Understanding the Callao Cave Depositional History

Bibliographic Data

ID20085534
AuthorsAugusto Mijares (0000-0001-5379-9184, corresponding author), Armand Salvador Mijares
Year2017
Pages125-140
Publication date2017-03-24
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeCHAPTER
VenueNew Perspectives in Southeast Asian and Pacific Prehistory (SOURCE_BOOK)
PublisherANU Press (PUBLISHER • AU)
DOI10.22459/ta45.03.2017.07
OpenAlexW2600298938
ISBN9781760460945
LanguageEN
Citations received1
References cited10

This paper presents a soil micromorphological analysis of the stratigraphic sequence of sediments recorded in the antechamber of Callao Cave, northern Luzon. The study builds on our understanding of the depositional and post-depositional history of the cave sediments and elucidates further our knowledge of human occupation at Callao. The results confirm three in situ periods of human frequentation in the antechamber. The most recent recognisable archaeological horizon dates to ca. 3600 BP and represents a Neolithic occupation layer with ceramics, flake tools, a spindle whorl, faunal remains and human burials. Below this is a layer of volcanic sediment that forms a hiatus in cultural deposition, preceded by a habitation at ca. 25,000 BP characterised by hearths, abundant charcoal and burnt sediments and associated chert flake tools. Below a further ca. 2 m of almost sterile deposit is the lowest cultural horizon, comprising breccia containing faunal bones and a human metatarsal, dated by uranium series to ca. 67,000 BP. The study demonstrates that Callao Cave was only intermittently and irregularly occupied over the last 70 millennia

Archaeology · Cave · Geography · Sedimentary depositional environment · Structural basin · Archaeology and ancient environmental studies · Archaeology and Rock Art Studies · Pleistocene-Era Hominins and Archaeology · Geology · Paleontology

Tools

Open DOILibgenOpen Access