Geoarchaeological approaches: Assessing the formation and preservation of a Late Pleistocene Drowned terrestrial site on the Pacific coast of South America (Chile)

Summary

GNL Quintero 1 (GNLQ1) is a Late Pleistocene paleontological submerged site located in Quintero Bay (32º46’S), ~50 km north of Valparaíso, on the Pacific coast of Central Chile. We describe the geoarchaeological approach applied by combining geomorphological, bathymetrical, sedimentological and paleontological data with a digital simulation model. The resulting evidence indicates that the unit containing the extinct bone assemblage (Unit 2) was deposited in a low-energy fluvial sedimentary environment, possibly a shallow floodplain where wetlands were formed in a semiarid climate. This Unit is interbedded between two coastal units related to a marine regression-transgression cycle. The underlying marine layer is much older than GNLQ1 site, while the overlaying layer corresponds to a postglacial transgressive unit. Digital simulation modelling considering regional uplift rates information suggests that a significant part of Quintero Bay was exposed and GNLQ1 site would have been located a few kilometres inland from the paleo-shoreline. The characteristics of the depositional environment and the geomorphological context favored the formation and survival of an extremely well preserved faunal assemblage. GNLQ1 provides the first unambiguous evidence for the Pacific coast of South America that this record can survive in situ and be located trough underwater investigation.

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This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• The Geoarchaeology of Submerged, Intertidal, And Wetland Places: Advances In Method And Theory of Prehistoric Archaeology Underwater 2015 -- Part 2   •
• Society for American Archaeology 80th Annual Meeting, San Francisco, CA (2015)

Keywords

Spatial Coverage