Chronology of Guitarrero Cave, Peru
THOMAS F. LYNCH 1,
R. GILLESPIE 2,
JOHN A. J. GOWLETT 2, and
R. E. M. HEDGES 2
1 Department of Anthropology, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York 14853
2 Radiocarbon Accelerator Unit, Research Laboratory for Archaeology and the History of Art, Oxford University, Oxford OX1 3QJ, England
Dating by accelerator mass spectrometry of wooden artifacts, cord, and charcoal samples from Guitarrero Cave, Peru, supports the antiquity of South America's earliest textiles and other perishable remains. The new dates are consistent with those obtained from disintegration counters and leave little doubt about the integrity of the lower Preceramic layers and their early cultivars. Re-evaluation of the mode of deposition suggests that most of the remains resulted from short-term use of the cave in the eighth millennium B.C., with a possible brief human visit as early as 12,560 years ago.
Submitted on January 25, 1985
Accepted on May 15, 1985
