No abstract

The role and extent of climate as a cause of the expansion and decline of human cultures is still debatable. It is clear, however, that human-environment interactions are enhanced and interplay more closely in climatically sensitive areas such as around hydrologically closed basins. Lago Cardiel is located at 498 S in the very arid rain shadow east of the Andes, providing an exceptionally receptive system to changes in hydrological balance. Results of a geophysical survey combined with sedimentological and geochemical studies provide a continuous Lateglacial-Holocene record of substantial water-level changes. These variations, combined with archaeological results from the catchment area, offer a unique possibility to explore the pattern of peopling within this remote area of the globe and its possible relation to climate change. Human occupation in Patagonia is well documented towards the Andes throughout the entire Holocene. Archaeological data from the Lago Cardiel basin, however, show an apparent lack of human activity during the first part of this period, which coincides with well-constrained high lake levels. Our results show an intriguing coincidence between low lake level and increasing human occupation, suggesting that the Lago Cardiel basin has focused human use during intervals with relatively lower effective moisture such as during the Late Pleistocene, but its evidence may have been submerged. This interpretation is confirmed by archaeological remains from Lago Strobel, another perennial lake with a comparable catchment located in the same climatic region and thus sharing the same climatic history as Lago Cardiel.

We use published zooarchaeological evidence to discuss the various hypotheses concerning the past distribution of huemuls in Patagonia, southern South America. We then use these data to evaluate the interactions between this cervid and hunter-gatherers during the Holocene. The zooarchaeological record shows that huemul mainly inhabited forested and forest-steppe ecotonal environments during the Holocene. Huemul were hunted in exceptional circumstances during the early occupation of Patagonia. Its presence in the zooarchaeological record of South Patagonia increases after 9500 BP and is more frequent after 2200 BP. However, the taxonomic contribution of the species' bone remains to the archaeological record is always low. The few assemblages where there are a high number of huemul bones would have been the result of opportunistic hunting episodes. This in turn suggests that hunting of huemul had little or no influence on the animal's regional distribution over time. However, the progressively greater human presence in some forested areas towards the end of the Holocene could have affected huemul populations at the local scale. The zooarchaeological information presented in this paper illustrates interspecific and long-term relationships and, hence, could serve as essential information in future management strategies for huemul in Argentina and Chile.