César Méndez

Initial Occupation of the Pacific Coast of Chile during Late Pleistocene Times

The record of the initial settlement of South America has significant geographical gaps, especially along the Pacific coast. The study of small sites with brief occupation spans can open windows on high‐resolution contexts in which associations and activities are clear. Through the use of a program designed to identify lacustrine Pleistocene environments in which the initial human populations would presumably have settled, Quebrada Santa Julia, a site attesting to human presence dating to 13,000 calibrated years BP, has recently been located on the semiarid coast of Chile. It is the only known Paleoindian site with fluted projectile points in unambiguous association with extinct megafauna on the Andean Pacific coast. It represents a small lakeside camp with a brief occupation span in which multiple activities, including the processing of prey transported from a nearby location, were conducted. The present of extralocal lithic raw materials argues for movements into the interior, as has been suggested for other early settlements in the Andean region. Notwithstanding its proximity to the littoral, the site has not yielded any evidence of the exploitation of marine resources.

Poblamiento Paleoindio en el norte-centro de Chile: Evidencias, problemas y perspectivas de estudio

A review of Paleoindian site evidence for northern to central Chile is herein presented, characterizing its contexts, paleoenvironmental frames and cultural relations. Discussion is restricted to cultural contexts associated with extinct fauna and sites yielding lithic instruments typologically diagnostic of the period. Evidences and its cultural associations, interpretive issues at a regional scale, the existence of human occupations before 11.500 B.P. and some approaches for the study of the first Paleoindian settlements in North-Central Chile are discussed.

USO DEL ESPACIO DE CAZADORES RECOLECTORES Y PALEOAMBIENTE HOLOCENO EN EL VALLE DEL RÍO CISNES, REGIÓN DE AISÉN, CHILE

**** Y ANA M. ABARZuA ***** . ABSTRACT This paper presents results on archaeological research conducted at the Cisnes river basin (~44° S), valley which passes through several environments in western Patagonia, from the westernmost limits of the steppe to the Pacific channels. These are assessed in light of a palaeoenvironmental reconstruc - tion spanning from the Late Pleistocene to the Holocene. Results allow interpreting different ways for approaching the environment; these are exposed both spatially and chronologically. Cultural units defined occupied the space discontinuously and ranking it differentially attending to environmental variability. We

Human Remains Directly Dated to the Pleistocene- Holocene Transition Support a Marine Diet for Early Settlers of the Pacific Coast of Chile

ABSTRACT A coastal route for the initial peopling of the Americas has been debated for over 30 years. Nevertheless, evidence supporting this coastal dispersal is often elusive, especially bioanthropological data. Here we report archaeological human remains directly dated to ca. 11,200 cal BP from the semiarid north coast of Chile (31° S), supporting an early settlement along the Pacific Coast. 15N stable isotope analyses of these remains indicate that the individual relied primarily on marine resources, suggesting coastal dwelling rather than seasonal rounds that included sporadic exploitation of littoral resources. When placed in a regional context, our results suggest that marine resources were important to the subsistence of some groups during the Pleistocene-Holocene transition.

CAMPAMENTOS RESIDENCIALES TARDÍOS A CIELO ABIERTO EN EL ALTO RÍO CISNES (REGIÓN DE AISÉN): APPELEG 1 (CIS 009)

We present the results of ongoing research of an open-air site in the upper Cisnes river. Appeleg 1 is a multi- component open air settlement dating to the last 1.500 years that shows a significantly diverse artefact assemblage. We present the context of the site, methods employed for recording and collecting spatial data, and the results of different analysis conducted on recovered material. We discuss some of the issues raised by the dataset and examine the potential of the methodology to investigate other open-air sites.

An Early Holocene task camp (~8.5 ka cal BP) on the coast of the semi-arid north of Chile

According to current thinking, the peopling of South America involved a coastal as well as an inland exploitation. Here the authors describe a camp that may denote a transition between the two. As indicated by bifacial tools, the investigation shows that people began to move inland and hunt mammals around 8500 cal BP, perhaps in association with a change in the climate.

Maritime Hunter-Gatherers in the Chonos Archipelago (43°50’–46°50’ S), Western Patagonian Channels

ABSTRACT This article presents the current advances in archeological research on the Western Patagonian Channels, specifically the Chonos Archipelago (43°50’–46°50’ S). Based on a large spatial scale, we aim to contribute to the discussion of the dispersion and characteristics of the occupation of the Pacific coast of southernmost South America. Results show that all of the contexts recorded do not exceed 3600 cal BP. Site formation processes that may have acted in the preservation of the archeological record of this area led us to question if this region was among the last to be settled (as suggested by current chronological data), or if the dynamic tectonic activity that permanently transforms this coast is playing a major role in concealing earlier evidence, thereby introducing a significant research bias.

Direct Dates and mtDNA of Late Pleistocene Human Skeletons from South America: A Comment on Chatters et al. (2014)

In a recent paper in the journal Science (2014, Vol. 344, pp. 750–754), J. Chatters et al. present a new early human skeleton from the Yucatan, Mexico, considering it in the context of eight other early “Paleoamerican” individuals—all from North America—that previously yielded ancient genetic evidence and/or direct radiocarbon ages. Despite including the archaeological site of Monte Verde II, Chile, in their discussion, we were alarmed that the authors otherwise ignored the South American record, presenting a map with the southern continent being devoid of PaleoAmerican human remains. We felt it important to remind our colleagues that South America has produced numerous directly dated human skeletal remains that are as old as the ones cited by Chatters et al. for North America, and that several of these have actually yielded mitochondrial (mt) DNA. Significant implications can be derived from this radiocarbon, bioanthropological, and mtDNA dataset, especially considering the antiquity of the earliest human populations and process of peopling of the New World. Undoubtedly, the remains recovered from Hoyo Negro (HN5/48) cave by Chatters et al. constitute a significant archaeological discovery, considering how elusive and incomplete early skeletal material for the Americas is. The remains were recovered from an ancient cavern that was available to humans before the end of the Pleistocene, before Postglacial sealevel rise. Fresh bone fractures on the individual suggest a death due to a fall when the cavern was filled with shallow water. Consequently, the Hoyo Negro human skeleton represents a bone assemblage deposited naturally, in a palimpsest with remains of other species that accumulated at different times. As the authors discuss, radiocarbon and uranium–thorium dates on human teeth and bones, extinct faunal remains, and calcite speleothems together indicate the human remains were deposited by 12,000–13,000 cal yr BP. However, the absence of associated cultural remains limits the interpretive value of this significant discovery. Other skeletal remains have been recovered in a nearby flooded cave system known as Cenote Naharon, by a team led by A. González. Among them is a human femur radiocarbon dated to about 13,500 cal yr BP according to its amino-acid fraction, but this date has yet to be replicated, underscoring the problematic nature of dating organic material in these submerged cavern systems. In South America, there are now 23 direct dates on 21 individuals from 13 sites that have yielded ages older than 10,000 cal yr BP (Table 1, Figure 1; for references see “Suggested Reading” after the editorial, as well as the report by L. Menendez et al. in this issue of PaleoAmerica). Among them, four sites have produced direct dates older than 12,000 cal yr BP: Los Rieles in the semiarid north of Chile, Arroyo de Frías in the Pampean region of Argentina, Gruta de Candonga in the Sierra de Córdoba of Argentina, and Toca do Gordo do Garrincho in northeastern Brazil. Los Rieles is a shell midden located upon a high marine terrace where several human burials were excavated by D. Jackson, C. Méndez, and E. Aspillaga. Correspondence to: César Méndez, Ignacio Carrera Pinto 1045, Santiago, Chile. Email: cmendezm@uchile.cl.

TERMINAL PLEISTOCENE LITHIC TECHNOLOGY AND USE OF SPACE IN CENTRAL CHILE

Sintetizamos la evidencia litica de los sitios del Pleistoceno terminal en el centro de Chile (~31-34° S). Los sitios Quebrada Santa Julia, Valiente, Taguatagua 1 y Taguatagua 2 muestran conjuntos diversos, los que no son completamente entendidos a partir de una aproximacion tipologica tradicional. Esta diversidad puede ser mejor explicada como resultado de variaciones en los ritmos de descarte, disponibilidad de materias primas y funcion de sitio. Esta aproximacion permite considerar a las ocupaciones de los cazadores recolectores tempranos como segmentos integrados de un sistema de uso de espacio y movilidad de dos fases en evolucion.

Las ocupaciones humanas del sitio arqueológico de Santa Inés, Laguna de Tagua Tagua, Chile central

The study of archaeological and bioanthropological evidence from the SantaInes site (central Chile), together with new radiocarbon dates available, haveallowed us to define this site as a residential settlement with several occupationalevents associated with funerary practices. The first occupations correspond tomid-to-late Holocene hunter-gatherers, while the last event to the Early CeramicPeriod. Santa Ines presents strong affinities to the Cuchipuy site located in thevicinity. As a whole, they formed part of a settlement pattern clustered along theshoreline of the Tagua Tagua basin and its lake-basin resources.