Human Responses to Holocene Aridization South of the Atacama Desert (31° to 32° S), the Meaning of Differences in Landscape Use

Summary

The geographical band between 31°-32° S, from the Pacific to the Andes, lies in the southernmost part of the Semi-Arid North of Chile, south of the Atacama Desert. Multidisciplinary research to the north and south of the Choapa River’s mouth is uneven, thereby in need of new data for understanding the relative intensity of the human traces across the landscape and the human interactions with environmental changes. Currently, the combined pollen records in the coast and highlands indicate arid phases between 7,800-6,200 and 3,500-2,200 cal BP. Though the archaeological radiocarbon record spans the Holocene, changes in its distribution across the landscape coincide with these time intervals and with other minor changes. The few excavations in rockshelters north of the Choapa River’s mouth have yielded dates on features and bioarchaeological material precisely within specific time gaps of the nearly-continuous record south of this area, built on coastal shell-middens and inland open-air sites. These preliminary collations posit sampling biases versus climate change as alternative mechanisms influencing the past human spatial distributions. Assessing human responses to environmental change in the margins of the desert should prove useful for the broader understanding of landscape use and its variation throughout the Holocene. FONDECYT #1170408; #1140837.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Evolutionary Adaptations and Population History of the Atacama Desert   •
• Society for American Archaeology 82nd Annual Meeting, Vancouver, BC (2017)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 15106