Human Agency in the Modification of Lestodon Bones at Arroyo del Vizcaíno? A Reply to Holcomb et al. (2022)

ABSTRACT Early human presence in America still is a contentious issue in Anthropology. Recent evaluation of bone surface modifications on remains of Lestodon in the 30,000 year-old Arroyo del Vizcaíno (ADV) site (Uruguay) by objective computer vision methods have been contested on non-taphonomic grounds, by criticizing the algorithms used to interpret them. Here, we respond to these criticisms emphasizing that: a) the models used are experimentally and computationally solid, b) criticism of our machine learning approach is unfounded, c) these models provide the best objective evidence to the potential presence of anthropogenic agency in the ADV site by not being able to differentiate some of the ADV marks from experimentally-made stone tool cut marks, and d) ADV is palimpsestic and its formation history has to be determined by future taphonomic research.