2009 under the coordination of Renato Kipnis, Astolfo Gomes Melo Araujo and Danilo Bernardo. Starting in 2001 several units were open in distinct areas of the shelter. It became apparent that the densest archaeological deposits were located in the south part of the shelter, immediately in front of the cave's entrance. An ample excavation surface was established in this region becoming the Main Excavation Area (MEA). All human burials were found in the MEA. Excavations of the MEA ended in 2009 when, according to Brazilian laws, the excavated area was filled with sediments recomposing the original topography of the shelter's floor. In 2011, a new excavation area was open in Lapa do Santo as part of another research project. Entitled "The Mortuary Rituals of the First Americans" and coordinated by André Strauss and Rodrigo Elias Oliveira this was a joint venture between the Department of Human Evolution of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology and the Institute of Biosciences of University of São Paulo. The rockshelter and the archaeological site “Lapa” and “Santo” are the Portuguese words for, “rockshelter” and “saint”. Lapa do Santo is a cave with an associated sheltered area of ca. 1300 m2. The southern region of the sheltered area has a relatively flat, height and dry area located immediately in front of the cave's entrance. The floor of the shelter has a strong descending inclination towards the north, which becomes flat again near a natural sinkhole located at the northern extreme of the sheltered area. A three-dimension coordinate system (x,y,z) was established in Lapa do Santo. The y-axis was conveniently oriented following the longer dimensions of the sheltered area, which is, in turn, roughly aligned with the geographic north-south axis (increasing towards the north). Therefore, the y-axis is also referred to as the north-south or N-S axis. The x-axis is perpendicular to the y-axis and is therefore roughly aligned with geographic east-west (increasing towards east). The x-axis is also referred to as the east-west or E-W axis. X-axis and y-axis define a horizontal plane. The z-axis is perpendicular to the plane defined by x-axis and y-axis and is therefore also referred to as the vertical axis or absolute depth (decreasing with progressive depth). The origin of the coordinate system (i.e. x=0, y=0, y=0) was conveniently positioned outside the sheltered area. An arbitrary grid with squares of 1 meter per side was established starting from the