Glossary

Chavin A religious cult of Peru, dating to the first millennium BCE, and characterized by a distinctive iconographic art style.

Clovis tradition A North American, Late Pleistocene cultural tradition, believed to have been associated with the hunting of large game animals and with distinctive fluted spear points.

Fluted spear points Distinctively shaped spear points

Associated with the Clovis tradition in North America and the Magellan Tradition in South America. A flute (or channel) was created by the removal of a flake from one or both faces of the point. South American variants usually have a narrow base resembling the tail of a fish.

Holocene The present epoch in the geological timescale, beginning at the end of the Pleistocene approximately 10 000 years ago.

Mangroves Trees and shrubs that grow in tropical lagoons and estuaries.

Megafauna Large animals such as mammoths, mastodons, and giant ground sloths of the Pleistocene.

Magellan tradition A South American cultural tradition, believed to have been associated with the hunting of large game animals and with distinctive fishtail-fluted points.

Obsidian hydration A dating method that relies on the measurement of the diffusion of atmospheric water into obsidian.

Olmec A Mesoamerican religious cult, dating to the first

Millennium BCE and associated with a distinctive iconographic art style.

Pleistocene The geological epoch that began about 3 million years ago and ended approximately 10 000 years ago with the beginning of the Holocene. It is sometimes called the Ice Age.

Tapir The largest native game animal of South America. Tapirs are solitary forest herbivores, distantly related to the horse and rhinoceros.