El Jobo

A series of preagricultural hunting sites in northwest Venezuela where Pleistocene tools have been found on old river terraces. There is a distinctive leaf-shaped spear point (the Jobo point) which has also been found at mammoth-kill sites in neighboring parts of Venezuela, where radiocarbon dates confirm a late Pleistocene age (13,000-7000 BC). The crude chopping tools from El Jobo may belong to an earlier period. Some archaeologists prefer to see the complex as a local development unassociated with the movement of Big Game Hunters into South America.

One of a series of stone tool complexes found at a group of sitesin northwestern Venezuela. Designated the Joboid series, they appear to span a considerable time period. There are no absolute dates but ancient erosional episodes have defined a series of terraces upon which man-made lithics were deposited and which seem to represent successive complexes. The highest, and also the oldest, is Camare, which contains crude chopping tools; next is Las Lagunas, which contains bifaces. This is followed by El Jobo, characterized by lanceolate leaf-shaped points; El Jobo is followed by Las Casitas, the lowest and most recent terrace, containing stemmed points. The leaf-shaped points of El Jobo resemble tools elsewhere, especially at Lerma and Santa Isabel Iztapan and thus may indicate the presence of intrusive Paleo-Indian groups. Comparison with these and other sites has led to an estimated age of 8000-9000 be. Some archaeologists, however, prefer to see the complex as a local development unassociated with the movement of Big Game Hunters into South America.