Pedra Furada Sites - Significance

Significance

The discoveries are the subject of debate as they apparently contradict the "Clovis first" view for humans in the Americas, or short chronology theory with the first movement beyond Alaska into the New World occurring no earlier than 15,000 – 17,000 years ago, followed by successive waves of immigrants. Pedra Furada provides arguments for the proponents of the long chronology theory, which states that the first group of people entered the hemisphere at a much earlier date, possibly 21,000–40,000 years ago, with a much later mass secondary wave of immigrants.

Additional discoveries at Monte Verde, Chile, dated to 14,800 years BP, were initially contested in the very same way and with similar arguments, as well as other anthropological discoveries in Piedra Museo in the Argentinian province of Santa Cruz, dated 11,000 years BP, in Topper in the state of South Carolina, U.S.A. dated 50,000 years BP, and the Meadowcroft Rockshelter located near Avella in Washington County in southwestern Pennsylvania, United States, dated to 16,000 years BP, have raised doubts about the "Clovis First" theory, and have led to alternative proposals for the routes of colonization and the diffusion of culture through the continent, in a heated dispute that has not been solved.

Indigenous Amerindian genetic studies have concluded that the "colonizing founders" of the Americas emerged from a single-source ancestral population that evolved in isolation, likely in Beringia. The isolation in Beringia might have lasted 10,000–20,000 years. Age estimates based on Y-chromosome micro-satellite place diversity of the American Haplogroup Q1a3a (Y-DNA) at around 10,000 to 15,000 years ago. However, mtDNA data suggests a primary wave of migration coming to the Americas from 35 to 25 kyA. The Y-chromosome evidence does not address if there were any previous failed colonization attempts by other genetic groups, that could be represented by those settling the Pedra Furada site, as genetic testing can only address current population ancestral heritage.