Archeological artifacts found in Villa Clara

Radio Havana Cuba, 23 April 2002

Santa Clara, April 23 (RHC)--Stone tools dating from the Early European Paleolithic period have been found in Villa Clara, central Cuba.

An amateur archeological group, led by Raul Villavicencio, archeologist and historian from Santa Clara's Museum of History, found the materials in the coastal area of Sagua la Grande.

Ramiro Ramírez García, dean of the Felix Varela Pedagogical Institute, told reporters that archeologists from the Academy of Sciences are currently studying the pieces. The find will apparently change the opinions about the original period of human settlement in Cuba, and even in the Americas.

Evidence collected some years ago in the northern region of Mayari and Levisa in Holguin, located in eastern Cuba, proved that human settlements began in Cuba about 10,000 years ago.

Ramírez García explained that the new discovery is made up of big axes of monolithic siliceous stone, chopping tools and large arrows and spearheads. Some of the objects were buried by the coast and others were found near the surface, not far from Quemado de Guines and La Sierrita.