Cave of Gentio is a parietal art-bearing archaeological site situated about 30 km from

Unaí Unaí is a municipality in the Northern Region of Minas Gerais, in the Brazilian state of Minas Gerais, in the Southeast Region of Brazil. It is located 590 km from the capital of Minas Gerais and 164 km from the federal capital A fed ...

Minas Gerais Minas Gerais () is a state in Southeastern Brazil. It ranks as the second most populous, the third by gross domestic product (GDP), and the fourth largest by area in the country. The state's capital and largest city, Belo Horizonte (literally ...

, 180 km away from the

Federal District A federal district is a type of administrative division of a federation, usually under the direct control of a federal government and organized sometimes with a single municipal body. Federal districts often include capital districts, and they e ...

. Its importance was verified by UFMG archaeologists who began their exploration in the 1970s. In one of the stages of the excavations, the body of a naturally mummified child was found, classified as the oldest ever found in Brazil. The cave is located in a

limestone Limestone ( calcium carbonate ) is a type of carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of . Limestone forms whe ...

massif. During the surveys conducted in this area (1973) some technical procedures were taken in order to reveal the evidence of different occupations, which has been confirmed by

carbon-14 Carbon-14, C-14, or radiocarbon, is a radioactive isotope of carbon with an atomic nucleus containing 6 protons and 8 neutrons. Its presence in organic materials is the basis of the radiocarbon dating method pioneered by Willard Libby and coll ...

dating obtained for the older occupational layers, and also because the high degree of preservation of the archaeological material found there, which has the occurrence of pictographs and

petroglyph A petroglyph is an image created by removing part of a rock surface by incising, picking, carving, or abrading, as a form of rock art. Outside North America, scholars often use terms such as "carving", "engraving", or other descriptions ...

s. The oldest layers from the site, which yielded lithic, osteological and wooden artefacts associated with hunter-gatherers, is dated to around 8,125 BP. A later occupational layer ranged from approximately 3,490 to 340 BP. This later layer yielded wooden art artefacts associated with a ceramic-agriculturalist culture. 36 human

coprolite A coprolite (also known as a coprolith) is fossilized feces. Coprolites are classified as trace fossils as opposed to body fossils, as they give evidence for the animal's behaviour (in this case, diet) rather than morphology. The name is de ...

s were recovered from this layer. The coprolites yielded evidence of

helminth Parasitic worms, also known as helminths, are large macroparasites; adults can generally be seen with the naked eye. Many are intestinal worms that are soil-transmitted and infect the gastrointestinal tract. Other parasitic worms such as schi ...

eggs from

hookworm Hookworms are intestinal, blood-feeding, parasitic roundworms that cause types of infection known as helminthiases. Hookworm infection is found in many parts of the world, and is common in areas with poor access to adequate water, sanitation, an ...

s and '' Trichuris trichiura''. This layer also yielded evidence for the presence of peanuts, maize, squash and gourd. These domesticated plants were present at the site by around 1,900 BC.

References

Citations

Bibliography

* Boletim do Instituto de Arqueologia Brasileira (IAB), p. 35, n° 12, 2006. * * {{coord missing, Minas Gerais Caves of Minas Gerais Archaeological sites in Brazil