Format: Paper presentations with discussion
Convenors:
Mario A. Rivera, ICAHM-ICOMOS, La Serena, Chile, marivera41@gmail.com
Cesar Mendez, Estudios Aplicados, Escuela de Antropología, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Santiago, Chile, cesar.mendezm@uc.cl
Rafael A. Goni, Instituto Nacional de Antropología y Pensamiento Latinoamericano, Universidad de Buenos Aires, Argentina, rafaelagustingoni@gmail.com
For some decades now, there has been a widespread interest in understanding past human occupations framed within the environments they inhabited. What was previously a line of research developed only by a few researchers in South America is now a central concern in most regional archaeological endeavours. The importance given to understanding the interaction between humans and the environment has received a boost, resulting in the development of methodologies that critically address the data sets for establishing such relationships. The definition of analytical scales, the collection of original data, the comparison between environmental and human archives and the focus on the scope and limitations of the results are some of the fields of discussion in environmental archaeology. Besides, from this perspective we derive the possibility of archaeology (and the archaeological record) contributing to the understanding of past climate changes and human answers to such changes, as well as the effects of human action over the inhabited spaces. This session aims to exemplify ways in which research teams have sought comprehensively to resolve questions related to the relationship between human beings and the environment throughout South America, particularly the behaviours in situations of change and the consequences of human imprints over the environment at different spatial scales and without time restrictions.
Papers:
“Push the River, It Will Not Flow by Itself”: Rhythms and Flows of a Ravine in the Atacama Desert (3000–200BP)
Mauricio Uribe, Universidad de Chile, Chile
Antonio Maldonado, Universidad de La Serena, Chile
Claudio Wande, Universidad de Chile, Chile
In this study, following a long-term perspective, we examine the relationships that Andean human groups established with their environment in the driest desert in the world. Specifically, we assess the dynamics and histories of the Tarapacá ravine in the Atacama Desert through a multidisciplinary archaeological approach, integrating paleoclimatic data, radiocarbon dating, and the analysis of sites and material culture. Through an extensive set of radiocarbon dates along the ravine of water channels, agricultural structures, and ceremonial features, we identified patterns of seasonal flows and occupation of the Tarapacá ravine over the past 3000 years. Our results reveal distinct natural and anthropic cycles in the lowlands associated with a wetter climate. During the Formative period, the lower portion became a key population locus at Pampa Iluga, hosting villages, extensive agricultural fields, and a monumental tumuli complex. This development was driven by increased humidity in the highlands, which enabled the lower portion to flourish as a population centre, sustained by seasonal summer water flows. However, this dynamic changed during the Late Intermediate Period, when a dry period led to water scarcity on the pampa, generating the emergence of new population centres in the highlands and social dynamics before the Inca Empire’s arrival.
Revised 14C Chronology of the Human Occupation of Central Chile (26°-34° S) and its Relation to Holocene Environmental Change
César Méndez, Estudios Aplicados, Escuela de Antropología, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Santiago, Chile
Matías Leiva, Independent researcher, Santiago, Chile
Andrés Kutulas, Independent researcher, Santiago, Chile
Daniel Pascual, Estudios Aplicados, Escuela de Antropología, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Santiago, Chile
Amalia Nuevo-Delaunay, Independent researcher, Santiago, Chile
Antonio Maldonado, Centro de Estudios Avanzados en Zonas Áridas, la Serena, Chile
The area of central Chile has long been subjected to archaeological research through scientific as well as cultural research management projects. Surveys, excavations, and sampling over this 100,000 km2 area has yielded over 890 radiocarbon dates (almost 0,009 dates/km2). Dates range from 30,000 cal BP to recent, but the human occupation is constrained to the last 13,000 years and is characterised by a markedly uneven distribution. Taphonomic and research biases are the main factors shaping chronological trends across the region. However, this chronological inventory allows an exploratory exam on the intensity of occupation of different landscapes over time. It also provides means to compare the human chronological signature with regional paleoclimatic data to discuss whether aridity, and therefore shortages in terrestrial resources, exerted pressure over the human groups inhabiting this region. The distribution of dates is fluctuating and even shows periods devoid of chronological signature which can be matched to climate variability. It also exhibits a significant increase over the last three millennia, coupled with a higher intensity of occupations and major transformations in technology, subsistence and mobility. ANID FONDECYT #1241705, FANSA-PUC.
Human Population Shifts During the Holocene in Eastern South America and its Relationship with Rapid Climate Chances (RCCs)
Astolfo Gomes de Mello Araujo, Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, University of São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil
Letícia Cristina Correa, School of Arts, Sciences, and Humanities, University of São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil
Glauco Constantino Perez, Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, University of São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil
Enrico Di Gregorio, Laboratory of Archaeology, Evolutionary and Experimental Prehistory, FURG, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil
Mercedes Okumura, Institute of Biosciences, University of São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil
Some 20 years ago we suggested that the low frequency of archaeological sites dating from the mid-Holocene in several regions of Eastern South America (which was then called the “Archaic Gap”) was due to an increase in the magnitude of dry periods related to the mid-Holocene hypsithermal. Since then, data regarding paleoenvironmental reconstructions for this vast area, coupled with an increase in the archaeological knowledge, allow us to reassess the idea of the “Archaic Gap” and redefine both the spatial extent of the phenomenon and its possible causes. The new data shows that there is a good match between extreme climatic variability and instances of decrease or gaps in the number of archaeological ages, which we consider as an archaeological signal, a surrogate for the intensity of human presence in a given area. Our approach was directed towards the detection of rapid climatic changes (RCCs), using the coefficient of variation (CV) of the values of paleoenvironmental proxies published by other authors, rather than focusing on ‘dry’ or ‘wet’ periods. Our data strongly suggest that RCCs are the most parsimonious explanations to account for the archaeological age patterns observed throughout Eastern South America.
Late Pleistocene and Early Holocene Megafauna and Human Settlements in Pampa del Tamarugal, Atacama Desert
Mario A. Rivera, ICAHM-ICOMOS, La Serena, Chile
Two thousand old agricultural fields associated with village settlements in the Atacama Desert prompted us to investigate water availability in this hyper arid zone. Oxygen (δ18O) and carbon (δ13C) isotope values from ancient Prosopis sp. tree-ring cellulose provided a record of relative humidity (RH) and water availability over century-long intervals throughout the past 9.5 ka. The northern section of the Atacama Desert known as Pampa del Tamarugal (PDT) shows evidence that, during the Late Pleistocene (PTa) and the Early Holocene (HTe) (25.4 ka AP at 10.8 ka AP), important hydrological recharge events occurred that enabled the presence of permanent wetlands responsible for the confirmed presence of megafauna and the first human occupations. By applying a groundwater flow numerical model, it was estimated that the recharge reproduced by this palaeowetland is only 2.0 times greater than the current recharge, suggesting that not-so-radical changes in the climate were able to cause momentous changes in the humid ecosystems of the PDT. The favourable climatic conditions in this period were long enough, probably on a millennial scale, to allow the generation of the necessary ecosystems, and then the immigration and survival of the megafauna and the first humans to inhabit this territory.
Middle Holocene Temporal and Spatial Trends in Central Western Santa Cruz Provine (Argentina)
Gisela Cassiodoro, Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas, Buenos Aires; Instituto Nacional de Antropología y Pensamiento Latinoamericano, Buenos Aires; Facultad de Filosofía y Letras, Universidad de Buenos Aires, Argentina
Agustín Agnolin, Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas, Buenos Aires; Instituto Nacional de Antropología y Pensamiento Latinoamericano, Buenos Aires, Argentina
Rafael Goñi, Instituto Nacional de Antropología y Pensamiento Latinoamericano, Buenos Aires; Facultad de Filosofía y Letras, Universidad de Buenos Aires, Argentina
In southern Patagonia, the middle Holocene has a chronology of around 8200 years BP, till 4200 years BP. However, in central-western Santa Cruz province (Argentina), these temporal limits are diffuse and do not fully match with a series of environmental (climatic, geological, etc.) and cultural manifestations. High lake basins (Perito Moreno National Park), basaltic plateaus (Strobel, Guitarra, Pampa del Asador) and low lake basins (Cardiel, Pueyrredón/ Posadas and Salitroso) present chronologies and archaeological landscapes that have fluctuated temporally and spatially in different ways. The archaeological record is highly varied and diverse, with a distribution and nature that does not always coincide with archaeological patterns in nearby regions. Thus, chronologies of 6000/7000 years BP are established as the beginning of local human settlement, related to environmental drying conditions both in these chronologies and around 3500/3000 years BP. The aim of this paper is to present the particularities of the Middle Holocene in the study region, taking into account several lines of evidence to discuss the possible climatic/environmental and social causes that have generated this differential archaeological configuration.
The Cultural Geography of Emerging Landscapes in the Southern Tip of South America: The Archaeology of San Sebastian Bay (Tierra del Fuego, Argentina)
Karen Borrazzo, Instituto Multidisciplinario de Historia y Ciencias Humanas (IMHICIHU-CONICET); Facultad de Filosofía y Letras, Universidad de Buenos Aires (FFyL-UBA)
Gabriela Lorena L’Heureux, Instituto Multidisciplinario de Historia y Ciencias Humanas (IMHICIHU-CONICET); Facultad de Humanidades y Artes, Universidad Nacional de Rosario (FHUMyAr-UNR)
Ivana Laura Ozán, CONICET-UBA-Instituto de Geociencias Básicas, Aplicadas y Ambientales de Buenos Aires; Facultad de Filosofía y Letras, Universidad de Buenos Aires (FFyL-UBA)
Catalina Balirán, Instituto Multidisciplinario de Historia y Ciencias Humanas (IMHICIHU-CONICET); Facultad de Filosofía y Letras, Universidad de Buenos Aires (FFyL-UBA)
Ornella Pizzi, Facultad de Filosofía y Letras, Universidad de Buenos Aires (FFyL-UBA)
Jesica Manini, Facultad de Filosofía y Letras, Universidad de Buenos Aires (FFyL-UBA)
María Victoria Parise, Facultad de Filosofía y Letras, Universidad de Buenos Aires (FFyL-UBA
Luis Alberto Borrero, Facultad de Filosofía y Letras, Universidad de Buenos Aires (FFyL-UBA)
The geomorphological evolution of the Atlantic coast of Tierra del Fuego transformed the northern steppe landscape inhabited by hunter-gatherers since the Late Pleistocene. After Mid-Holocene marine transgression, extended plains formed by coastal accretion in San Sebastian Bay, while the coast located to the north and out of the bay receded by erosion. This spatially contrasting dynamic poses different preservation and locational conditions for the coastal archaeological record. Progressive sedimentation within the bay provided new spaces and resources for human use. There, formerly littoral locations turned into inland environments and small islands became hills. Along with this process, the archaeological record in the area shows a shift in human land use from marginal ephemeral to nodal ubiquitous occupations. This presentation explores the relationship of the geomorphological evolution of San Sebastian Bay and the cultural geography of Fuegian hunter-gatherers between 6500 and 1000 years BP. We examine the human answers to environmental changes, the cultural transformation of the landscape and the taphonomic modifications of the archaeological record.
Early-Mid Holocene Archaeobotanical Record of the Southern Coast of Tierra del Fuego
Anna Franch Bach, Centro Austral de Investigaciones Científicas (CADIC-CONICET), Tierra del Fuego, Argentina
Aylen Capparelli, División Arqueología, Facultad de Ciencias Naturales y Museo, Universidad Nacional de la Plata (UNLP), Buenos Aires, Argentina; CONICET
Raquel Piqué, Departament de Prehistòria, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB), Facultat de Filosofia i Lletres, Barcelona, Spain
Atilio Francisco Zangrando, Centro Austral de Investigaciones Científicas (CADIC-CONICET), Tierra del Fuego, Argentina
The Early and Middle Holocene was a key period in the process of human settlement of the Fuegian archipelago, being also a period of several climatic and environmental fluctuations that affected human societies. Analysis of charred woody remains from the oldest layers of Binushmuka I, Túnel I, and Imiwaia I, provides valuable vegetation use and management data during this period. Anthracological studies identified 7 taxa, with Nothofagus pumilio and Berberis sp. being the most abundant of all sites. Túnel I had the highest taxonomic diversity, while Imiwaia I had the lowest. These results indicate differences in plant use and environmental conditions between the sites, contributing to a broader understanding of local vegetation dynamics and human-environment interactions in the Fuegian Archipelago during the Holocene.
A Multidisciplinary Approach to Interpret Human Adaptation to the Semiarid Landscapes of Central Argentina During the Holocene
Pablo G. Messineo, INCUAPA-CONICET, Facultad de Ciencias Sociales, Universidad Nacional del Centro de la Provincia de Buenos Aires, Olavarría, Buenos Aires, Argentina
Nahuel A. Schefler, INCUAPA-CONICET, Facultad de Ciencias Sociales, Universidad Nacional del Centro de la Provincia de Buenos Aires, Olavarría, Buenos Aires, Argentina
Mariela E. Gonzalez, INCUAPA-CONICET, Facultad de Ciencias Sociales, Universidad Nacional del Centro de la Provincia de Buenos Aires, Olavarría, Buenos Aires, Argentina
Florencia Santos Valero, INCUAPA-CONICET, Facultad de Ciencias Sociales, Universidad Nacional del Centro de la Provincia de Buenos Aires, Olavarría, Buenos Aires, Argentina
María Clara Álvarez, Grupo de Estudios Ambientales (GEA), IMASL-CONICET-UNSL, Universidad Nacional de San Luis, San Luis; Facultad de Ciencias Sociales, Universidad Nacional del Centro de la Provincia de Buenos Aires, San Luis, Argentina
Erika Borges Vaz, INCUAPA-CONICET, Facultad de Ciencias Sociales, Universidad Nacional del Centro de la Provincia de Buenos Aires, Olavarría, Buenos Aires, Argentina
The main goal of this work is to present the results of a multidisciplinary approach in order to understand the variability of adaptations developed by hunter-gatherer groups and its relationship with the Holocene paleoenvironmental and paleoclimatic changes that took place in the Central Pampean Dunefields of Argentina. This area is one of the semi-arid environments located in the centre of Pampean plain of Argentina whose main landforms are longitudinal and parabolic dunes that were generated by intense aeolian activity during the Late Pleistocene and at several times during the Holocene. Archaeological sites are usually recorded in the border of permanent and temporary shallow lakes and some of them were occupied recurrently during the Holocene.
In this occasion, we present novel information on several lines of evidence (zooarchaeology, lithic technology, bioarchaeology and DNA, isotopic, geomorphology, geochronology, and paleoecology) generated in recent years on the contexts and materials studied. These original and abundant data allowed us to recognise and discuss the adaptation and historical trajectories of hunter-gatherers in semi-arid environments considering their burials practices, diet, technological continuity and innovations, mobility patterns, and social interactions, among others.
Between Foragers and Farmers: Using Rock Art to Redefine the Prehispanic Agricultural Frontier in Argentina
Agustín Acevedo, CONICET—UTN—IDEVEA
Prof. Danae Fiore, CONICET, Universidad de Buenos Aires, Argentina
This paper analyses the production of rock art as a human response to changes in environmental, social and economic conditions, and focuses on its spatial distribution to discuss the boundary between two different modes of life: foraging and farming in Southern Mendoza (northwest Patagonia, Argentina). Traditionally, it has been proposed that an ‘agricultural frontier’ developed in this region during the second half of the Late Holocene (2,500 years BP onwards). Currently, this scenario has become more complex due to the discovery of evidence of domesticated plant consumption in forager contexts. This paper evaluates the similarities and differences between 89 rock art sites from the Late Holocene, located on both sides of the ‘agricultural frontier’, and the connections between rock art and evidence of domesticated plant consumption. Results show relationships between the spatial dispersion of domesticated plants, painting techniques and complex rectilinear geometric motifs, which are linked to forager groups in southern neighbouring regions. Furthermore, rock art production increased within a time of deep economic and social changes, which include the incorporation of domesticated plants. Thus, the rock art record challenges the traditional idea of an ‘agricultural frontier’, showing that past societies inhabiting the region were more complex than previously known.