The treasures discovered by Brazilian archaeologists are pendants crafted from “strange” materials, providing enough data to rewrite many archaeological historical records.
According to Ancient Origins, this significant discovery comes from the Santa Elina cave, located in the state of Mato Grosso in central Brazil. To date, this cave is still recognized as the site containing the oldest evidence of human presence in South America.
The recently excavated treasures and a graphic illustration of an ancient sloth hunted by South Americans 25,000 years ago – (Photo: SAO CARLOS UNIVERSITY)
Previously, it was believed that communities on this “young continent” first appeared only a few thousand to over ten thousand years ago, comprising people who migrated from other continents when they were not yet completely separated.
However, the newly excavated treasures have revealed the true age of the ancient human remains at Santa Elina.
These are bone fragments from three ancient sloths, a species that became extinct over 10,000 years ago, crafted into pendants.
The careful crafting demonstrates that they could only have been made by human hands.
The sediment layer revealing the pendants also helped the research team determine that their age is at least 25,000 years, pushing back the timeline of human presence in South America significantly into the past.
Authors from the Federal University of São Carlos (Brazil) also found layers of giant sloth bones piled in the sediment of the cave, where the pendants were discovered, indicating that indigenous communities in South America may have existed for much longer than that and primarily hunted this gentle giant for food and materials.
This discovery has resolved previous debates regarding evidence showing that humans appeared 22,000 years ago at the Toca da Tira Peia site in eastern Brazil.
Therefore, the treasures from Santa Elina have truly changed the timeline of humanity, compelling anthropologists to rewrite the ancient history of South America and redraw the map of global migration. However, it remains unclear how humans migrated from their ancestral homeland in Africa to reach South America.
