Limaces and Unifaces in the Paiján Industry, Peru, and the Early Prehistory of America

Abstract

ABSTRACT On the coast of Peru, early human occupation is represented by the Paiján tradition. As well as the stemmed bifacial projectile points, “limaces” are characteristic of this paleo American lithic complex, in comparison with similar forms of the European Mousterian, a term that has been changed to "uniface" because of the variety of shapes in Paiján assemblages. In contrast with the Mousterian expedient technology, unifaces are highly curated tools that are discarded following repeated sequences of use and resharpening that finally render them non-functional. The discovery of a cache of two little-used unifaces in a bifacial knapping workshop shows the process of reduction to which the unifaces encountered so far have been subjected. Unifaces are generally found in the context of occupations dating from the Pleistocene-Holocene transition (Paleo-American stage) throughout America. Unifaces should be considered as one of the characteristic tool types of this stage, besides the lithic projectile points.