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Cueva Fell is a natural cave and archaeological site in southern Patagonia.^[1] Cueva Fell is in proximity to the Pali Aike Crater, another significant archaeological site. Cueva Fell combined with the nearby Pali Aike site have been submitted to UNESCO as a possible World Heritage Site.^[2]

Fell's Cave was discovered by Junius Bird. It came to his attention because arrow points and flakes were found on the surface. The cave was originally called the Río Chico shelter, but was later renamed by Bird to Fell's Cave in honour of the Fell family who owned the Estancia Brazo Norte, the North Arm Station, where the cave is located (Bird 1988:137). Excavation of the site began in 1936.

Fell's Cave is located in the Río Chico canyon, Chile, near the Straits of Magellan and the Argentina border. This area is known as the southeastern Patagonian basalt plateaus (Markgraf via Bird 1988:196). Situated on the southeast side of what was once a river bank, it is more accurately described as a shelter. It was formed by river water wearing away at the sandstone bank, leaving behind a canopy of lava conglomerate and thus creating a shelter 28 feet deep and 38 feet wide. The erosion formed a smooth floor of hard clay (Bird 1998:134). Remnants of sandstone still clinging to the conglomerate roof eventually fell to the floor, forming a sterile layer that later separated human occupation periods (Bird 1988:134).

Junius Bird labelled the occupational layers of the site from top to bottom, thus the layer directly under the surface is I, and the oldest layer is V.

The surface material of the site is composed of dirt, rocks, and hard-packed sheep manure. The surface layer ranges from 18 to 24 inches in thickness (Bird 1988:137).

The youngest stratigraphic layer of Fell’s Cave is a dark earth layer, reaching approximately 10 inches in thickness (Bird 1988:138). This component dates from c. 700 years BP to the present (Roosevelt 1990:173). According to conventional radiocarbon dating, the layer dates to 1265 A.D. +-90 (Bird 1).

The division between Layer I and Layer II is relatively indistinguishable as the sediments are of similar dark earth, and also reach about 10 inches or more in thickness (Bird 1988:138). This layer dates to c. 6,500 years BP (Roosevelt 1990:173).

This layer dates to c. 8,500-6,500 BP (Roosevelt 1990:173).The earth consistency between Layers II and III marking a notable distinction between the two. Layer III is approximately 12-15 inches thick of compacted dark earth (Bird 1988:138).

The thickness of this layer varies from 13-17 inches and consists of firmly packed dark earth (Bird 1988:139). This layer dates from c. 10,000 to 8,500 BP (Roosevelt 1990:173).

After the earliest layer, Layer V, had accumulated, sandstone slabs fell from the roof of the cave and sealed it off. This layer is 15 to 20 inches thick (Bird 1988:134).

A refuse soft clay soil varying in thickness from 3 to 9 inches composes the oldest occupation level at the site (Bird 1988:142). The site dates from 11,000 RCYBP +-170 top 10,080 RCYBP +-160 according to conventional radiocarbon dating (Bird 1).

Bird named the periods from earliest to latest, thus Period I is the oldest and is associated with Layer V, while Period V is the latest and is associated with Layer I.

This period (layer I) is typified by a tool assemblage containing small arrow points and various bone tools, as well as such cultural materials as combs and beads (Roosevelt 1990:173). Based on the style of the arrow points, it is likely that this period is associated with the Ona Indians (Roosevelt 1990:173). The faunal assemblage of this period is dominated by guanaco bone fragments (Bird 1988:138).

Period IV is characterized by the presence of stone tools such as stemmed or legged stone points, knives, and small thumb-nail scrapers as well as a bone tool assemblage (Roosevelt 1). Large bolas, and various beads and other ornaments are also present (Roosevelt 1). This Period can also be distinguished by the building of structures including extended burials and rock cairns (Roosevelt 1). Again, the faunal assemblage is dominated by guanaco (Bird 1988:139).

Present in this layer are bone awls, stone scrapers, and triangular stone points with rounded bases. Also, bolas of notably smaller size than the subsequent later period, period IV (Roosevelt 1990:173). It has been suggested that these small stone bolas may have been used in procurement of birds (Roosevelt 1990:173). Guanaco and fox bone fragments dominate the faunal assemblage (Bird 1988:138).

This layers consists mainly of bone points and awls, and stone scrapes (Roosevelt 1990:173). Junius Bird notes in Travels and Archaeology in South Chile that this layer contained significantly more sediment in relation to artifact distribution (Bird 1988:139).

The oldest cultural occupation at this site belongs to the Fell’s Tradition (Dillehay et al. 1992:170). Thus, Fell’s Cave is the type site for the Fell’s Tradition. This tradition is characterized most notably by fishtail points as well as various stone scrapers, choppers, stone discs and bone tools (Roosevelt 1990:173). Several hearths were also excavated from this level which produced three radiocarbon dates between c.11,000-10,000 BP (Roosevelt 1990:173)

In the Late Pleistocene, prior to 12,500ka BP, the area surrounding Cueva Fell was dominated by high winds, year-round freezing temperatures, and annual precipitation under 300mm. This heathland environment was replaced by a treeless, xeric, herbaceous steppe environment through 11ka BP, as the freezing temperatures and winds began to abate (Borrero 1999-2:341; Markgraf 1993:53). This is the climate and terrain that most closely predated the first human inhabitants in the area.

The earliest human occupation dates suggested by the finds in Layer V—c. 11-10 ka BP—correspond to a period of stadial cooling. In what has been described as a possible South American equivalent to the Younger Dryas, the Patagonian region experienced a period of low temperatures and high precipitation as well as advancing glaciers (Borrero 1999:93-98). This was followed in 10-9 ka BP by a warming trend. These two thousand years in question marked a fitful end to the last ice age, one marked by high environmental variability. While this produced significant changes in some taxa, humans, at this time, were already becoming adept at adjusting to new environments and appear not to have been deleteriously affected by the changeable and unpredictable climate (Markgraf 1993:62-63).

As the Holocene warming trend persisted, so the environment of southern Patagonia continued to change. The archaeology of Fell’s Cave provides evidence for the regular occurrence of summer droughts in the area—droughts that, combined with increasing summer storm activity, may have led to wildfires. The decrease in water availability combined with the evident (through pollen analysis) dramatic change in grazing flora species, are proposed as contributing factors to the evident faunal extinction (Markgraf 1993:63; Paez 1999:73).

The period of 9000 to 6000 BP saw less remarkable shifts in climate, with a general trend away from xeric taxa and, it is then presumed, an increase in precipitation. There is insufficient radiocarbon control at the site to determine local climate conditions post-6000 BP, however regional ecology suggests a slight shift towards more aridity (Markgraf via Bird 1988:199-200).

Today Cueva Fell joins most of southern Argentina in what is known as the Fuego-Patagonia steppe environment. The area receives less than 400mm annual precipitation (typical for the Patagonia region but much drier than neighbouring coastal or mountain terrains) and is dominated by bunch grasses from the genuses Festuca and Stipa, along with a variety of herbaceous vegetation (Markgraf 1993:56).

Cueva Fell is notable for the range of now-extinct faunal finds excavated from within it. Notable among these are the giant sloth and the horse. The horse was to become extinct and absent in the Americas through most of the Holocene until it was imported by Europeans (Birds 1970:207). In fact the evidence of the ancient horse Cueva Fell was the first proof that horses occupied the Americas before being (re)introduced from the Old World. The stratified remains of both human and animals provides evidence that human occupation of the area actually preceded the extinction of both the native horse (Parahipparium saldasi) and the ground sloth (Mylodon listai). This same evidence suggested that ancient horse was hunted and eaten (Bird 1988:153). However humans weren’t the sole predators in the area. Bone remains of the horse, lama and ground sloth all display puncture marks, most likely made by the Patagonia panther (Borrero 1999-2:342).

The Early Holocene taxa change—the extinction of mostly herbivorous animals in South America—was initially attributed to human over-hunting, as were the megafaunal extinctions in North America. Analysis of pollen extracted from Cueva Fell suggested a substantial reduction in grassland in southern Patagonia in the period just preceding these extinctions, and was an early piece of evidence in the mounting argument against hunting as the primary cause of species collapse (Markgraf via Bird 1988:196). Large quantities of guanaco (lama) were also found in the older depositional layers. Where other large grazing fauna died out in the early Holocene, guanaco appear to have survived as a result of their less specialized plant diet, adapting to the change in vegetation that accompanied the warming Holocene. Guanaco population sizes initially dipped along with other grazing species, but eventually recovered (Markgraf via Bird 1988:200-201).

Analysis of canine remains found in all five human occupation levels of the cave initially suggested they were those of domestic dog (Canis familiaris). This would have been remarkable as the earliest evidence for the domestic dog in the Americas. However subsequent analyses suggest the skull and teeth remains to have been from two wild species: Pseudalopex griseus (South American gray fox) and Canis avus (a small fox or wolf-life canine, particular to South America in the late Pleistocene period) (Clutton-Brock via Bird 1988:189-94). Other faunal bone remains include hawks and falcons (Borrero 1999-2:342).

The first excavation of Fell’s cave in 1936 yielded 511 artefacts. These included hafted implements, knives, scrapers, bolas, a couple of circular rubbing stones, and bone tools.^[3]

Perhaps the most significant find in the 1936 excavation was the fishtail projectile point. All of the fishtail points were associated with large mammals including: extinct horses, giant ground sloths, and guanacos. Fifteen fishtail projectile points were recovered from Layer V which is the oldest layer that dates back to 11,000 RCYBP +-170 top 10,080 RCYBP +-160. These fishtail point have been radiocarbon dated to ca. 11,000 years. ^[5] (to be continued)

Discoidal stones, referred in the chart as circular rubbing stones, were also found. Bird notes in a 1970 journal article that “stone artefacts shaped by pecking and grinding are so generally absent among Paleo-Indian finds that exceptions are noteworthy”. ^[6]

Scrapers...

Bone Implements...

In 1969 there was a second dig organized at Cueva Fell but it was focused in a slightly different location of the cave. During this excavation 415 artefacts were found including: various points, knives, scrapers, cores, bolas, and bones tools.

The colonization of the America’s may be one of the most contentious archaeological debates today. The issue involves a large body of research and numerous theories as to how and when this event began. For decades, the Clovis-first model trumped all other theories for the Settlement of the Americas. This theory basically holds that the Clovis culture constituted the first peoples to inhabit North America. Entering the Americas from Asia via the Bering Land Bridge and migrating south through the ice free corridor, the Clovis people populated southern North America. This population spread through Central America and finally South America.

At the time the theory was proposed, no archaeological evidence had been discovered in the Americas which pre-dated 11,050 to 10,800 14C yr B.P., or the onset of the Clovis culture (Waters 2007: 1122). However, in the last few decades a multitude of sites have been found, which at first challenged this theory and now demanding a new model to explain the peopling of the Americas (Waters 2007:1225). Based on the current understanding of archaeological evidence, it is now widely accepted that a pre-Clovis culture colonized the Americas via a Pacific coastal route sometime between ca. 14,000–12,000 BP (Dillehay 1999: 214).

Some of the evidence supporting the coastal theory come from the Southern-most portions of South America. Many researches now agree that occupation of Tierra del Fuego, 11,000-10,500 years ago, does simply not provide enough time for mid-continental migration. A similar argument is made about Monte Verde, which may be the most well-known and widely accepted of these sites and which pre-dates Clovis by approximately 1000 years.

Although site discovery and excavation were not recent, Cueva Fell is representative of occupation of southern South America. The earliest occupation at Cueva Fell, c. 11,000 B.P. +- 170 years to 10,080 B.P. +-160 years, does no pre-date but is coeval with Clovis (Dillehay et. al 1992: 170). Other Late Pleistocene sites in Argentina, Cerro Tres Tetas, Cueva Casa del Minero, and Piedra Museo, are also contemporaneous with Clovis and the early occupation at Fell’s Cave (Waters 2007:1225).

The common tendency to compare South American and North American prehistory is increasingly becoming outmoded, most notably in regards to early technological adaptions. It has been long believed that the early fluted points of South America represented a diffusion of the fluted North American Clovis points. South American fluted points include the fishtail point represented at Cueva Fell and many other regions, the el Jobo point (Venezuela), and the Paijan point (Peru and Ecuador), all of which dating to Clovis (Dillehay 1999: 211).

The fluted stone tool variants of South America represent regional adaptions to the procurement of Pleistocene Fauna that contrasts with the continent-wide use of Clovis points in North America (Dillehay 1999: 207). Such regional technological adaptations seem to reflect the initial dispersal of small paleoindian groups throughout the vast unpopulated continent. The fishtail points of Cueva Fell thus represent crucial evidence in the distinction between tool technologies in the southern and northern continents of the Americas.

Finally, Cueva Fell deserves recognition for representing possibly the earliest occupation of Fuego-Patagonia approximately 11,000 BP (Borrero & Franco 1992: 222). This southern region of South America is symbolic of “the end of the line” for the initial colonization of the New World.

The early inhabitants of Fuego-Patagonia signify sparse populations spread out over large territories and chances of site discovery in this region are low (Borrero & Franco 1992: 223). Compounding the low likelihood of site discovery in this region is the deeply buried contexts associated with such early occupation and the subsequent increase of various perturbation processes threatening the archaeological integrity (Borrero & Franco 1992: 223). Many of these sites, Cueva Fell included, are rock shelters which have been used as dens by carnivorous fauna over thousands of years which not only disturb archaeological deposits, but add difficulty to recognizing archaeological sites (Borrero & Franco 1992: 223). Low population density combined with these other factors make Junius Bird’s discovery of Cueva Fell in 1936 truly remarkable in and of itself.

• Lago Ana
• Pali-Aike National Park

• Junius B. Bird (1988) Travels and Archaeology in South Chile, Published by University of Iowa Press, 246 pages ISBN 0-87745-202-4
• Calvin J. Heusser (2003) Ice Age Southern Andes: A Chronicle of Paleoecological Events, Published by Elsevier, 240 pages ISBN 0444514783

52°02′S 70°03′W / 52.033°S 70.050°W / -52.033; -70.050

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