Archaeologists Discover Two 12,000-Year-Old High-Altitude Settlements in Peru

Living at 4.5 km above sea level!

The first site Dr Zarrillo and her colleagues discovered, Cuncaicha, is a rock shelter at 4.5 km above sea level, with a stone-tool workshop below it. According to the archaeologists, it was occupied about 12,400-11,500 years ago. The second site, Pucuncho, is an ancient workshop where stone tools were made at 4.4 km above sea level. It dates to around 12,800-11,500 years ago. “We don’t know if people were living there year round, but we strongly suspect they were not just going there to hunt for a few days, then leaving. There were possibly even families living at these sites, because we’ve found evidence of a whole range of activities,” Dr Zarrillo said.

The Pucuncho site yielded 260 stone tools, such as projectile points, bifaces and unifacial scrapers. The Cuncaicha rock shelter contains a “robust, well-preserved and well-dated occupation sequence.” “Most of the stone tools at Cuncaicha were made from locally available obsidian, andesite and jasper, and are indicative of hunting and butchering consistent with limited subsistence options on the plateau. In addition to plant remains, bones at the site indicate hunting of vicuña and guanaco camelids and the taruca deer,” the scientists said.

source

Edit: There is another ATS thread on this subject Here

a reply to: AlaskanDad

I posted about this a few days ago and if you're interested, there are some additional links:

World's Oldest High-Altitude Settlement Discovered, Dates Back to 10,000 BC

a reply to: theantediluvian

Thanks for your link!

I added it to the OP

Wow, that's an incredible find. Were these the cast-offs that weren't used for hunting or were they lost? Maybe a craftpersons showroom, toolbox or a lost utility bag?

a reply to: AlaskanDad

No problem. I've got to start pulling from Sci-News, they've got an interesting selection of news items!