Peopling in the Southernmost South America: the case of Northern Tierra del Fuego

SALEMME, MÓNICA

Saltillo, México

Simposio; III Simposio Internacional “El Hombre Temprano en América”; 2006

Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia y Museo del Desierto

Peopling in the Southernmost South America: the case of Northern Tierra del Fuego. Mónica Salemme1 1.Centro Austral de Investigaciones Científicas (CONICET) y Universidad Nacional de la Patagonia, Sede Ushuaia. Bernardo Houssay 200, V9410BFD Ushuaia. E-mail: monica.salemme@gmail.com Definitive deglaciation began during the Late Glacial in Southern Patagonia and Tierra del Fuego. Two geoclimatic episodes are remarkable during this period related with the human peopling of this area: the “Antarctic Cold Reversal” was a short cold stage occurred in Southern Hemisphere between 15.0 and 12.5 ka cal. B.P., and the “Younger Dryas”, which took place between 13.0 and 11.5 cal. ka B.P. Both episodes show a short overlapping, preceded by the the ACR in two millenia. The available evidence allow to infer that the climatic conditions during the Late Glacial were dominated by the climatic signal of ACR, then the earliest peopling would have occurred under colder and drier conditions than the present ones. Pleistocene- Holocene transition has been a critical time for the dispersal of human societies all over South America. 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, during the Early Holocene. However, Northern Tierra del Fuego was definitively populated by the beginning of the Middle Holocene (ca. 6.2 ka cal. B.P.). Following archaeological and palaeoenvironmental data (palynological, faunal, sedimentological and glaciological information), as well as radiocarbon datings, it is proposed that independent peopling entries would have occurred both through the Atlantic and Pacific facades, and that the Andean foothills, as well as Tierra del Fuego Island were colonized much later, only when the available spaces allowed it.