Reconstructing a Paleoindigenous Communal Space: Living under the Trees in the Atacama Desert, Chile, 12,800–11,200 cal yrs BP

Summary

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Humans arrived in the Atacama Desert 13,000 years ago, facing one of the harshest landscapes on Earth. They settled in a rainless stretch of land with scattered patches of biotic resources fed by rainfall in the Andes. They established social networks with people from different environments, creating essential bonds to maintain viable populations. However, we do not understand how they inhabited this forbidding landscape to make it their home. We propose that, aside from water sources, groves of phreatophyte trees, especially Prosopis, were important when choosing locations for residential camps. These trees not only provided shade and endured droughts, but fostered a more fertile environment by improving soils and attracting fauna. These groves would also have been visible landmarks in an otherwise barren landscape, promoting social aggregation. Based on ethnographic data, taxonomic identifications, and 100 radiocarbon dates on tree stumps, charcoal, and tools associated to Paleoindigenous sites, we propose that the first peoples of the Atacama did not always interact with trees through exploitative ways. We posit that Paleoindigenous peoples of the Atacama made efforts to preserve a specific genus of tree: Prosopis, preferring other species for firewood and tools, transforming Prosopis groves into focal points for inhabiting the Atacama.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts   •
• Society for American Archaeology 88th Annual Meeting, Portland, OR (2023)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 35835.0