As the settlement Stone Museum located about 250 km from Pico Truncado in the province of Santa Cruz, shows, it seems that the first Argentines were living there 13,000 years ago. The inhabitants of this place, located in the northwest of the province, were nomadic and had a subsistence economy in which priority was given to the gathering of fruits and hunting.
They hunted Milodon (type of bear with giant neck) Hyppidions (South American horses who disappeared 10,000 years ago) guanacos, rheas and llamas.
Another important development that soon found Stone Museum was Los Toldos, which is located 100 kilometers north of the previous 12,000 years ago and where another group used to live in Argentina.
In Stone Museum, the team led by Dr. Laura Miotti make discoveries of great importance, both for the study of prehistory in Patagonia to be able to explain the ways-and age-income men to America. Stone Museum was about 13,000 years ago with an abundance of water and pasture, the elements that determine the arrival at the site of a great number and variety of animals. And behind them, men, ready to turn in their hunt for prey.
In 1991 it was found in one of the deeper layers, a fragment of a spearhead of the well-known as “fish tail” associated with remains of some animals that became extinct in the area for over 10,000 years. Like Mylodon (giant sloth), gracilis lama, Lama guanicoe; hippidion (South American horses) Rhea americana (rhea ancestor of the large) and Pterocnemia pennata (ancestor of the rhea Petiso).
Dating at the University of Arizona, showed a peak age of 10,400 years, which caused a real stir among archaeologists Americans. The media’s most important scientific world began to take up the work they performed the Argentine scientists at the site.
Laura Miotti recalls: “That year I realized what was surely the place for the nomadic hunter-gatherers who inhabited the Patagonia in the Late Pleistocene: a major strategic shelter, shelter, water, and huge opportunities for hunting” .
By 1995, close to the Patricia Madrid, professor of archeology at the University Center, traveled and explored the neighboring hills, finding a second piece of the same end “fish tail.” Samples of charcoal and the remains of extinct animals were sent to United States for dating, which was conducted by Dr. Eileen Johnson, curator of anthropology and director of the archaeological site at Lubbock Lake (Texas), who reported the surprising result: 12,890 years old.
