Ancient Pleistocene site near Pitiquito in northwestern Sonora, Mexico
El Fin del Mundo (Spanish: 'End of the World') is an ancient
Pleistocene site near
Pitiquito in northwestern
Sonora,
Mexico.[1] It features
Clovis culture period occupation proposed to date to 13,390 calibrated years
Before Present, though this is contested.
El Fin del Mundo is suggested to be one of the oldest Clovis sites in North America, roughly similar chronologically to the Aubrey site in
Denton County, Texas,[2] which produced a radiocarbon date that is almost identical.[3]
Clovis hunters
In 2011, remains of the
gomphothere (elephant relative) Cuvieronius dating around 13,390 calibrated years BP were found. This was the first such association found in a northern part of the continent where gomphotheres had been thought to have gone extinct 30,000 years ago.[4] In July 2014, it was announced that the "position and proximity of Clovis weapon fragments relative to the gomphothere bones at the site suggest that humans did in fact kill the two animals there. Of the seven
Clovis points found at the site, four were in place among the bones, including one with bone and teeth fragments above and below. The other three points had clearly eroded away from the bone bed and were found scattered nearby."[5] However, a later study considered the dating of both El Fin del Mundo and Aubrey unreliable, so the sites may be younger.[6]
Bones of horse and bison, as well as horse teeth, were also found at the site.
^Guadalupe Sánchez Miranda, Edmund P. Gaines, Vance T. Holliday
[1] "EL FIN DEL MUNDO, SONORA. CAZADORES CLOVIS DE MEGAFAUNA DEL PLEISTOCENO TERMINAL"
^Ferring, C. Reid (2001) The Archaeology and Paleoecology of the Aubrey Clovis Site (41DN479) Denton County, Texas. (Center for Environmental Archaeology, Dept. of Geography, Univ. of North Texas, Denton
^Sanchez, Guadalupe, Vance T. Holliday, Edmund P. Gaines, Joaquín Arroyo-Cabrales, Natalia Martínez-Tagüeña, Andrew Kowler, Todd Lange, Gregory W. L. Hodgins, Susan M. Mentzer, and Ismael Sanchez- Morales. Human (Clovis)gomphothere (Cuvieronius sp.) association ~13,390 calibrated yr BP in Sonora, Mexico. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 111: 10972-10977
doi:
10.1073/pnas.1404546111
Ferring, C. Reid (2001) The Archaeology and Paleoecology of the Aubrey Clovis Site (41DN479) Denton County, Texas. (Center for Environmental Archaeology, Dept. of Geography, Univ. of North Texas, Denton
Sanchez, Guadalupe, Vance T. Holliday, Edmund P. Gaines, Joaquín Arroyo-Cabrales, Natalia Martínez-Tagüeña, Andrew Kowler, Todd Lange, Gregory W. L. Hodgins, Susan M. Mentzer, and Ismael Sanchez- Morales. Human (Clovis)gomphothere (Cuvieronius sp.) association ~13,390 calibrated yr BP in Sonora, Mexico. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 111: 10972-10977
doi:
10.1073/pnas.1404546111