The desert regions of Western America have provided other sites of apparent Pleistocene age in which the artifacts are both simple and crudely made. While it is tempting to consider these as being truly ancient, we will have to know much more about them before we can be certain that they are more than the output of backward desert dwellers such as Father Baegert described for Baja California in early mission days.[85]
From other regions of the Americas, there are other suggestions of early man and ancient cultures. J. L. Giddings’ Palisades culture, on mountainside benches of Cape Krusenstern, Alaska, north of Bering Strait, may be old. It appears considerably older than the Denbigh Flint Complex, south of the Strait, which may go back from 4,500 to 5,000 years.[86] And in South America early man is represented at such sites as El Jobo, in Venezuela;[87] an unpublished radiocarbon date from this region is rumored at about 16,000 years.
The coming decade should bring further refinements in radiocarbon dating, as well as the development of newer techniques such as the Rosholt “uranium-daughter” products and obsidian hydration measurements. With or without the aid of these dating methods, livelier activity of archaeologists south of the border should soon give us more information about early man in Latin America.
The listing on the three next pages, which goes no further than 1948, is not exhaustive. There is room for argument over a number of the finds; but the arrangement of the materials in columns provides a rough perspective. The sites are listed in order of discovery. The symbols indicate one or more occurrences:
Occurrence of the saber-toothed cat, tapir, giant beaver, or extinct armadillo is not indicated. Finds that seem problematical or not definitely associated with other finds are shaded. Sandia points were found with the five extinct mammals indicated in the Sandia cave and below the Folsom.
Human Bones { SK} skull { PS} part of skull { CB} a considerable number of bones { FB} a few bones Artifacts, Fires { SB} a skeleton or the major parts { C} Clovis and other early fluted points { F} Folsom { FP} Plainview, Scottsbluff, and other parallel-fluted points { OP} other types of point { CC} charcoal { MS} milling stone { P} pottery { R} rocks thrown by man { HS} horn and shell objects { BF} bone and flake tools { BT} bone tools Extinct Mammals { M} mammoth or mastodon { EB} extinct bison { S} sloth { EC} extinct camel { EH} extinct horse { ES} extinct South American mammals *An asterisk within brackets indicates shading in the diagram.