Contrary to what has been maintained for decades, the latest advances in the studies of the Paleolithic in America and the use of more modern dating methods yield increasingly older dates, until they gradually match those of Europe. In America, the Paleolithic period corresponds to the stage of cultural evolution of hunters, gatherers and fishermen.
Human population and fauna
Although the glacial phenomenon affected the planet as a whole, the American glaciations, especially those that covered most of the territory of North America, constituted one of the largest masses of ice on Earth. This factor conditioned the rate of settlement of the New World. At present, the most accepted theory affirms that the mass of the immigrant human population in the American continent penetrated at intervals of time through what is now the Bering Strait and Alaska, later moving, in waves, towards the south of the continent. In Northeast Asia, today as many as three of the ice-free paths leading to the Bering Strait can be traced, which, in Protopalaeolithic times, must have been a wide land bridge dotted with lakes that would eventually join the river plain. Yukon, in Alaska. That was, without a doubt, the path followed by herds of animals and bands of hunters to penetrate American territory. The animals of North America were part Asian and part South American. The elephant or mammoth, the moose, the bison, the reindeer, the beaver and various felids came from Asia. Instead, Megatherium, Mylodon, and Megalonix came from South America. The mastodon and some species of equus, platygonus and tapirus were native . Between 8000 and 6000 BC. C., most of this fauna disappeared from the American landscape.
The American Paleolithic, as in the rest of the world, can be divided into two periods:the Lower and Upper Paleolithic .
Both stages constitute, in turn, two cultural traditions that extend their validity until very recent dates.
The lithic industry in the Paleolithic in America
From the point of view of technology, the Lower Palaeolithic was characterized by the manufacture of lyrical instruments using the percussion technique. Such utensils consisted of cores or nodular pieces and flakes, but more elaborate instruments were not manufactured, such as projectile points and knives and biface carving blades that characterized the industry of the following period. The Upper Paleolithic of North America begins with the so-called withdrawal of the New Haven glaciation around 15,000 BC C, leading to the opening of the corridor between the Keewatin and Piedmont glaciation hotspots. New human contingents entered along this route, bringing hitherto unknown stone industries from Asia and more developed forms of economic organization. The new settlers made much finer instruments, such as projectile points, which increased hunting capacity, relegating harvesting techniques to second place. These Upper Paleolithic hunters of North America, like the Lower Paleolithic hunter-gatherers before them, penetrated into Mexico and Central America, eventually expanding into South America. The Clovis and Folsorn complexes, typical of the Upper Paleolithic, reached the Valley of Mexico in 8000 BC. C. Other more southern complexes. evolved in the likeness of those existing in North America, are those of El Jobo, in Venezuela; The Inga, in Ecuador:Lauricocha, in Peru, and Viscachani in Bolivia. The Tóldense, Casapedrense and Ayampitense complexes represent the southernmost forms of this cultural tradition.
The cave painting constitutes a valuable testimony of this cultural evolution. Its main foci are located in Baja California, Brazil, the Central Andes and southern Patagonia.
In 8000-7000 BC C, a set of climatic changes determined the definitive retreat of the great glacial masses. As a consequence of this phenomenon, towards 6000 a. C. the megafauna was exhausted and, therefore, one of the most important sources of protein for feeding the hunters. Vegetable farming made up for that loss. In turn, the development of agriculture generated strong cultural changes.
The murals of Cueva Pintada
Shelter located in the Sierra de San Francisco, in Baja California (United States). Painted Cave represents one of the most relevant testimonies of American rock art. The set includes representations of strange painted men, half a body in red and the other half in black, superimposed on deer and birds, very common in that North American region.
A heterogeneous continent
Consisting of two large masses of land, relatively triangular in shape and joined by a narrow intermediate corridor, America is, in fact, a double continent. This reality conditioned the population displacement and the cultural interrelation between the different areas. Hundreds of ecological niches, great climatic diversity and topographical characteristics -large orographic systems on the Pacific slope and extensive plains on the Atlantic slope- endorse the great cultural heterogeneity of pre-Columbian America which, after some 40,000 years of history, is today expressed through more than 2000 different languages.
Chronology
- Taima-taima 15,400 BC C. Venezuela. Stone hunting tools, bones of megafauna and minor species.
- Tibito 15,600 BC C.Colombia. Stone tools and bone remains of mammoths, horses and deer.
- Jaguay 14,900 BC C. Peru. Broken or unfinished stone tools. Basically fishermen.
- Piedra Museo and Los Toldos 17,000-14,900 BC C. Argentina. Unifacial tools and megafauna.
- Lapa do Boquete 15,950-14,900 BC C. Brazil. Stone tools, remains of fruits and fish.
- Folsom-Clovis 15,000 BC C. USA Projectile points.
- Painted Stone 14,900 BC Brazil. Useful monkeys and ceramics, human feces and remains of fruits and game.