Living the high life: Stone tools reveal presence of Ice Age settlement in the Peruvian Andes

[Judi Lynn]

Living the high life: Stone tools reveal presence of Ice Age settlement in the Peruvian Andes

Stone tools reveal presence of Ice Age settlement in the Peruvian Andes

By Amina Khan
Los Angeles Times
on January 4, 2015 - 12:01 AM

Archaeologists say they’ve found the highest-known remains of Ice Age human settlements in the southern Peruvian Andes, dated to more than 12,000 years old.

The two sites, described in the journal Science, sit higher than 4,000 meters above sea level and indicate that humans may have adapted to the extremely harsh climate far sooner than many researchers had expected.

“These sites extend the residence time of humans above 4,000 (meters above sea level) by nearly a millennium,” the study authors wrote, “implying more moderate late-glacial Andean environments and greater physiological capabilities for Pleistocene humans than previously assumed.”

The two sites in the Pucuncho Basin lie nearly 3,000 feet above other settlements from around the same time period. One, called Pucuncho, is a workshop site filled with 260 formal tools such as stone scrapers and projectile points; it sits 14,288 feet above sea level and has been dated to 12,800 to 11,500 years ago. The second, Cuncaicha, hosts a rock shelter sitting 14,698 feet above sea level that dates back to 12,400 years and a workshop site 14,583 feet above sea level. The shelter is filled with soot-marked ceilings from campfires, rock art and sediments on the ground that include charred plant remains.

More:
http://www.buffalonews.com/opinion/nature-science/living-the-high-life-stone-tools-reveal-presence-of-ice-age-settlement-in-the-peruvian-andes-20150104

[Panich52]

1. Hillbillies go waaay back :)

Wouldn't be surprised at evidence they were in the mountains - Otzi was crossing the Alps - but the worksite suggests habitation. Makes one wonder why they'd leave food-plentiful shores (too early f/ warming & rising ocean).