Caverna da Pedra Pintada

Caverna da Pedra Pintada (Painted Rock Cave in Portuguese) is an archaeological site in northern Brazil that dates back to around 11,200 years. This discovery has cast doubt on earlier assumptions regarding human settlement patterns in South America. Findings from the cave, according to Anna C. Roosevelt, an American archaeologist who has been a key researcher here since 1990, prove that Paleoindians lived thus far south and had an independent society at the same time as other early Native Americans on the Great Plains of North America.

Previously, academics assumed that Amazonian communities arose later than those in the Andes, and that they were founded by highlander migrants. This discovery has cast doubt on earlier assumptions regarding human settlement patterns in South America. Findings from the cave, according to Anna C. Roosevelt, an American archaeologist who has been a key researcher here since 1990, prove that Paleoindians lived thus far south and had an independent society at the same time as other early Native Americans on the Great Plains of North America. Previously, academics assumed that Amazonian communities arose later than those in the Andes, and that they were founded by highlander migrants.

Location: Pará State