Excavation at Taima-taima in 1976 recovered artifacts of the El Jobo complex in direct association with the butchered remains of a juvenile mastodon. Radiocarbon dates on associated wood twigs indicate a minimum age of 13,000 years before the present for the mastodon kill, a dating significantly older than that of the Clovis complex in North America. The El Jobo complex must have evolved independently in northern South America.

After a summary assessment of certain selected early man sites in various parts of America, the environment of the Venezuelan coastal plain is discussed in order to evaluate the stratigraphy and radiometric dating of the Taima-Taima site, near Coro, Venezuela, where mammals, many now extinct, were killed by people making El Jobo points about 13,000 years ago.Potentially important areas in Peru, Chile and Brazil are mentioned. Certain problems in the models and interpretation of South American paleoclimates are pointed out.The presence of at least four different bifacially flaked stone projectile point traditions in widely separated and environmentally diverse parts of America between 11,000 and 13,000 yr ago suggests that the immediate cultural antecedents of these traditions were essentially independent of one another. From this it is argued that several early American flaked-stone point traditions developed indigenously in America from technological bases which were present in the Old World Middle Paleolithic.

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The sequence of three phases (Anathermal, Altithermal, Medithermal) of the Postglacial or Neothermal temperature curve, although demonstrably a reality, has been used improperly to determine absolute dates and past climatic conditions from archaeological deposits. A review of the historic development of the concept of the three sequent Neothermal temperature phases reveals the assumptions on which absolute dating of these phases has been based. Analysis of the variable radio-carbon dates now available for deposits attributed to these phases in a number of different localities in North America indicates that these phases cannot be considered as universal time periods bracketed by definite absolute dates; and consideration of the ecological diversity within North America at any particular time, especially in the West, indicates that climatic conditions inferred for a given span of Neothermal time in one area cannot be projected into another area without direct independent evidence of the actual climatic conditions which existed in the second area at that time. It is suggested that Anathermal, Altithermal, and Medithermal be used not as time periods with fixed absolute dates or climatic periods with defined characteristics, but rather be considered as phases of the Neothermal temperature curve which in different ecological areas resulted in locally varying climatic conditions which must be determined by direct evidence, dated by independent means, and designated by local terms.