342 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1951 



group of small volcanoes along the Chilean-Argentine boundary. 

 Furthermore, it helps to place a land rise of 421/^ feet east of the first 

 narrows of the Strait and recession of a large glacial lake which ex- 

 posed the rock shelters that were soon occupied by people. In ad- 

 dition, the date substantiates an estimated age for volcanic ash dis- 

 tributions in Tierra del Fuego and Patagonia based on pollen analysis 

 (Bird, 1951). 



As is to be expected, dates for archeological sites attributable to 

 prehistoric man in the Old World are somewhat older than those in 

 the Western Hemisphere. Charcoal from the famous Lascaux Cave, 

 considered one of the world's oldest and most remarkable art galleries, 

 on the V^zere River near Montignac (Dordogne), France, tested 

 15,516 ±900. The charcoal came from occupational deposits in the 

 northwestern portion of the cave and is thought to represent a Mag- 

 dalenian level. Thus far, however, it has not been possible to cor- 

 relate the radiocarbon date with any of the seven or eight art styles 

 in the magnificent murals on the wall of the cave (Movius, 1951). 

 Another upper Paleolithic site of Magdalenian times at La Garenne, 

 St. Marcel (Indre), France, has an interesting series of dates. One 

 sample consisting of an ashy material mixed with sand, charcoal, and 

 burned bones tested 15,847 ±1,200, burned bone collected in and 

 around a hearth dated 11,109 ±480, while burned bone from the same 

 horizon but outside the hearth gave 12,986 ±560. Of comparable 

 antiquity is a site at Muf o, Angola, Portuguese West Africa, where a 

 stone blade associated with carbonized wood was found in a late upper 

 Pleistocene deposit. Tests made on the wood yielded 11,189 ±490 

 years. Not quite so old, but still of considerable age, are two dwell- 

 ings in Denmark belonging to the late boreal, pollen zone VI. Hazel- 

 nuts from one of them gave an average of 9,929 ±350 years, while 

 birchwood from the other tested 9,425 ±540. Materials from a cave 

 located five miles west of Behshahr at the southeast corner of the Cas- 

 pian Sea, in Iran, show dates ranging from 8,545 ±500 to 10,560 

 ± 1,200. The deposits in the cave contain Bronze Age, late Neolithic, 

 Neolithic, late Mesolithic, and Mesolithic. The earlier date pre- 

 sumably is that of the Mesolithic, while the later was from a zone con- 

 taining upper Mesolithic artifacts. 



In the United States there is a somewhat younger group of cultures 

 which are represented at various places in the West and Southwest. 

 They may represent developments out of the older remains previously 

 mentioned, but on the other hand they may indicate subsequent mi- 

 grations to the area. That is a problem which still needs to be solved 

 by the archeologists. Nevertheless there is some significance in the 

 carbon- 14 indications. 



Associated with Folsom materials at sites where artifacts were 

 picked up from the surface were types of points which were given the 



