Pleistocene man in South America

Abstract

Abstract South America was occupied by or before 14,000 B.P. Five different lithic traditions can be assigned to the late Pleistocene on the basis of radiocarbon dates and stratigraphy, and two others date to the very end of the Pleistocene or the earliest Holocene. The four earliest traditions, predating 11,000 B.P., may have been brought in by different groups of migrants from North America and, ultimately, Asia. The later traditions either show clear North American affinities or else appear as local developments in South America, but probably do not hark back to Asian antecedents.