Taima-Taima is a Late Pleistocene archaeological site located about 20 kilometers east of

Santa Ana de Coro Coro, historically known as Neu-Augsburg, is the capital of Falcón State and the second oldest city of Venezuela (after Cumaná). It was founded on July 26, 1527, by Juan de Ampíes as Santa Ana de Coro. It is established at the south of the Par ...

, in the

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State of

Venezuela Venezuela (; ), officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela ( es, link=no, República Bolivariana de Venezuela), is a country on the northern coast of South America, consisting of a continental landmass and many islands and islets in th ...

. The human settlement at Taima-Taima started about 14,000 years ago.

History of research

The site was investigated starting in 1964 by José Cruxent (1911-2005), Alan Bryan, Rodolfo Casamiquela, Ruth Gruhn, and Claudio Ochsenius. The earliest human occupation goes back to 14,200-12,980 years ago. This indicates a pre-Clovis settlement of South America; the site is used as evidence for people arriving to South America earlier than previously believed. Cruxent discovered a ''

Notiomastodon ''Notiomastodon'' is an extinct proboscidean genus of gomphotheres (a distant relative to modern elephants) endemic to South America from the Pleistocene to the beginning of the Holocene. ''Notiomastodon'' specimens reached a size similar to that ...

'' pelvic bone that was pierced by a stone spearpoint. Geological and radiocarbon dating of the find both indicate the date of 13,000 BP (11,000 BC). Macrauchenia (reconstruction)

Fossils of ''

Xenorhinotherium ''Xenorhinotherium'' is an extinct genus of macraucheniine macraucheniids, closely related to '' Macrauchenia'' of Patagonia. The type species is ''X. bahiense''.camels), dating from the

Pleistocene The Pleistocene ( , often referred to as the ''Ice age'') is the geological epoch that lasted from about 2,580,000 to 11,700 years ago, spanning the Earth's most recent period of repeated glaciations. Before a change was finally confirmed in ...

Epoch In chronology and periodization, an epoch or reference epoch is an instant in time chosen as the origin of a particular calendar era. The "epoch" serves as a reference point from which time is measured. The moment of epoch is usually decided by ...

, have been found in Taima-Taima. Other such finds were made in Brazil, and also in Venezuela in the localities of Muaco, and Cuenca del Lago.

El Jobo projectile points

At Taima-Taima, José Cruxent discovered El Jobo

projectile point In North American archaeological terminology, a projectile point is an object that was hafted to a weapon that was capable of being thrown or projected, such as a javelin, dart, or arrow. They are thus different from weapons presumed to have ...

s, which are believed to be the earliest such artefacts in South America, going back to 16,000 BP. This was a major discovery in Paleoindian archaeology. The bi-pointed El Jobo points were found in the valley of

Pedregal River Pedregal River is a river of northern Venezuela. It flows into the Caribbean Sea. See also *List of rivers of Venezuela This is a list of rivers in Venezuela. By drainage basin This list is arranged by drainage basin, with respective tributarie ...

, and were mostly distributed in north-western Venezuela; from the

Gulf of Venezuela The Gulf of Venezuela is a gulf of the Caribbean Sea bounded by the Venezuelan states of Zulia and Falcón and by La Guajira Department, Colombia. The western side is formed by the Guajira Peninsula. A strait connects it with Maracaibo Lake t ...

to the high mountains and valleys. The population using them were hunter-gatherers that seemed to remain within a certain circumscribed territory.Oliver, J.R., Alexander, C.S. (2003). Ocupaciones humanas del Plesitoceno terminal en el Occidente de Venezuela. Maguare, 17 83-246 El Jobo points were probably used for hunting large mammals. The Joboid series of points have been grouped into four successive complexes. The earliest was ''Camare'', then ''Las Lagunas'', ''El Jobo'', and ''Las Casitas''. The Camare and Las Lagunas complexes lack stone projectile points. The Camare tool complex has been dated to 22,000-20,000 years ago. El Jobo tool complex has been dated to 16,000-9,000 years ago.

Notes

Bibliography

*Ochsenius, C. and R. Gruhn, eds. (1979) ''Taima-taima. A Late Paleo-Indian Kill Site in Northernmost South America''. Final Reports of the 1976 Excavations. CIPICS/South American Quaternary Documentation Program. Printed in the Federal Republic of Germany (includes chapters by J. M. Cruxent, A. L. Bryan, R. Gruhn, R. M. Casimiquiela and C. Ochsenius) *Jaimes Queros, A. (2003) ''El Vano, una nueva localidad paleo-india en el nor-occidente de Venezuela''. Maguaré No. 17, pp. 46–64. Gerardo Ardila Calderón, ed. Revista del Departamento de Antropología de la Universidad Nacional de Colombia. Bogotá Colombia. *Oliver, J.R., Alexander, C.S. (2003). Ocupaciones humanas del Plesitoceno terminal en el Occidente de Venezuela. Maguare, 17 83-246

External links

*José R. Oliver
Implications of Taima-Taima and the peopling of Northern South America
{{Authority control Archaeological sites in Venezuela Rock art in South America Paleontology in Venezuela Pre-Clovis archaeological sites in the Americas Pleistocene paleontological sites of South America