8 August 2025 The Future is the Product of the Past

27,000-year-old Pendants made from giant sloths suggest earlier arrival of people in the Americas

Archaeologists discovered three pendants made from the bony material of an extinct giant sloth in a rock shelter in central Brazil.

The pendants are believed to be between 25,000 and 27,000 years old, making them the oldest known personal ornaments in the Americas and the only ones made from giant sloth bone in the archaeological record.

New research suggests humans lived in South America at the same time as now-extinct giant sloths, bolstering evidence that people arrived in the Americas earlier than once thought.

Recent research has challenged the notion that humans migrated to the Americas about 13,000 years ago by crossing a land bridge from Siberia to Alaska.

The ornaments were found about 30 years ago at a rock shelter in central Brazil called Santa Elina. The new study is the first to analyze them extensively and rule out the possibility that humans had found and carved them thousands of years after the animals perished.

The pendants were among thousands of osteoderms — hard bony deposits that form within the skin of certain animals —. The osteoderms belonged to a species of giant sloth known as Glossotherium phoenesis, which weighed around 600 kilograms (1,323 pounds) and had long clawed arms for digging.

This illustration provided by researchers depicts a person carving an osteoderm from a giant sloth in Brazil about 25.000 to 27.000 years ago. İmage: Julia d’Oliveria / AP

To ascertain how the pendants were created and altered by human hands, the researchers who discovered them analyzed them using a variety of methods and experiments. They found that the osteoderms were polished and had holes drilled into them, suggesting they were used for personal adornment, probably as necklaces or earrings. The holes were not caused by natural abrasion or predation, according to the study published in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B.

The team of researchers from Brazil, France, and the United States said their analysis shows this handiwork was done within days to a few years after the animals had died, and before the materials had fossilized. The researchers also ruled out natural abrasion and other things that might explain the shapes and holes.

Giant ground sloths could reach 13 feet long, weighed more than a thousand pounds, and were equivalent in size to an Indian elephant. According to the report, it walked on all fours and was one of the largest creatures in South America.

The discovery of the pendants has significant implications for our understanding of the Americas’ human history. It suggests that humans were present in South America thousands of years earlier than previously thought, coexisting with giant sloths and other megafauna that became extinct around 10,000 years ago.

“We now have good evidence — together with other sites from South and North America — that we have to rethink our ideas about the migration of humans to the Americas,” Mirian Liza Alves Forancelli Pacheco, study co-author and archaeologist at the Federal University of Sao Carlos in Brazil told The Associated Press.

Cover Photo: Thais Rabito Pansani/AP

Related Articles

First direct evidence of drug use as part of Bronze Age ritual ceremonies in Europe

6 April 2023

6 April 2023

An analysis of human hair strands recovered from a burial site in Menorca, Spain, reveals that ancient human civilizations used...

Ancient skeletons buried with gold jewelry and expensive leather shoes found in newly discovered Roman necropolis in Italy

5 January 2024

5 January 2024

Archaeologists involved in a two-year-long excavation project at the site of a planned solar energy plant ancient city of Tarquinia,...

Divers Discover 2,500-Year-Old Shipwreck and anchors Off the Coast of Sicily

23 January 2025

23 January 2025

A shipwreck dating back to the 5th and 6th centuries BC was discovered in the waters of Santa Maria del...

Was the mystery of Noceto Vasca Votiva the water ritual?

13 June 2021

13 June 2021

The Noceto Vasca Votiva is a one-of-a-kind wood building discovered in 2005 on a tiny hill in northern Italy. The...

Vindolanda marks the 1900th anniversary of Hadrian’s Wall with an altar discovery

9 February 2022

9 February 2022

The excavation season hasn’t started yet, but the Vindolanda Roman fort has kicked off Hadrian’s Wall’s 1900th anniversary year with...

Lost Phrygian Inscription on Arslan Kaya Monument Deciphered

23 November 2024

23 November 2024

Professor Mark Munn of Pennsylvania State University has deciphered part of the inscription on the legendary Arslan Kaya Monument (also...

Jiroft: The Mysterious Rival of Mesopotamia and the Dawn of an Ancient Civilization

24 March 2025

24 March 2025

Recent archaeological discoveries in southeast Iran are reshaping our understanding of early civilizations, particularly the Jiroft Civilization, which thrived around...

Ancient coins surface with Lake Iznik’s withdrawal in Türkiye

2 May 2023

2 May 2023

With the withdrawal of Lake Iznik in the northwest of Türkiye, the ancient coins found at the bottom of the...

Norse Runic Text found in Oslo could be Prayer!

30 December 2021

30 December 2021

Archaeologists from the Norwegian Institute for Cultural Heritage Studies (NIKU) have unearthed two objects inscribed in Norse runic text in...

1300-year-old baby footprints found in excavations at the ancient city of Assos in western Turkey

3 September 2021

3 September 2021

1300 years ago, a baby stepped on baked bricks prepared to make a bread baking oven. The baby was probably...

The “Horoscope” Scroll Found In the Judean Desert: A Glimpse Into the Mysterious Sect

26 March 2024

26 March 2024

One of the most interesting and mysterious scrolls discovered in the Judean Desert is a scroll called the “Horoscope.” This...

A Rare Design in Roman Military Architecture: Triangular Stone Tower Discovered Near Sofia

22 July 2025

22 July 2025

Bulgarian archaeologists have uncovered a triangular stone tower — a rare architectural form in Roman military design — at the...

Archaeologists find a 3,000-year-old bronze sword in Germany

15 June 2023

15 June 2023

Archaeologists discovered a bronze sword more than 3,000 years old during excavations in the town of Nördlingen in Bavaria, Germany....

An inscription containing the Turk name was discovered for the first time in Anatolia

3 September 2022

3 September 2022

For the first time in the pre-Islamic Early period Turkish history, an inscription bearing the inscription expression “Turk” and written...

Researchers find the earliest record of aurora in old Chinese documents

15 April 2022

15 April 2022

Researchers have found the oldest known reference to a candidate aurora in a celestial event, described in an ancient Chinese...