Poblamiento, movilidad y territorios entre las sociedades cazadoras-recolectoras de Patagonia: cambios desde la transición Pleistoceno/Holoceno al Holoceno medio

1. MIOTTI, LAURA Y MÓNICA SALEMME

Complutum

Universidad Complutense de Madrid

Lugar: Madrid; Año: 2004 vol. 15 p. 177 - 206

1131-6993

Pleistocene-Holocene transition has been a critical time for the dispersal of human societies all over South America. In fact, people looking for places to settle had to accept high environmental variability during the colonizing process. The case for this paper is Patagonia (Southern South America), where the oldest datings (ca. 13-10.5 ka BP) have been obtained for the peopling; the three mains spots are: 1)the Western Andean Basins, 2) the Deseado River Basin and 3) Magellan Basin ?Northern of Tierra del Fuego included-, as well. Following archaeological and palaeoenvironmental data (palynological, faunal, sedimentological and glaciological information), as well as radiocarbon datings, a hypothesis about the colonization of Patagonia is presented herein. Analyzing the ways and time of colonization for this region, it is remarkable the coincidence of these ages in the center of the steppe and close to the Magellan Strait, even in the present Tierra del Fuego island, though the eastern Andean foothills seems to be occupied at least two millennia later. It is proposed that independent peopling entries would have occurred both through the Atlantic and Pacific facades, and that the Andean foothills were colonized much later, only when the available spaces allowed it. The archaeological and paleoenvironmental landscapes seem had changed about Mid Holocene, where all Patagonic space occurences colonized by hunter-gatherers highly mobiles.