Electron spin resonance dating of human teeth from Toca da Santa shelter of São Raimundo Nonato, Piauí, Brazil
✍ Scribed by A. Kinoshita; A.M.G. Figueiredo; G.D. Felice; M.C.S.M. Lage; N. Guidon; O. Baffa
- Publisher
- Elsevier Science
- Year
- 2008
- Tongue
- English
- Weight
- 409 KB
- Volume
- 266
- Category
- Article
- ISSN
- 0168-583X
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✦ Synopsis
Results of the dating of fossil human teeth excavated from a shelter in the surroundings areas of the Serra da Capivara National Park, Sa ˜o Raimundo Nonato, Piauı ´, Brazil are presented. This shelter was partially excavated to search for more data that could improve the archaeological context of the Garrincho's limestone hill sites, where the Toca do Gordo do Garrincho shelter provided two human teeth dated by conventional C-14 in (12,170 ± 40) yBP (years before present) and calibrated age (2 Sigma, 95% probability) 15,245-14,690 yBP (Beta 136204) [E. Peyre, C. Gue ´rin, N. Guidon, I. Coppens, CR Acad. Sci. Paris, Sciences de la terre et des plane `tes/ Earth & Planetary Sciences 327 (1998) 335, [1]].
This region is challenging the classical theories about the peopling of America. In agreement with such theories the first human groups would have arrived in America, through Behring, only about 20,000 years ago. The site Toca do Boqueira ˜o da Pedra Furada is a rockshelter situated at the cliff that is the frontier between the Pre ´-Cambrian Sa ˜o Francisco plain and the Devonian-Permian highlands of the Maranha ˜o-Piauı ´basin. It was excavated from 1978 till 1988 and presented a very consistent stratigraphy, with thousand of lithic implements and hearths [F. Parenti, Le gisement quaternaire de la Pedra Furada (Piaui, Bre ´sil), Stratigraphie, chronologie, e ´volution culturelle, Editions Recherches sur les civilisations, Paris, 2002, [2]; F. Parenti, Le Gisement Quaternaire de la Toca do Boqueira ˜o da Pedra Furada (Piauı ´, Bre ´sil) dans le Contexte de la Pre ´histoire Ame ´ricaine Fouilles, Stratigraphie, Chronologie, E ´volution Culturelle, Ph.D. diss, E cole des Hautes E tudes en Sciences Sociales, Paris, 1993, 411p, [3]; F. Parenti, M. Fontugne, N. Guidon, C. Gue ´rin, M. Faure, Chronostratigraphie des gisements arche ´ologiques et pale ´ontologiques de Sao Raimundo Nonato (Piaui, Bre ´sil): contribution a la connaissance du peuplement ple ´istoce ne de l'Ame ´rique, Supple ´ment de la Revue d'Arche ´ome ´trie, 1999, p. 327, [4]].
Seventy C-14 dates were obtained going from 59,000 yBP to 5000 yBP at the actual soil [G.M. Santos, M.I., Bird, F. Parenti, L.K. Fifield, N. Guidon, P.A. Hausladen, Quaternary Sci. Rev. 22 (2003Rev. 22 ( ) 2303, [5], [5]]. Beneath the date of 59,000 yBP it was found 1.5 m of archaeological layers, till the rock base. The cobbles that composed the structure of the hearths placed on top of the rock base were dated by thermoluminescence and the date of them is 100,000 yBP [H.