Assessing the Population History of the Atacama Desert using 3D Geometric Morphometric Methods

Summary

Many scholarly debates in South American archaeology have centered on the discovery and cranial morphology of the earliest inhabitants known as Paleoamericans that predate 8,000 years BP. Although it was initially hypothesized that cranial differences between Paleoamericans and later populations may reflect distinct biological populations or migration patterns that occurred after the initial colonization of South America, recent genetic data show biological continuity throughout the Holocene in western South America. Given that the current archaeological evidence suggests an early and rapid Pacific coastal migration occurred during the colonization of the Americas, and that several early archaeological sites are located along the coast and in the highlands of Chile, our study focused on a skeletal series from the Atacama Desert where several Paleoamerican skeletons have been excavated. Using 3D scanning and geometric morphometric methods, we examined morphological variation among the Paleoamericans and other prehistoric populations of the Atacama Desert covering a 9,000 year temporal sequence. Our results show biological continuity among several groups within our skeletal series from this region, suggesting that gene flow and complex trade networks contributed to the evolutionary adaptations and population history of the Atacama Desert throughout the Holocene.

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): 15003