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<< Feature Articles >> Cueva del Milodon - Cave or Rock Shelter in Chile

Submitted by C_Michael_Hogan on Sunday, 13 April 2008  Page Views: 29037

Natural PlacesSite Name: Cueva del Milodon
Country: Chile Type: Cave or Rock Shelter
Nearest Town: Puerto Natales
Latitude: 51.565217S  Longitude: 72.618933W
Condition:
5Perfect
4Almost Perfect
3Reasonable but with some damage
2Ruined but still recognisable as an ancient site
1Pretty much destroyed, possibly visible as crop marks
0No data.
-1Completely destroyed
3 Ambience:
5Superb
4Good
3Ordinary
2Not Good
1Awful
0No data.
5 Access:
5Can be driven to, probably with disabled access
4Short walk on a footpath
3Requiring a bit more of a walk
2A long walk
1In the middle of nowhere, a nightmare to find
0No data.
3 Accuracy:
5co-ordinates taken by GPS or official recorded co-ordinates
4co-ordinates scaled from a detailed map
3co-ordinates scaled from a bad map
2co-ordinates of the nearest village
1co-ordinates of the nearest town
0no data
5

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Cueva del Milodon
Cueva del Milodon submitted by C_Michael_Hogan : Site in Chile. Grande Cueva del Milodon viewed from the interior. Note the stalactites at the entrance dripline. Trees immediately outside represent several species of the genus Nothofagus. (Vote or comment on this photo)
Caves or Rock Shelters in Ultima Esperanza, Chile.
Cueva del Milodon is an early habitation site of Selk'nam tribes in the present day province of Ultima Esperanza, Chile. The entire Milodon complex can be considered to have six distinct caves or rock shelters, four of which have been previously recorded and two others which are recorded herein. Remains of prehistoric Patagonian animals dating 10,200 to 13,560 years before present have been found at the site including the extinct Giant Sloth.

These Selk'nam hunting tribes enjoyed abundant wildlife and also exploited estuarine resources of the Seno Ultima Esperanza (inlet). The higher water levels in the early Holocene (bringing Holocene water levels nearer the caves) may be a product of geologic uplift of these steppe terraces combined with changes in circulation of the southerly lagoons, which presently manifest narrow connecting necks. Hiking to an overlook above the Cueva del Milodon provides an excellent overview of the steppe terrain with a view of the Seno Ultima Esperanza.

ENVIRONMENT The Milodon cave complex rises somewhat abrubtly above the broad plain to the south, with the caves all situated on the southern flanks of the Cerro Benitez Mountains. The caves are generally formed of limestone conglomerate, and are surrounded by moderately dense Nothofagus forest, with Lenga, Nirre and Magellan's Beech species all represented. A rich understory of scrub plants, wildflowers, mosses and lichens are found on the rock studded soils. Prominent understory scrub includes ‘'Maytenus magellanica'‘, ‘'Escallonia virgata'‘, ‘'Baccharis Patigonica'‘, ‘'Escallonia leucantha'‘, ‘'Berberis buxifolia'‘, ‘'Berberis darwinii'‘, ‘'Gaultheria mucronata'‘, the last three providing edible berries to the prehistoric Selk'nam.

Presently a large variety of avafauna are found at Cueva del Milodon including the raptors Andean condor, Carancho, Vari, Cernicalo and Magellanic horned owl. Other bird species present are the Chilean flicker, Austral blackbird and Thorn-tailed rayadito. Mammals that occur on site include the Andean fox, Puma, Chingue skunk and Geoffroy's wildcat.

Pollen analysis from archaeological recovery indicates the landscape of the early Holocene at this location had fewer trees and could be considered a scrub steppe. (Auer, 1955) Remains within Cueva del Milodon indicate the Early Holocene presence of the extinct horse ‘'Hippidion saldiasi'‘, the extinct ‘'Smilodon populator'‘, ‘'Llama glama'‘ and guanaco. The hunting culture and landscape palette at Cueva del Milodon was likely comparable to the steppes at Pali Aike to the east. (Hogan, 2008)

The Seno Ultima Esperanza, as noted above, was known to extend closer to Cueva del Milodon in the early Holocene. That waterway is connected to the Pacific Ocean through a circuitous route. I measured the water quality nearby to be rather lacking in turbidity, brackish, but with considerable freshwater influence. March water temperature of the sound was 15.4 degrees Celsius and the pH was somewhat alkaline at 9.1. All of these conditions auger well for abundant prehistoric seafood yield. Freshwater would have derived from a more considerable glacial melt runoff from the Patagonian Icefield, which in the early to mid Holocene would have been much closer than today, leading to a much more extensive prehistoric size of Lago Porteno and Lago del Toro to the north..

ARCHAEOLOGICAL RECOVERY Diverse elements of human habitation are found at Cueva del Milodon including fire fractured rock, lithic tools and human remains. In addition, bones and even skin of the extinct Giant Sloth (genus ‘'Mylodon'‘) were recovered within the massive cave itself. Presently these Mylodon remains and some of the other artifacts are exhibited at the Puntas Arenas Museo Regional de Magallanes . The Giant Sloth could stand on its hind legs and towered to three meters in height. It is thought that the Milodon used the cave for shelter, until man arrived to this site and hunted the Giant Sloth to extinction. Skin, bones and teeth of the Giant Sloth have been recovered from within the cave.

Human habitation at Cueva del Milodon is dated as early as 6000 BC. (Heusser, 2003) Lithic recovery from the site includes arrow points, preform tools and scraper tools. In my visit to Cueva del Milodon I found a few core tools and one unifacial chopper in the principal cave itself, likely dating to Neolithic usage.

CAVE GEOMETRY The principal cave is extremely large in aperture, with an entrance height of approximately 29 meters and a width of about 121 meters. The cave depth exceeds 200 meters. Substantial active stalactites are observed near the cave entrance dripline. After entering the cave, the grade level descends to a total grade reduction of approximately 20 meters relative to the entrance position. Cave bottom soils are powdery and fine, possibly indicating millennia of grinding and compression by Giant Sloths as well as human activity. The most interesting feature is a series of pits in the lower (back) part of the cave, which seem to be obvious family living sites and/or large hearths characteristic of the steppe tribes of Patagonia. Fire blackened rocks can be observed on the northern and eastern cave walls at a height of 0.5 to 2.0 meters above present grade.

LOGISTICS Cueva del Milodon is situated 25 kilometers northwest of the town of Puerto Natales, with the final12 kilometers being an unpaved road. The nearest airport is at Punta Arenas, which is approximately 255 kilometers to the south. A trail map is available at a small parking lot on the north side of the access road, although the map only illustrates four sub-sites of the Milodon complex.

REFERENCES
* V. Auer, M. Salmi and K. Salminien (1955) ‘'Pollen and spore types of Fuego-Patagonia'‘, Annales Academiae Scientarum Fennicae. Series A, III, Geologica Geographica 43: 1-14
* C. Michael Hogan (2008) ‘'Pali Aike'‘, The Megalithic Portal, ed. Andy Burnham
*. Calvin J. Heusser (2003) ‘'Ice Age Southern Andes: A Chronicle of Paleoecological Events'‘,
Elsevier, 240 pages ISBN:0444514783

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Cueva del Milodon
Cueva del Milodon submitted by C_Michael_Hogan : Site in Chile Terrain immediately above the Grande Cueva del Milodon. This rocky soil supports a variety of scrub and wildflowers, as well as some isolated Nothofagus trees. This aspect is looking toward the southeast along the foothills of the Cerro Benitez Range. (Vote or comment on this photo)

Cueva del Milodon
Cueva del Milodon submitted by C_Michael_Hogan : Site in Chile Carancho (or Southern caracara), photographed near the Cueva del Milodon in a dead Nothofagus tree. I saw this raptor commonly at the site. (Vote or comment on this photo)

Cueva del Milodon
Cueva del Milodon submitted by C_Michael_Hogan : Site in Chile. Conglomerate boulders immediately outside the entrance to Grande Cueva del Milodon. The view is toward the west. (Vote or comment on this photo)

Cueva del Milodon
Cueva del Milodon submitted by C_Michael_Hogan : Site in Chile. Exterior cliff face in the layered sedimentary conglomerate rock. The entrance to Grande Cueva del Milodon is at the left edge of the bluff landform, and is not clearly visible from this approach. (Vote or comment on this photo)

Cueva del Milodon
Cueva del Milodon submitted by DrewParsons : Hair from a milodon on display in the Museo Histórico Municipalidad Natales in Puerto Natales. March 2017

Cueva del Milodon
Cueva del Milodon submitted by C_Michael_Hogan : Site in Chile Lithics found in the powdery subsoil partially exposed within the Grande Cueva del Milodon. I posed these specimens upon a conglomerate boulder within the cave near the point where these preforms were found.

Cueva del Milodon
Cueva del Milodon submitted by C_Michael_Hogan : Site in Chile Patagonian arrow points used by the Selk'nam tribe. These specimens are originals on display at the Museo Regional de Magallanes in Punta Arenas.

Cueva del Milodon
Cueva del Milodon submitted by C_Michael_Hogan : Site in Chile Patagonian arrow points from the steppe tribes that inhabited the locale of Cueva del Milodon. These points are original specimens and are in the collection of a private collector in Punta Arenas.

Cueva del Milodon
Cueva del Milodon submitted by C_Michael_Hogan : Site in Chile Grande Cueva del Milodon extreme rear of the cave interior. Note the undulating pits in the foreground, which are likely family habitation sites and/or giant firepits.

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