Archaeological studies at Coxcatlan Cave in the Tehuacan Valley of southern Puebla, Mexico, have been instrumental to the development of the chronology for the region and for our understanding of the origins of food production in the Americas. This article refines the Preceramic chronology of the Tehuacan Valley by presenting 14 new accelerated mass spectrometry (AMS) radiocarbon ages from faunal bone samples uncovered from early depositional levels of the rock shelter. Although bones associated with the El Riego (9893–7838 cal BP), Coxcatlan (7838–6375 cal BP), and Abejas (6375–4545 cal BP) phase zones of the cave yielded ages similar to those of the previously proposed chronology for the region, bones from the Ajuereado phase zones at the base of the cave yielded surprisingly old ages that range from 33,448 to 28,279 cal BP, a time prior to the Last Glacial Maximum. Because these early ages are many thousands of years older than current models estimate for the peopling of the Americas, they require reassessments of the artifacts and ecofacts excavated from these early zones.

中文翻译：

---

来自墨西哥普埃布拉 Coxcatlan 洞穴前陶瓷水平的新 AMS 放射性碳年龄：更新世占领 Tehuacan 山谷？

墨西哥普埃布拉南部特瓦坎谷 Coxcatlan 洞穴的考古研究对该地区年表的发展以及我们对美洲粮食生产起源的了解都起到了重要作用。本文通过从岩石掩体的早期沉积水平发现的动物骨骼样本中展示 14 个新的加速质谱 (AMS) 放射性碳年龄，从而改进了 Tehuacan 山谷的前陶瓷年代学。尽管与 El Riego (9893–7838 cal BP)、Coxcatlan (7838–6375 cal BP) 和 Abejas (6375–4545 cal BP) 相区相关的骨骼产生的年龄与之前提出的年代学相似。地区，来自洞穴底部的 Ajuereado 阶段区域的骨头产生了令人惊讶的年龄，范围从 33,448 到 28,279 cal BP，末次盛冰期之前的时间。由于这些早期年龄比现有模型对美洲人口的估计要早数千年，因此需要重新评估从这些早期区域挖掘出的文物和生态事实。