**7. The Lagoassantense culture**

The Lagoassantense Paleoindian culture gets its name from the name of the region where it was first defined. The region of Lagoa Santa, in Southeastern Brazil, was a target of archaeological and paleontological studies ever since Danish researcher Peter W. Lund visited the region in the nineteenth century [104]. However, it was only in the 1970s that the region started to be systematically studied by a French-Brazilian program led by Annette Laming-Emperaire [105]. Unfortunately, these studies were suddenly interrupted by the unfortunate case of her death, but they were responsible for the discovery of Lagoa Santa and Luzia—the oldest human skeleton known in the Americas until then. It was only in the 2010s that new systematic research in the area was carried out, led by Walter Neves [106], including interdisciplinary analyses of the material culture, such as fauna [107, 108], human skeletons, and burials [109–111], lithic industry [112–117], micro residues [20, 118, 119], and bone industry [120, 121]. Thanks to this research, specific cultural patterns were identified for the region that persisted from the Pleistocene–Holocene transition until some centuries before the Portuguese conquest. The Lapa do Santo site, for example, that presents the best chronology dates to between 10,490 ± 50 BP (12,552–12,057 cal BP) and 790 ± 40 BP (739–571 cal BP).

The Lagoassantense lithic industry was clearly not taken into account by the previously proposed Itaparica-Umbu traditions model, since it does not present *lesmas* or stemmed points in its assemblage. Even though two stemmed points have been found at the Lagoa Santa site [116, 117], they are exceptions within an assemblage dominated by thousands of microliths—lithic tools that are no bigger than 30 mm [99]. These two points have no parallels to any point type defined in

**159**

**Figure 3.**

*figure. All drawings by the author.*

*The Technological Diversity of Lithic Industries in Eastern South America during the Late…*

South America. They are not bifacially reduced, and they are basically flakes with some retouches that shape the stemmed point. Some other formal artefacts, such as a lesma and a bifacial tool fragment [just the tip], were found in Lagoa Santa region sites but in layers that are not directly related to the Lagoassantense culture occupation [116, 117]. The bifacial artefact could be a preform of any point type, while the lesma was found in the same context as some other non-Lagoassantense flakes and

*Typical artefacts of the Lagoassantense industry from the Pleistocene–Holocene transition. All examples are from Lapa do Santo site, except the bigger ground axe blade which is from the Lapa das Boleiras site. (1) Diagonal slicing core on crystal quartz. (2) Opposite-platforms core on crystal quartz. (3) Retouched microliths on crystal quartz. (4) Ground axe blades on igneous rocks. Scale is the same for all artefacts in the* 

might be related to both Itaparica and Rioclarense industries.

*DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.89154*

*The Technological Diversity of Lithic Industries in Eastern South America during the Late… DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.89154*

#### **Figure 3.**

*Pleistocene Archaeology - Migration, Technology, and Adaptation*

retouch of the body forming a convex edge.

as blanks most of the time (**Figure 2**: 9).

**7. The Lagoassantense culture**

body negatives.

of points can be found in mid-eastern Rio Grande do Sul State.

pottery fragments [103], indicating that its occupation lasted at least until the Late Holocene. In technological terms, three point types were identified in this industry: Garivaldinense, Montenegro, and Brochier types. Sites presenting these same types

The Garivaldinense point type is defined by its triangle-shaped body with irregular or straight active edges and straight wings, straight or bifurcated stems, and three distinct technological methods of production: (a) bifacial reduction by selective and trespassed percussion or pressure flaking, followed by bifacial retouch by pressure flaking (**Figure 2**: 5); (b) bifacial reduction by convergent nontrespassed percussion or pressure flaking, followed by bifacial retouch by pressure flaking (**Figure 2**: 6); and (c) thin flakes bifacially retouched by pressure (**Figure 2**: 7). Some of these points are clearly recycled and turned into scrapers, with unifacial

The Montenegro point type is defined by its triangle blade-shaped bodies with serrated edges, small bifurcate stems, and systematic bifacial parallel reduction forming a vertical central rib in the artefact body. Pressure flaking always starts from the extremities and finishes in the middle of the point (**Figure 2**: 8). This seems to be a logical strategy to avoid leaving the middle of the point thinner than the rest and breaking the point during pressure flaking. The ones with a triangleshaped, shorter body seem to be broken and reworked, due the diachrony of the

The Brochier point type is defined by having no stem and wings, being small, and presenting a tapered or lanceolate shape formed by bifacial or unifacial retouch by pressure flaking. They rarely present reduction, since thin agate flakes are used

The Lagoassantense Paleoindian culture gets its name from the name of the region where it was first defined. The region of Lagoa Santa, in Southeastern Brazil, was a target of archaeological and paleontological studies ever since Danish researcher Peter W. Lund visited the region in the nineteenth century [104]. However, it was only in the 1970s that the region started to be systematically studied by a French-Brazilian program led by Annette Laming-Emperaire [105]. Unfortunately, these studies were suddenly interrupted by the unfortunate case of her death, but they were responsible for the discovery of Lagoa Santa and Luzia—the oldest human skeleton known in the Americas until then. It was only in the 2010s that new systematic research in the area was carried out, led by Walter Neves [106], including interdisciplinary analyses of the material culture, such as fauna [107, 108], human skeletons, and burials [109–111], lithic industry [112–117], micro residues [20, 118, 119], and bone industry [120, 121]. Thanks to this research, specific cultural patterns were identified for the region that persisted from the Pleistocene–Holocene transition until some centuries before the Portuguese conquest. The Lapa do Santo site, for example, that presents the best chronology dates to between 10,490 ± 50 BP (12,552–12,057 cal BP) and 790 ± 40

The Lagoassantense lithic industry was clearly not taken into account by the previously proposed Itaparica-Umbu traditions model, since it does not present *lesmas* or stemmed points in its assemblage. Even though two stemmed points have been found at the Lagoa Santa site [116, 117], they are exceptions within an assemblage dominated by thousands of microliths—lithic tools that are no bigger than 30 mm [99]. These two points have no parallels to any point type defined in

**158**

BP (739–571 cal BP).

*Typical artefacts of the Lagoassantense industry from the Pleistocene–Holocene transition. All examples are from Lapa do Santo site, except the bigger ground axe blade which is from the Lapa das Boleiras site. (1) Diagonal slicing core on crystal quartz. (2) Opposite-platforms core on crystal quartz. (3) Retouched microliths on crystal quartz. (4) Ground axe blades on igneous rocks. Scale is the same for all artefacts in the figure. All drawings by the author.*

South America. They are not bifacially reduced, and they are basically flakes with some retouches that shape the stemmed point. Some other formal artefacts, such as a lesma and a bifacial tool fragment [just the tip], were found in Lagoa Santa region sites but in layers that are not directly related to the Lagoassantense culture occupation [116, 117]. The bifacial artefact could be a preform of any point type, while the lesma was found in the same context as some other non-Lagoassantense flakes and might be related to both Itaparica and Rioclarense industries.

The Lagoassantense lithic industry is defined by the debitage of small crystal quartz flakes (**Figure 3**: 3) using the diagonal slicing core (**Figure 3**: 1) and the opposite platform core methods (**Figure 3**: 2) and by the low production of ground axes [94]. These are the oldest records for ground axe blades in the Americas (**Figure 3**: 4). The lithic industry is also defined by the persistence of making those microliths in the exact same way for at least 8000 years [122], considering that crystal quartz is not a common raw material in the Lagoa Santa region, and other tools (bigger and more complex) could be produced using other types of raw material, like high-quality quartzite, that could be easily found in the area. In this sense, the cultural norm for using small crystals defined the technological limitations of the industry.
