Caverna da Pedra Pintada
| State of Pará | |
|---|---|
| State | |
 Location of State of Pará in Brazil |
|
| Coordinates: 5°40′S 52°44′W / 5.667°S 52.733°WCoordinates: 5°40′S 52°44′W / 5.667°S 52.733°W | |
| Country |
 Brazil
|
| Capital and largest city | Belém |
| Government | |
| • Governor | Simão Jatene |
| • Vice Governor | Helenilson Pontes |
| Area | |
| • Total | 1,247,689.5 km2 (481,735.6 sq mi) |
| Area rank | 2nd |
| Population (2012) | |
| • Total | 7,792,561 |
| • Rank | 9th |
| • Density | 6.2/km2 (16/sq mi) |
| • Density rank | 21st |
| Demonym(s) | Paraense |
| GDP | |
Caverna da Pedra Pintada (Painted Rock Cave (Portuguese)), is an archaeological site in northern Brazil, with evidence of human presence dating ca. 11,200 years ago.
This find has challenged previous thinking about patterns of human settlement in South America. Anna C. Roosevelt, an American archeologist and primary researcher here since 1990, believes that findings from the cave show there were Paleoindians this far south and with an independent culture that existed at the same time as other early Native Americans were active on the Great Plains of North America. Formerly researchers believed that Amazonian settlements arose later than those in the Andes, and were developed by migrants from the highlands.
Caverna da Pedra Pintada is located near the town of Monte Alegre, in the Amazon River Basin in Pará state in northern Brazil . It is the main attraction of the 3,678 hectares (9,090 acres) Monte Alegre State Park, created in 2001.
American archeologist Anna C. Roosevelt rediscovered the cave and excavated it extensively from 1990 to 1992. The excavations were supported by the Field Museum and the University of Illinois, Chicago, with which she is affiliated. The lowest levels of the cave were radiocarbon dated and Thermoluminescence dated to ca. 11,200 to 10,000 years ago. The early dates of these finds have affected interpretation of human settlement in the Amazon Basin. Roosevelt believes that the cave's evidence supports a theory that the Amazon Basin was settled much earlier than formerly believed.
The early dates of human presence at the cave show that humans did not exclusively migrate from North America down to the Andes in South America, which some archaeologists had previously believed.
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