Forbidden Archeology_ The Full Unabridged Edition - Michael A. Cremo [215]
Indeed, one of the main tactics employed by Hrdlicka against Ameghino was to show that the fossil bones of presumed Tertiary human precursors found by Ameghino were in fact identical to those of morphologically modern humans (Sections 6.1.5, 6.2.4). For Hrdlicka, who firmly believed in the recent origin of the human species, this meant that Ameghino’s fossils were also recent. But it could also mean something else, namely, that the skeletal remains were from the Tertiary, as Ameghino so ably maintained, and were, as Hrdlicka so ably demonstrated, anatomically modern.
The complete original reports of the finds Ameghino regarded as Eocene and Oligocene have proved very difficult to track down. As of this writing, we have bibliographical references giving the titles of these publications, which were small pamphlets of 8 pages each, apparently presented as papers at a scientific conference (F. Ameghino 1910a; 1910b). Ameghino did, however, refer to the discoveries described in these two papers in an article that appeared in 1912. “Recently,” he wrote, “I have published a report on new materials, very well substantiated, found in the Entrerrean formation” (F. Ameghino 1912, p. 74). According to Ameghino, the Entrerrean formation could be assigned to the Late Oligocene, or perhaps the Early Miocene. He then mentioned a second report about discoveries in a formation he regarded as Late Eocene, the Santacrucian.
Today the Santacrucian formation, which Ameghino considered Late Eocene, is referred to the Early and Middle Miocene (Marshall et al. 1977, p. 1326). It would thus be about 15–25 million years old. We have not encountered any mention of the Entrerrean in the current literature we have examined, but since this formation comes before the Monte Hermosan, it would be at least Late Miocene, over 5 million years old.
In the two reports published in 1910, Ameghino had apparently discussed only stone tools. Afterwards, Ameghino found other signs of a human presence. F. Ameghino (1912, p. 72) therefore wrote: “I can announce that I possess from these two formations even newer materials still more demonstrative than those I have published. Regarding this new material, I am not bringing into consideration more eoliths, which we find in our formations at the close of the Eocene and which differ from those of Boncelles in Belgium in that they are of much smaller size. Instead I base my assertions on bones that have been incised, cut, scraped, and split and on the vestiges of fire, found in the same beds as the bones.” The modified bones and signs of intentional use of fire found along with stone tools at these two sites support the idea that anatomically modern humans may have been present in Argentina prior to the time of the Montehermosan, which is considered to be 3–5 million years old.
5.1.6 Evidence for the Intentional Use of Fire
Let us now consider in detail an important category of evidence accompanying Ameghino’s discoveries of stone tools—signs of intentional use of fire. At various locations, along with stone tools, Florentino Ameghino discovered, remnants of hearths, in the form of burned earth (tierra cocida), slag (escoria), charcoal, and burned animal bones. This combination of evidence tends to strongly confirm the view that the tools were manufactured by human beings in the distant past. In some cases, Ameghino interpreted the presence of scoria (slag) and burned earth as signs of grass fires intentionally set by primitive hunters.
Ameghino gave great importance to his discoveries of burned earth and slag. While in Argentina, Hrdlicka