The archaeological site of Pedra Furada, Brazil, is a stratified rockshelter with a very early (and hence contested) date, a Paleoindian occupation, and some ancient cave art dated between 5000 and 11000 years BP. Located in northeast Brazil, within the Serra da Capivara Park, Pedra Furada is 70 meters wide, 18 meters deep and contains nearly 5 meters of sandy deposit, burnt sandstone slabs and reddish quartz pebbles associated with charcoal fragments. Two cascades are located at the east and west ends of the shelter which have dropped and continue to drop quartz pebbles into the cave itself.
Pedra Furada's Controversy
The original excavators (led by Fabio Parenti) reported two phases, one with several stacked layers dated between 48,000 and 14,300 years before the present (BP), and one dated later than 10,400 BP. Some scholars believe that dates before 10,400 may represent natural fire events, and that 'flaked pebbles' are 'geofacts', essentially quartz pebbles that dropped into the cave over time. Parenti and colleagues argue that the stacked C14 dates represent deliberate hearths, and that deliberate flaking of the pebbles is in evidence.
Recent acid-base wet oxidation dating on some of the charcoal samples increased the age of the lower limits to 56,000 years ago or more, but did not resolve issues concerning the site's human activity. In addition, thermoluminescence dates on burnt quartz pebbles returned dates between 30 and 100,000 years ago, but again provide no evidence for human activity.
The inarguable portion of the site are its Paleoindian component around 10,400 BP and polychrome (red and blue) cave paintings of animals and humans, dated between 6,000 and 10,400 years ago.
Sources
This glossary entry is part of the About.com Guide to Paleoindians in America, the Guide to Preclovis, and the Dictionary of Archaeology.
The Athena Review has a 2002 interview with the excavators called Pedra Furada: Paleoindians, Paintings, and Paradoxes. Detailed photos of the rock art and a bibliography are on the website of Reinaldo Morales Jr., Pedra Furada Complete.
Guidon, N. and A.-M. Pessis 1996 Falsehood or untruth?. Antiquity 70(268):408-416.
Meltzer, David J., James M. Adovasio, and Tom D. Dillehay 1994 On a Pleistocene human occupation at Pedra Furada, Brazil. Antiquity 68(261):695-714.
Parenti, Fabio, Michel Fontugue, and Claude Guerin 1996 Pedra Furada in Brazil and its 'presumed' evidence: limitations and potential of the available data. Antiquity 70:416-421.
Santos, G. M., et al. 2003 A revised chronology of the lowest occupation layer of Pedra Furada Rock Shelter, Piauí, Brazil: the Pleistocene peopling of the Americas. Quaternary Science Reviews 22 2303–2310.
Valladas, H., et al. 2003 TL age-estimates of burnt quartz pebbles from the Toca do Boqueirão da Pedra Furada (Piaui, Northeastern Brazil). Quaternary Science Reviews 22(10-13):1257-1263.
