<< Feature Articles >> Pali Aike - Cave or Rock Shelter in Chile
Submitted by C_Michael_Hogan on Wednesday, 26 March 2008 Page Views: 24287
Natural PlacesSite Name: Pali AikeCountry: Chile
NOTE: This site is 57.861 km away from the location you searched for.
Type: Cave or Rock Shelter
Nearest Town: Rio Gallegos Nearest Village: Monte Aymond
Latitude: 52.110217S Longitude: 69.706183W
Condition:
5 | Perfect |
4 | Almost Perfect |
3 | Reasonable but with some damage |
2 | Ruined but still recognisable as an ancient site |
1 | Pretty much destroyed, possibly visible as crop marks |
0 | No data. |
-1 | Completely destroyed |
5 | Superb |
4 | Good |
3 | Ordinary |
2 | Not Good |
1 | Awful |
0 | No data. |
5 | Can be driven to, probably with disabled access |
4 | Short walk on a footpath |
3 | Requiring a bit more of a walk |
2 | A long walk |
1 | In the middle of nowhere, a nightmare to find |
0 | No data. |
5 | co-ordinates taken by GPS or official recorded co-ordinates |
4 | co-ordinates scaled from a detailed map |
3 | co-ordinates scaled from a bad map |
2 | co-ordinates of the nearest village |
1 | co-ordinates of the nearest town |
0 | no data |
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The chief habitation sites are lava tubes and other natural caves within the caldera rim of this ancient extinct volcano. The Pali Aike site also gives its name to the enclosing Parque Nacionale Pali Aike. The Pali Aike site combined with the nearby Cueva Fell have been submitted to UNESCO as a World Heritage Site. Pali Aike is located within the province XII Región de Magallanes y de la Antártica Chilena.
EXPLORATION HISTORY. Pali Aike was first excavated in 1936 by the archaeologist Junius Bird, who found evidence of early Holocene occupation by man in a lava tube emanating from the inside of the north caldera rim. In addition to archaeological recovery of human habitation, evidence of prehistoric megafauna were also found, including the giant sloth and American horse.
In my exploration near the cave openings, I found evidence of fire blackened rock sidewall at elevations of .25 to .50 meters above present ground surface (effectively .50 to 1.25 meters above early Holocene grade, based upon my estimates of wind driven silt accumulation at cave openings).
At the cave orifices I found chert flakes, core tools and one unifacial chopper (all of which I left as found, of course). These tool elements were likely imported from some distance, since the local rock outcrops are of volcanic origin. Areawide soils are in fact predominantly of sand and volcanic ash, peppered with rounded igneous pebbles which likely originated from Pleistocene glacial moraine. I also discovered a remarkable geologic feature or possible geoglyph on a nearby hill to the southwest.
This very large scale concentric circle set was produced by embedded rocks. It is much to far from civilisation to be a modern prank, and the rocks are stubbornly embedded, pointing to ancient origin. Whether this feature is of geologic or anthropomorphic origin, I shall leave to future reseachers, but it is astounding that I can find no prior recording of this feature, whose outer ring exceeds 100 meters in diameter, which would qualify it as one of the world's largest geoglyphs.
ARCHAEOLOGICAL RECOVERY. The crania recovered at Pali Aike are consistent with northeast Asian Sinodont dental patterns. (Powell, 2005) Detailed analysis of human teeth found at Pali Aike and the proximate Chilean Cerro Sota archaeological site not only reveal a very ancient Paleoindian origin, but also support a remarkable hypothesis that these two sites may contain ancestors of all modern Native American peoples. These findings are supported by the surprisingly narrow suite of dental traits of American Indians. These Pali Aike findings are derived primarily from analysis of tooth root structures, since crowns have generally been damaged by the cremation practices.
Charcoal and ash were also found littering the main cave floor along with bones of the milodon, American horse and guanaco. Large hearth structures were utilized by the early Paleoindians. The lithic materials I found at the cave opening area are consistent with Borrero and Franco's assessment that preforms are associated with the mobile early culture of the Patagonian peoples. (Borrero, 1997) The variety of flora and fauna remains found at Pali Aike are consistent with the recognized low density ancient settlement by Paleoindians of the Patagonian steppes, and the conclusion that highly specialized ecological exploitation was not necessary for early peoples of the Fuegan-Patagonian region.
ENVIRONMENT. The Pali Aike crater rim of porous dark volcanic rock rises approximately90 meters above the base elevation of the surrounding sandy plain. The crater is one of a chain of similar dimensioned volcanic landforms that can be seen clearly on Google Earth stretched along an extent of approximately twenty kilometers; this volcanic field consists of maars and scoria cones. (González-Ferrán, 1995)
The situation among the Patagonian steppes suggests that this locale underwent soil building thoughout the late Pleistocene through glacial advances and wind driven soil accumulation during interglacials. Since the last eruption of Pali Aike, the soil depth likely increased by tens of meters, explaining the apparent burial of the crater peaks. The final glacial retreat in this area occurred approximately 12,000 to 10,000 years before present. (Coronatoa, 1999)
The aeolian processes at the craters of Pali Aike Parque Nacionale have been identified as the best place on earth to study the formation of "wind streaks", (Rodriguez, 2008) large scale wind driven sand deposition plumes that can be viewed from space as a clearly delineated semi-stable geological painting. The planet Mars has a particular abundance of such wind streaks, whose formation has mystified scientists.
The scrub plain supports a surprising abundance of wildlife, including guanaco, fox, rhea and other birdlife, all of which are present in the archaeological recovery of species exploited by the ancient inhabitants of Pali Aike. The arid soil supports a wider than expected panoply of vegetation, dominated by the native flowering shrub "Adesmia boronoides"; however, areas somewhat distant from the crater chain are overgrazed by sheep operations.
The nearest surface water source is Lago Ana situated a few kilometers to the north. This water supply issue suggests that Pali Aike was occupied in the early Holocene when Patagonian Ice Sheet glaciers extended nearby from the north and would have supplied copious meltwater to Pali Aike settlers. These events imply that Pali Aike would not have been a year round encampment from the mid-Holocene onward.
REFERENCES
* Joseph F. Powell (2005) ‘'The First Americans: Race, Evolution and the Origin of Native Americans'‘, Cambridge University Press ISBN 0521823501
* Luis Alberto Borrero and Nora Viviana Franco, ‘'Early Patagonian Hunter-Gatherers: Subsistence and Technology'‘, Journal of Anthropological Research, Vol. 53, No. 2 (Summer, 1997), pp. 219-239
* Oscar González-Ferrán, ‘'Volcanes de Chile'‘ Instituto Geográfico Militar (1995) ISBN 9562020541
* A. Coronatoa, M. Salemmea and J. Rabassa, ‘'Palaeoenvironmental conditions during the early peopling of Southernmost South America (Late Glacial-Early Holocene, 14-8 ka B.P.)'‘, Quaternary International, vol 53-54, Mar. 3, 1999
* J.A.P. Rodriguez, J.Zimbelman, J. Cargel, K.L.Tanaka, A.Yamamoto and S.Sasaki (2008) ‘'The Pali Aike Windstreak Field, Southern Patagonia, Argentina'‘, Lunar and Planetary Science XXXIX
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