Holocene climate change and human settlement on the semiarid coast of Chile (32ºS)
by
Antonio Maldonado
Centro de Estudios Avanzados en Zonas Aridas, La Serena, Chile
Coauthors: Donald Jackson (Departamento de Antropología, Facultad de Ciencias Sociales, Universidad de Chile, Chile)

There are very few localities in Chile with complete records of human occupation during the Holocene. One exception is along the semiarid coast of north-central Chile (~32ºS) where more than 200 archaeological sites has been found along 20 km of coastline. The additional presence of local swamp forests also enables us to reconstruct the vegetation history and climate of this region.

To date we have developed pollen records from the swamp forests at Ñague (31º50ºS) and Palo Colorado (32º05'S). Pollen evidence indicates dominance by swamp forest taxa during the early Holocene, which was then replaced by desert scrub by ca. 8600 yr BP suggesting more arid conditions. Moisture began to gradually build up starting at ~5700 yr BP, with an important wet pulse around ~4200 yr BP. Modern climate was established afterwards, with relatively minor oscillations until the present.

Human settlements during the Holocene in this region are clearly related to these important climate events as their cultural aspects change in relative synchrony with palaeoclimate. Archaeological records from the vicinity of our pollen sites display the following cultural sequence: paleoindian occupation based on subsistence hunting of extinct fauna coexisted at ~11,500 years AP with the first coastal settlements specialized in gathering marine (Huentelauquén Complex). Between ~8600 and 4400 yr BP, the region was occupied intermittently by hunter-gatherers with a wide range of lifestyles, capable of seasonally exploiting marine resources as a way of buffering the lack of resources available inland during times of intense drought. About ~4400 years AP, when the climate became more favourable, the same groups began to occupy the coast in permanent settlements, moving occasionally along the coastline.

Fondecyt #3040032; Fondecyt #1030585

Date received: November 19, 2004

Copyright © 2004 by the author(s). The author(s) of this document and the organizers of the conference have granted their consent to include this abstract in Atlas Conferences Inc. Document # caod-35.