Cueva Huenul 1 Archaeological Site (Northwestern Patagonia, Argentina): Initial Colonization and mid-Holocene Demographic Retraction

R. BARBERENA

Latin American Antiquity

Society for American Archaeology

Lugar: New York; Año: 2015 vol. 26 p. 304 - 318

1045-6635

In this paper I present an intensively dated chrono-stratigraphic sequence for Cueva Huenul 1 archaeological site (Neuquén Province, Argentina), located in the inland deserts of northwestern Patagonia, which offers a remarkable temporal record of events for a desert region largely unstudied. Then, I connect this local record with available data in a macro-regional scale to reassess (a) the timing of first human colonization and its implications for explaining the extinction of the megafauna (~14000-10000 years B.P.); and (b) the decreased intensity of human occupation recorded at several South American deserts during segments of the mid-Holocene (~8000-6000 years B.P.). The data presented here shows a ~1500 calendar years gap between humans and megafauna. A review of the evidence from northern Patagonia and southern Cuyo regions is consistent with this record, favoring ecological causes for regional extinction of megafauna taxa. Integration of this record with those indicating the earliest human presence in South America (v.g. Monte Verde locality) is consistent with a process of human radiation to the inland Patagonian deserts from nodes of initial occupation. The chrono-stratigraphic sequence from CH1 also contributes to an assessment of a trough in human occupation along the South American Arid Diagonal around 8000-6000 years B.P. This low-intensity record includes the highland and lowland deserts from southern Mendoza, northern Mendoza and San Juan, the Puna region from northwestern Argentina, the Atacama Desert in Chile, and the possible case of the Pampean region. Previous researchers have suggested that persistent arid conditions would have produced an increasing process of landscape fragmentation affecting desert areas in particular. A more specific understanding of the underlying demographic processes behind this archaeological signal is needed. In this paper I suggest that this trough reflects not only spatial and organizational rearrangements, but also a macro-regional demographic retraction, which could have produced a population bottleneck with lasting biological and cultural spin-offs.