The Campo Laborde site: New evidence for the Holocene survival of Pleistocene megafauna in the Argentine Pampas.

PABLO G. MESSINEO; GUSTAVO G. POLITIS

D.F., México

Congreso; 10th International Conference of the International Council for Archaeolzoology.; 2006

Instituto Nacional de Antropología e História, Escuela Nacinal de Conservación, Restauración y Museografía.

Recent investigations carried out at the Campo Laborde archaeological site in the Argentine Pampas will be summarized and discussed in this presentation. The goal of this paper is to discuss some issues related to Pleistocene extinctions and the survival of some species of megafauna into the Early Holocene. At the site of Campo Laborde, abundant bone remains of giant ground sloth (Megatherium americanum) and extant Pampean fauna (e.g., vizcacha -Lagostomus máximus-, Patagonian hare -Dolichotis patagonicus-, and peccary -Tayassu sp.-, etc.) were found in association with two quartzite tools and about 130 micro-lithic debris from different raw material. All species are represented by only one individual and only some bones of the Megatherium americanum and Dolochotis patagonicus show evidence of human modification (i.e. cut marks). Different lines of evidence suggest that Campo Laborde is a giant ground sloth kill site on the border of an ancient swamp, where the prey was also initially butchered. One of the tools is the stem of a broken bifacial projectile point which would be one of the hunting weapons. The micro-lithic debris is interpreted as the result of resharpening cutting tools during the primary butchery of the prey. Based on the stratigraphic position and three AMS 14C dates from Megatherium americanum bone collagen, the site dates to the Early Holocene, between 7,700 and 8,800 yrs BP. The archaeological deposits seem to be generated by only one event, or two closely related events. The evidence obtained from Campo Laborde as well from the La Moderna site (Politis and Guitierrez 1998), a nearby site in the same stratigraphic position and with a similar age, indicates that some Pleistocene megafauna, such as giant ground sloth and the glyptodon (Doedicurus clavicaudatus), survived in the Pampas until the Early Holocene and therefore coexisted with the early hunter-gatherers for several millennia.