Pristine Forests of Southern Chile? Evidence for a Millennium of Anthropogenic Woodlands

Summary

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

The relevance of the temperate forests of South America (35°S–55°S) have been acknowledged in ecological and biodiversity terms. Although evidence of human settlements in this vast territory goes back to ∼14,600 cal yr BP, these forests are commonly referred to as pristine or natural environments. In Southern Chile, paleoenvironmental studies indicate that although native forests have experienced major disturbance since the Spanish arrival, significant areas of native forest were burned during prehispanic times. This paper explores the use of forest resources and forest disturbance through archaeobotanical data from archaeological sites of the Ceramic period of Southern Chile until the early Hispanic colonial period (1550–450 cal BP). During this period, the record suggests land use intensification in relation to population growth, the propagation of agriculture, animal keeping, and metalworking. Through the analysis of wood charcoal, I focus on discussing how the intensification of crop production and livestock management maintained a mosaic of open fields and woodlands. I aim to contribute to understandings of the long history of human inhabitation of the temperate forest and how it shaped what today is still addressed as a natural environment.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

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

Keywords

Spatial Coverage

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 37246.0