Santa Elina, Mato Grosso, site ancien au centre de l’Amérique du Sud

Due to its geographical location and its Pleistocene-era antiquity, the Santa Elina rock shelter renews the analysis of prehistoric settlements in South America. In the mountains where the shelter is hidden, Pleistocene men hunted a Glossotherium, 27,000 years ago. During a second period, around more than 11,000 years ago, a giant sloth was hunted in this same privileged environment. Specific lithic industries and megafauna bones constitute very consistent archaeological contexts. Santa Elina was involved in the first settlements in South America in a paleontological context that has become part of the fossil record.