Pedra Furada sites

The Pedra Furada is a large collection of over 800 archaeological sites located in Brazil. Specifically the Southeast portion of the state of Piaui in what is now the Capivara National Park. They were discovered by the Brazilian archaeologist Niède Guidon. The Pedra Furada is a collection of rock shelters with hundreds of cave paintings dating from 5,000 to 11,000 years ago. Deeper into the sediments there are contested artifacts and hearths that show, through carbon dating, the possibility of humans existing there around 32,000 years ago. (New numbers show that humans could have been around anywhere from 35,000-48,000 years ago.) [ [http://www.athenapub.com/10pfurad.htm "Pedra Furada, Brazil: Paleoindians, Paintings, and Paradoxes: An interview with Drs. Niède Guidon, Anne-Marie Pessis, Fabio Parenti, Claude Guérin, Evelyne Peyre, and Guaciara M. dos Santos"] ] This was groundbreaking as it came at a time that many archaeologists still held the "Pre-Clovis first" view for humans in the Americas.

Controversy

The controversy is over whether or not the artifacts and hearths are instead geofacts that were made naturally. This seems to be a dividing line on the heated debate between archaeologists. (Alex Bellos wrote that it is an issue between European and South American and their U.S. counterparts). [ [http://www.cabrillo.edu/~crsmith/pedrafurada.html "Brazilian Findings Spark Archeological Debate" by Alex Bellos] ] The "Europeans" are led by site discoverer Guidon who believe that the items are artifacts that have been carbon dated in the deeper strata of sediment which proves humans were in the Americas long before what was previously theorized. The "U.S." archaeologists believe that the items are geofacts created naturally. French palaeolithic archaeologist Jacques Pelegrin, believes there are ways that nature can flake stones that could mimic the Pedra Furada specimens because of their simplicity but he finds this very unlikely for the case of Pedra Furada artifacts. [ [http://space.newscientist.com/article/mg14619834.000-stones-of-contention.html "Stones of contention" by David Meltzer] ]

References