to the conclusion that that they belonged to the Australoid-Negroid human type and not to the Asian human type. In practice, these were archaic Sapiens, whose somatic characteristics were not yet fully specialized.
Yuri Leveratto : According to you, how many were these first Americans? How did they live? Could they hunt megafauna animals?
Niède Guidon : In my opinion, the number of Sapiens of African origin was very low, it did not exceed ten thousand men. They could not hunt megafauna animals, but limited themselves to killing the oldest and those in distress. They hunted small animals and lived off the harvest.
Yuri Leveratto : What happened when South America was invaded by Sapiens from Asia? Did the two groups meet?
Niède Guidon : Yes, it is likely that they met and mixed. The Sapiens from Africa had already spread throughout the continent and possibly also in Central and North America.
Yuri Leveratto : I thank you infinitely for your studies and your research. You disseminated a revolutionary theory, but one that has dating as a scientific basis. Their discoveries constitute one of the important keys to understanding the true history of the origin of man's arrival in America.
Niède Guidon : Thanks to you, see you later.
YURI LEVERATTO
