Mobility and Use of Space in Late Pleistocene South America: Is it Possible to Discuss Early Human Regional Ranking?
Part of: Society for American Archaeology 81st Annual Meeting, Orlando, FL (2016)
Over the past decades significant advances have been achieved in the study of the initial peopling of South America. New sites have been discovered at both known and novel study areas and chronological data has been systematically gathered. However, once we recognize the distribution of sites throughout a landscape, the artifact assemblages, and the remains of the subsistence we must start to inquire what those contexts mean in a regional framework. What does resource selectivity tell us about the economical preferences of the first settlers? When did the earliest patterned movements started? It is possible to discuss spatial redundancy as opposed to places devoid of human presence? In sum, is it possible to discuss the organization of use of space and mobility for the initial stages of exploration of South American landscapes? The aim of this symposium is to bring together researchers working in different regions of South America to discuss use of space for the initial peopling of the continent. Among the main issues to be discussed are settlement models, site or region redundancy and/or avoidance, dispersal routes, procurement of raw materials as pointers of spatial organization, resource choices as indicative of environmental selection, spatial demarcation, and symbolic aspects.
Other Keywords
Early Peopling •
Mobility •
Paleoindian •
Lithic Technology •
Projectile Points •
Stone Tools •
Fishtail Points •
Human Adaptation •
Caches •
Peopling Of The New World
Geographic Keywords
South America
Resources Inside This Collection (Viewing 1-9 of 9)
- Documents (9)
-
Assessing Fishtail projectile point distribution in the Southern Cone (2016)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
This presentation discusses possible causes affecting the distribution of fishtail points in the southern Cone. This distribution is discontinuous, with large territories without diagnostic remains and areas where sites are concentrated. Also, most of the sites with this type of points exhibit few specimens, with remarkable exceptions in Uruguay, the Argentinian Pampa and Patagonia and southern Chile. We will present thoughts arising from long term research in a micro region in the Argentinian...
-
Early coastal occupations in Taltal, Southern Atacama Desert, Chile (2016)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
In this presentation we will discuss recent results on the historical trajectory of hunter-gatherer-fishers from the coast of Taltal, Southern Atacama Desert, Chile. We will focus on the Early Holocene period (around ca. 11.500 – 10.000 cal BP) which includes several logistical occupations in rock-shelters and an open-air pigment mine. Our research aims to understand geographical and climatic conditions during the early human occupation of the area and its relation to human mobility and...
-
The early peopling and use of space during the colonization of Southeast of South America (2016)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
Research on the early occupation in the Southern Cone has turned its attention to a particular type of diagnostic artifact: the Fishtail points. Archaeological excavations conducted in Uruguay over the last 15 years have allowed indicating the presence of a cultural tradition of bifacial stemmed points, represented by at least three distinct cultural groups defined on the basis of different projectile points types: Fishtail (12,800- 12,200 calibrated yr BP), Tigre (12,000-11,200 calibrated yr...
-
Human ranking of spaces and the role of caches: case studies from the south of Patagonia (Argentina) (2016)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
Storage of artifacts is a common behavior among hunter-gatherers. Archaeologically, caches have been identified in different places. In this paper, we focus on the discussion of the role of caches recovered in two different environments in southern Patagonia: the southern end of the Deseado Massif and the upper Santa Cruz river basin. In the first case, two caches, attributed to the colonization of this environment have been identified, while in the second case, the cache recovered would...
-
The initial peopling of continental Aisén: New data from Cueva de la Vieja (2016)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
This paper summarizes recent research conducted at Cueva de la Vieja site (BN15; 45°16’27’’ S; 71°32’24’’ W, 718 masl) in the Ñirehuao basin, Aisén, Chile, targeted at characterizing aspects of the initial peopling of Central Western Patagonia. Systematic stratigraphic excavations at this small cave yielded material evidence for human activities starting at 12,000 calibrated years BP and ever since redundant occupations at the same locale. Site formation processes are described and discussed in...
-
Lithic Technology and the use of Space during the Late Pleistocene-Early Holocene transition in Imilac and Punta Negra basins, Atacama Desert (24,5°S) (2016)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
Despite its extreme aridity, the Atacama Desert (18-25ºS) was not a biogeographical barrier during the period concerned with the early peopling of the area and of other regions in South America (12.6 ka). The Imilac and Punta Negra (24ºS) high altitude basins, located in the Precordillera of the Andes (3000 masl), are among the few micro-regions of the Atacama Desert which were continually occupied during the Late Pleistocene to Early Holocene transition (12.6-10.2 ka). Results from the analyses...
-
The missing middle: New efforts to understand early inter-zonal connections in the Peruvian Central Andes (2016)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
In southern Peru our group is investigating a Paleoindian settlement system with linked sites situated in diverse ecological zones and exhibiting vastly different subsistence adaptations. This system encompasses one of the earliest coastal fishing settlements in the Americas and high-elevation hunting sites on the Andean plateau. Determining the nature of this and other early inter-zonal connections in adjacent areas is important for identifying routes used to settle Andean South America, with...
-
Mobility and Territoriality in the Early Peopling of Central Brazilian Plateau (2016)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
The occupation of Central Brazilian Plateau between late Pleistocene and early Holocene seems to have privileged as displacement axies the fluvial valleys of the great perennial rivers that crosscut this region. This proposal is based on the existence of sites with similar characteristics, located at great distances, as the Rio Peruaçu (Minas Gerais state) and the Serra da Capivara (Piauí state), connected to the same hidrografic basin, and presenting same occupation chronologies. Throughout...
-
Mobility Strategies between the Atacama Desert and the Lípez Highlands during the Late Pleistocene (2016)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
One of the main constraints limiting understanding late Pleistocene archaeology in South America is the lack of compatible and standardized datasets from scholars working in neighboring countries. Here, we present interdisciplinary collaborative work for discussing the nature of human mobility between the Pacific Coast, the Atacama Desert and the Lípez Highlands of Chile and Bolivia at 21° S. In an attempt to identify mobility strategies by human populations occupying these drastically different...