100,000 year old use wear from Pedra Furada, Brazil

[AD]

Greetings...

Reverting to the original discussion topic, here is a very limited reconstruction, from some 2005 e-mails and copies of e-mails, of what happened to Dr. Robson Bonnichson's determination/documentation of apparent human agency in the Pedra Furada lithics.

Rob Bonnichsen had, as is evident from the photos and their captions to which links were posted earlier in this thread, identified to his satisfaction evidence of human manufacture and use in the material. Upon his untimely and unfortunate demise, the project was turned over to a graduate student who decided (or perhaps was instructed to decide?) on his own that the use wear marks could have been "produced by post-depositional processes" (i.e., naturally). Bonnichsen, being conveniently dead at the time, was in no position to defend his work. On 29 August 2005 the student e-mailed Dr. Guidon saying that further investigation would require "an intensive experimental program for comparative purposes", all this "at a more opportune time". On 6 September, Dr. Michael Waters, who had succeeded Dr. Bonnichsen as director of the Center for the Study of the First Americans and was pursuing his own investigation of another suspected extremely old western hemisphere habitation site, e-mailed Dr. Guidon citing the student's assessment of the Pedra Furada lithics, saying that there was no time to further pursue her project.

So, make of this what you will...

Regards, Alan
http://www.daysknob.com

[kbs2244]

So, the bad news is Dr. Waters said “bury it”
The good news is that he has his own “extremely old Western Hemisphere site”?
Do we care which site the proof comes from?
Or whose name is on it?
I am sure we all would like to see credit given where it is due.
But, after all Waters, or someone after him, may reopen this site as a “conformation” site. And then the historians can sort it out.
(Is there such a thing as a “Historian of Archeology.”)

[Minimalist]

So, make of this what you will...

The Club Strikes Back.