Caught in the Act! a Bearded Capuchin Monkey Smashes a Quartz Cobble on an Anvilstone in the Serra Da Capivara National Park in Brazil
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Volume 33, Number 3 ■ July, 2018 Center for the Study of the First Americans Department of Anthropology Texas A&M University 4352 TAMU College Station, TX 77843-4352 www.centerfirstamericans.com Caught in the act! A bearded capuchin monkey smashes a quartz cobble on an anvilstone in the Serra da Capivara National Park in Brazil. Witnessed and filmed by archaeologist Tiago Falótico of University of São Paulo, the monkey shattered the cobble, then threw it aside and licked up the dust, apparently to ingest the mineral and vegal content. Of interest to archaeologists is a sharp-edged fragment created by the monkey as a by-product, which exactly mimics a conchoidal fragment made by a human flintknapper. Lithics analysts consequently caution of the need to refine the “criteria commonly used to distinguish intentional hominin lithic assemblages.” This instance of monkey handiwork also challenges definitions in archaeology: Is the rock fragment an artifact? By definition that’s an object created by humans. Since the monkey wasn’t observed using the rock fragment in any manner, is it a tool? For our story, see page 9. Photo by Michael Haslam he Center for the Study of the First Americans fosters research and public T interest in the Peopling of the Americas. The Center, an integral part of the Department of Anthropology at Texas A&M University, pro motes inter disciplinary scholarly dialogue among physical, geological, biological and social scientists. The Mammoth Trumpet, news magazine of the Center, seeks to involve you in the peopling of the Americas by report- ing on developments in all pertinent areas of knowledge. JoinJoin inin thethe SearchSearch for the First Americans! Become a member of the Center for the Study of the First Americans on Center publications plus additional benefits according to the level of and explore the origin, lifeways, artifacts, and other aspects of the membership support you choose. 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Total Please make check or money order payable to: TAMF–CSFA Ship to (please print clearly): Name Address e-mail address (in case we have a question about your order) City State Zip daytime phone (in case we have a question about your order) Volume 33, Number 3 Center for the Study of the First Americans Department of Anthropology July, 2018 Texas A&M University, 4352 TAMU, College Station, TX 77843-4352 ISSN 8755-6898 World Wide Web site http://centerfirstamericans.com and http://anthropology.tamu.edu From Three Waves 5 Arroyo Seco 2 (Dry Gulch 2, to a Standstill an ordinary kind of name) ➙ is extraordinarily rich in evidence for animals and humans that predate Clovis An Argentinian archaeologist Gustavo Politis and his team put on a grand show for visitors Evolving and local schoolchildren. 9 Bioturbation, cryoturbation, Story geofacts . now another headache for archaeologists Resourceful South American Based on monkeys create sharp-edged stone fragments that may be impossible to distinguish from Teeth American Indian dentition exhibiting a human flintknapper’s work. two classic traits of Sinodonty: upper- 15 Just call him Dr. Monte Verde central incisor shoveling and winging. Discovering the ancient Chilean UNLESS NOTED, ALLPHOTOS: G. RICHARDSCOTT occupation that toppled the established. Another piece of the puzzle by G. Richard Scott Clovis-First model is only one was an intermediate 3RM1 frequency of the feats accomplished by HRISTY G. TURNER II published of 15% noted in the X-rays of Navajo Tom Dillehay over a career that an article in 1971 on a single den- individuals, which fell between the two spans more than 40 years. C tal trait that would have lasting other Native American extremes. Turner 10 Remembering Ruthann Knudson ramifications. The trait, 3RM1 (3-rooted recalled a proposal by world-renowned lower first molars), revealed a distinctive linguist Joseph Greenberg, who argued pattern of variation among Native Ameri- that New World languages fell into three Greenland). Given this agreement, can populations. This extra root was very large groups: Macro-Indians (most North Turner went out on a limb and pro- common in Eskimos and Aleuts, who had American and all Middle, Central, and posed that 3RM1, in conjunction frequencies between 30% and 50%, and South American Indians); Na-Dene (Tlin- with Greenberg’s linguistic infer- North American Indians, who had a fre- git and Athapaskan groups of southeast ences, suggested a three-wave model quency around 5%. Both frequencies were and central Alaska and northwest Can- for the peopling of the Americas. based on many samples and hundreds of ada); and Eskimo-Aleuts (from the most Over the next 20 years, Turner individuals, so the dichotomy was firmly westerly Aleuts to Inuit populations in visited dozens of museums and ex- 2 Volume 33 n Number 3 amined thousands of dentitions, with Eastward to Beringia, then whoa! site, excavated by Vladimir Pitulko and special emphasis on populations of the Backtracking a bit, Erica Tamm and her his Russian colleagues (MT 19-3. -4, Americas, Asia, and the Pacific. In the colleagues in 2007 published an article 20-1, “Yana River, Siberia: Implications 1980s, he published a series of articles in PLOS One that suggested mtDNA evi- for the Peopling of the Americas”). This that proposed, based on his analysis, dence showed a pattern consistent with exceptionally well preserved site, located that multiple dental traits were consis- a Beringian Standstill. The standstill, or on the banks of the Yana River, lies at 71° tent with his original 3-wave model. incubation, model proposes that Upper N latitude, a brutal environment for hu- The best-known article was coauthored Paleolithic populations from northeast man existence then and now. Excellent with Greenberg and geneticist Steven Asia colonized the Far North over 30,000 organic preservation and a broad suite Zegura, who believed that three inde- years ago. The key supporting archaeo- of C-14 dates firmly established an early pendent lines of evidence supported a logical site was the Yana Rhino Horn human presence at high latitudes. 3-wave model for the settlement of the Americas. The teeth of New World colonizers Turner was the first researcher of Asian and Pacific populations to identify two distinct dental patterns in Asia, Sinodonty and Sundadonty. The Sinodont pattern was characterized by intensified traits like shoveling, winging, and UP1 (upper first molar) root reduction, compared with The Mammoth Trumpet (ISSN 8755-6898) is published quarterly by the Center for the Study of the First Americans, Department of Anthropology, Texas A&M University, the more-generalized Sundadont pattern. College Station, TX 77843-4352. Phone (979) 845-4046; fax (979) 845-4070; e-mail Significantly, he concluded that two major [email protected]. Periodical postage paid at College Station, TX 77843-4352 and at ad- peopling events could be identified by ditional mailing offices. these dental patterns: New World popula- POSTMASTER: Send address changes to: tions were derived from East Asian Sin- Mammoth Trumpet odont populations, while Polynesian and Department of Anthropology, Texas A&M University Micronesian populations were Sundadont 4352 TAMU derivatives from Southeast Asia. College Station, TX 77843-4352 For 25 years following the 1986 publi- Copyright © 2018 Center for the Study of the First Americans. Permission is hereby cation of Greenberg et al. in Current An- given to any non-profit or educational organization or institution toreproduce without cost any materials from the Mammoth Trumpet so long as they are then distributed at thropology, the 3-wave model was almost no more than actual cost. The Center further requests that notification of reproduction invariably considered by geneticists and of materials under these conditions be sent to the Center.