Bone Pendants Show Humans Lived In South America 25,000 Years Ago

Due to the discovery of bone pendants, it is believed by scientists that human beings lived in South America at an earlier period.

A report on Live Science specifically discussed the existence of humans in Brazil about 25,000 years ago as researchers unearthed some prehistoric sloth-bone pendants. These pendants were believed to be crafted by ancient individuals.

Three sloth osteoderms, or those bony deposits that form a kind of protective armor over the skin of animals such as armadillos, were discovered at the Santa Elina rock shelter in central Brazil.

What was found

The study, published over the journal titled Proceedings of the Royal Society B, indicated that the Santa Elina rock shelter had showed evidence of successive human settlements coming from the last glacial maximum (LGM) to the Early Holocene.

Experts had conducted a traceological analysis of the discovered artefacts through the use of optical microscopy, non-destructive scanning electron microscopy, UV/visible photoluminescence and synchrotron-based microtomography.

Further, they described the spatial association between the giant sloth bone remains and stone tools and they also provided a Bayesian age model, which helped in confirming the timing of the said association in two-time horizons of the Pleistocene in Santa Elina.

" Two- and three-dimensional georeferenced maps of archaeological materials from Santa Elina support the evidence for human activity, in the form of stone tools and other lithic artefacts, associated with remains of G. phoenesis in the two distinct periods of occupation during the Late Pleistocene," a portion of the study stated.

An entry posted on IFL Science said the sloth bone pendant was a hard evidence that human beings made the daring journey going to America at an earlier period compared to what experts had believed.

Researchers initially believed that the earliest residents in America were a single group which was popularly known as the "Clovis culture." They were believed to have settled in the continent around 15,000-13,000 years ago after crossing from the region of Eurasia.

Human modification

According to scientists, the unearthed bone pendants were anthropogenically modified.

The study underscored that the presence of several marks could be because of human modification. These included drilled perforations, polishing, multi-directional scratches and use-wear traces, which strongly gave the impression of anthropic nature and extensive use.

Scientists pointed out that the bone pendants' unique and diverse shapes, hole perforation sizes and presence of diverse anthropogenic traces would show that different tools and techniques were utilized during the production and finishing process of the final artefacts.

They did not discount the possibility that the three osteoderms were obtained and modified from a different ground sloth individual elsewhere, and that they were just later transported to Santa Elina.

This possible movement of cultural artefacts could prove the potential exchange networks as well as the possible symbolic value of these objects in communities.

The findings in Santa Elina are necessary in the debate on human occupation, symbolic behavior and megafaunal bone modification in the Late Pleistocene of South America, according to the study.