The bow and arrow in South America

An earlier introduction of bow-and-arrow in southernmost Patagonia? firing experiments, survival curve models, and geometric morphometric methods to evaluate the use of Fell IV points as arrowheads

“…700 BP the bow-and-arrow technology (including a new point design, e.g. Fell V points) are well established.Many recent studies have pointed out the introduction of bow-and-arrow earlier than previously thought in different contexts and subsistence systems (from foraging to agropastoralism) across South America, such as the Lake Titicaca Basin (Peru), northern Chile, northwest (NOA) and central-western Argentina, and southeastern and southern Brazil(Castro et al, 2018(Castro et al, , 2021De Souza, 2011;Hocsman, 2010;Kitchel et al, 2022;Marsh et al, 2023;Okumura, 2015;Okumura & Araujo, 2015; Ratto, 2003, among others). In all these contexts (excepting Brazil) the changes in hunting technology had been associated with major social and economic shifts related to the transition from societies based on a hunter gatherer subsistence to food producing economies (horticulture, agropastoralism and agriculture) (De Souza, 2011;Castro et al, 2021;Hocsman, 2010;Marsh et al, 2023;Ratto, 2003).…”

“…Ona or Selk'nam bows and arrows were common artifacts collected by explorers, naturalists, scienti c expeditions, commercial companies, priests, and ethnographers who visited Tierra del Fuego during the 19th and 20th centuries (see a summary inCharlin et al, 2016). Unlike most groups on the continent, the Ona did not use composite arrows(Marsh et al, 2023).…”

“…), represents a major analytical challenge for archaeologists(Kitchel et al, 2022) and different explanations of these changes have been proposed. On the Andean Altiplano (Titicaca Lake basin) it has been suggested that archery technology played a crucial role in driving socioeconomic changes before major dietary shifts and sedentarization(Kitchel et al, 2022).In the macroregion between 29-37°S, in the central-west of Argentina, current data exhibit a geographic and chronological pattern from north to south in the introduction of bow-and-arrow technology(Castro & Marsh, 2018;Castro et al, 2018Castro et al, , 2021Marsh et al, 2023). The northern sector located at 29° S shows the earliest arrow point slightly after 3080 cal.…”