Radiocarbon age constraints for late Pleistocene–early Holocene artifacts and portable art work from Jalisco, Mexico, carved from bones of the last elephants of North America

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Wolfgang Stinnesbeck
• Subject Area: Prehistory and World Archaeology ; Palaeontology
• Term: from 2019 to 2020
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 433311193

The record of Late Pleistocene and Early Holocene art is remarkably rare in the New World as compared to rich archives dating back to 30,000 years before present (BP), and more, from Europe and the Middle East. Here we present hitherto unknown pieces of unusually elaborate portable art work and tools from Jalisco state in west-central Mexico, which are among the oldest known from the Americas. These artifacts are carved from long bone and tusk fragments of proboscideans and other megafaunal elements considered as typically Pleistocene in age. Nevertheless, initial 14C ages based on bioapatite of these fossils suggest that the animals used for artistic bone modification may have survived the end-Pleistocene- mass extinction and coexisted with humans to about 7,6 ka cal. BP. Here we apply for funding of 14C radiometric age dating of additional archaeological and palaeontological material sampled at the Museo Paleontológico de Guadalajara in March 2019, to support our hypothesis.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants