Hunter-gatherers, biogeographic barriers and the development of human settlement in Tierra del Fuego

Abstract

Tierra del Fuego represents the southernmost limit of human settlement in the Americas. While people may have started to arrive there around 10 500 BP, when it was still connected to the mainland, the main wave of occupation occurred 5000 years later, by which time it had become an island. The co-existence in the area of maritime hunter-gatherers(in canoes) with previous terrestrial occupants pre-echoes the culturally distinctive groups encountered by the first European visitors in the sixteenth century. The study also provides a striking example of interaction across challenging natural barriers

Porotic hyperostosis and cribra orbitalia in human remains from southern Patagonia

“…Despite the fact that zooarchaeological data and isotopic values show that terrestrial foods constitute the main base of the diet for humans in continental and northern insular areas of southern Patagonia (Borrero and Barberena, 2006;Santiago et al, 2011), marine resources were exploited near the coasts at least seasonally, probably due to the low density of terrestrial mammals (Morello et al, 2012). In fact, although guanaco played a dominant dietary role (Borrero 1986), numerous zooarchaeological evidence of consumption of marine resources in near-coastal sites were reported, including sea mammals such as sea lions (Arctocephalus australis and Otaria flavescens), several species of mussels (e.g.…”

Assessment of an east-west phenotypic variation in body height, body form and body mass among prehistoric hunter-gatherers of Patagonia and Tierra del Fuego, chile

“…BP) and correspond to terrestrial hunter-gatherers, who lived on the pampas (eastern slopes), and exploited modern and extinct fauna (Bird 1993(Bird , 1946Borrero 2002;Borrero and Martin 2012;Martin et al 2015;Massone 1989Massone , 2004McCulloch and Morello 2005). After the Last Glacial Maximum, a gradual rise in sea levels resulted in a shoreline modification (12,000-8,000 BP) that led to the establishment of modern marine environments (Borrero 1999;McCulloch et al 2005;Morello et al 2012). By 7,000 cal.…”

“…Thus, two divergent adaptations, canoe-marine and pedestrianterrestrial hunter gatherers, were already established by the Middle Holocene. In addition to these two adaptations, archaeological sites reveal the presence of groups with mixed cultural and economic assemblages in fjords, channels, interior seas and forest-steppe ecotones (Borrero 2002;Laming-Emperaire et al 1972;Lanata 2002;Legoupil 2003;Morello et al 2012;Orquera et al, 2011;Ortiz-Troncoso 1975;San Román 2014). By the Late Holocene period (< 4,000 cal.…”

“…yrs. BP), and specifically in the last two millennia, a demic expansion without demographic pressure, spatial saturation or significant economic changes, led to an important increase in the number of sites for both marine and terrestrial groups (Borrero 1989;Borrero et al 2011;Morello et al 2012).…”

Materias promas lejanas: Explotación de recursos líticos no locales para la confección de micro-raspadores en el centro de Tierra del Fuego: el caso arqueológico Kami

“…Tal es el caso de la obsidiana verde proveniente del Seno de Otway (Morello et al 2001, Morello et al 2004, que aparece en sitios como Ma 13 y otros, en la zona de Marazzi (Morello et al 2012), Aviles 3 (Santiago 2009), al norte de la isla y Túnel I e Imiwaia en la zona del canal beagle, al sur de la Isla (Orquera y Piana 1999), entre otros.…”