CLIMATE, MAIZE AGRICULTURE AND HUMAN DIET IN SOUTH AMERICA MID LATITUDE: STABLE ISOTOPES IN HUMAN BONES

GIL, A; DURÁN, V.; CORTEGOSO, V.; NEME, G.; ROJO, L.; NOVELLINO, P

VALDIVIA, CHILE

Simposio; PAGES 2010 II International symposium "Reconstructing Climate Variations in South America and the Antarctic Peninsula over the last 2000 years"; 2010

PAGES-CANTRO DE ESTUDIOS CIENTIFICOS (VALDIVIA, CHILE)

The human paleoecological perspective can provide information about simple societies in pre Hispanic times. In this sense we can try to understand some aspect of the human strategies and the relationship with environmental and climatic change from this record. This paper explores the development, significance and variation of maize consumption between human societies in arid environments at different altitudinal levels during the last 2000 years. Bone collagen and bone apatite stable isotope signatures covary with reliance on maize, facilitating useful reconstructions of past diet. Stable isotopes in archaeological human bones (ä13C, ä15N and ä18O) from mid latitude west South America (30°-40° SL) is presented in order to characterize the diet. The results show meaningful temporal and spatial variation on maize consumption significance during the late Holocene. The relationship between these variations in human diet with paleoclimate trends is discussed. The paleo-environmental records from late Holocene suggest environmental variations in the Andes and in eastern lowlands. Evidence of re-advanced glaciers show climate variability in the region. In order to understand the landscape evolution and the relationship between human strategies and climate this case is a good opportunity to understand the development of maize farming and its variability in arid-semiarid landscape. The region is a pre Hispanic boundary of maize record and in this sense it is a case to understand the way to incorporate or not maize in the human diet. The case is compared with information from the Great Basin (North America) in order to explore a more general pattern about the maize consumption and climate during the Holocene.