Nearshore paleoceanogaphic conditions through the Holocene: Shell carbonate from archaeological sites of the Atacama Desert coast

2021 ◽  
Vol 562 ◽  
pp. 110090
Author(s):  
Carola Flores ◽  
Bernardo R. Broitman
Keyword(s):  
Atacama Desert ◽  
Archaeological Sites ◽  
The Holocene ◽  
Shell Carbonate

Processes of Paleoindian site and desert pavement formation in the Atacama Desert, Chile

2020 ◽  
Vol 98 ◽  
pp. 58-80
Author(s):  
Paula C. Ugalde ◽  
Jay Quade ◽  
Calogero M. Santoro ◽  
Vance T. Holliday
Keyword(s):  
Atacama Desert ◽  
Archaeological Site ◽  
Site Formation ◽  
Archaeological Sites ◽  
The Holocene ◽  
Desert Pavement ◽  
The Core ◽  
Lower Limits

AbstractA distinct feature of many of the earliest archaeological sites (13,000-11,200 cal yr BP) at the core of the Atacama Desert is that they lie at or just below the surface, often encased in desert pavements. In this study, we compare these sites and undisturbed desert pavements to understand archaeological site formation and pavement development and recovery. Our results indicate these pavements and their soils are poorly developed regardless of their age. We propose that this is because of sustained lack of rain and extreme physical breakdown of clasts by salt expansion. Thus, the core of the Atacama provides an example of the lower limits of rainfall (<50 mm/yr) needed to form desert pavements. At site Quebrada Maní 12 (QM12), humans destroyed the pavement. After abandonment, human-made depressions were filled with eolian sands, incorporating artifacts in shallow deposits. Small and medium-sized artifacts preferentially migrated upwards, perhaps due to earthquakes and the action of salts. These artifacts, which now form palimpsests at the surface, helped – along with older clasts - to restore surface clast cover. Larger archaeological features remained undisturbed on top of a deeper Byzm horizon. The vesicular A horizons (Av horizons) have not regenerated on the archaeological sites due to extreme scarcity of rainfall during the Holocene.

scholarly journals Fishing during the early human occupations of the Atacama Desert coast: what if we standardize the data?

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (9) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sandra Rebolledo ◽  
Philippe Béarez ◽  
Débora Zurro
Keyword(s):  
Regional Analysis ◽  
Atacama Desert ◽  
Coastal Communities ◽  
Archaeological Sites ◽  
Common Component ◽  
Exploratory Approach ◽  
Data Heterogeneity ◽  
Terminal Pleistocene ◽  
Methodological Approaches ◽  
Early Human

Abstract The Atacama Desert coast (18–30° S) presents one of the earliest chronologies in the South America region, whose first occupations date from ~ 13,000 cal BP. Since that time, coastal and marine resources have been a common component at sites along the littoral zone. Fish species have been particularly important, as have the fishing technologies developed and used by the coastal communities. However, even though several archaeological sites have been studied, there is no systematic macro-regional analysis of early fisheries along the Atacama Desert coast. Furthermore, differences in theoretical and methodological approaches, as well as research objectives, hinder comparisons between ichthyoarchaeological assemblages. Here, we present a comparative analysis of the Atacama Desert fish data obtained from publications and gray literature from ten archaeological sites dating from the Terminal Pleistocene to the Early Holocene. Through the standardization of contextual and ichthyoarchaeological information, we compared data using NISP, MNI, and weight to calculate fish density, richness, and ubiquity, in order to identify similarities and differences between assemblages. This exploratory approach aims to contribute to studies of fish consumption in the area, as well as proposing new methodological questions and solutions regarding data heterogeneity in archaeozoology.

scholarly journals Pre-Columbian transregional captive rearing of Amazonian parrots in the Atacama Desert

2021 ◽  
Vol 118 (15) ◽  
pp. e2020020118
Author(s):  
José M. Capriles ◽  
Calogero M. Santoro ◽  
Richard J. George ◽  
Eliana Flores Bedregal ◽  
Douglas J. Kennett ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Context ◽  
Atacama Desert ◽  
Archaeological Sites ◽  
Exchange Networks ◽  
Carbon And Nitrogen ◽  
Intermediate Period ◽  
The Andes ◽  
Ara Macao ◽  
Bird Guano ◽  
Captive Rearing

The feathers of tropical birds were one of the most significant symbols of economic, social, and sacred status in the pre-Columbian Americas. In the Andes, finely produced clothing and textiles containing multicolored feathers of tropical parrots materialized power, prestige, and distinction and were particularly prized by political and religious elites. Here we report 27 complete or partial remains of macaws and amazon parrots from five archaeological sites in the Atacama Desert of northern Chile to improve our understanding of their taxonomic identity, chronology, cultural context, and mechanisms of acquisition. We conducted a multiproxy archaeometric study that included zooarchaeological analysis, isotopic dietary reconstruction, accelerated mass spectrometry radiocarbon dating, and paleogenomic analysis. The results reveal that during the Late Intermediate Period (1100 to 1450 CE), Atacama oasis communities acquired scarlet macaws (Ara macao) and at least five additional translocated parrot species through vast exchange networks that extended more than 500 km toward the eastern Amazonian tropics. Carbon and nitrogen stable isotopes indicate that Atacama aviculturalists sustained these birds on diets rich in marine bird guano-fertilized maize-based foods. The captive rearing of these colorful, exotic, and charismatic birds served to unambiguously signal relational wealth in a context of emergent intercommunity competition.

Marine Communities in the Atacama Desert

2020 ◽  
pp. 39-73
Author(s):  
Calogero M. Santoro ◽  
Victoria Castro ◽  
Chris Carter ◽  
Daniela Valenzuela
Keyword(s):  
Atacama Desert ◽  
Archaic Period ◽  
Marine Resources ◽  
Northern Chile ◽  
Spanish Conquest ◽  
The Holocene ◽  
Marine Communities

Chapter 2 reviews ancient maritime communities for the hyperarid coast of northern Chile and southernmost Peru throughout the Holocene, with focus on the mid-Holocene Archaic Period. Two regions represent the exorheic and arheic coasts: Caleta Vitor (9,500 cal BP through the Inca occupation) and Copaco (mostly 7100 to 5200 cal BP), respectively. Despite some signs of increasing complexity, the authors conclude that maritime societies of this region remained relatively egalitarian up to the Spanish Conquest. In this hyperarid region, marine resources were always extremely important.

THE VEGETATIONAL LANDSCAPE OF THE NEGEV DURING ANTIQUITY AS EVIDENT FROM ARCHAEOLOGICAL WOOD REMAINS

1996 ◽  
Vol 44 (2-3) ◽  
pp. 161-179 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nili Liphschitz
Keyword(s):  
Three Dimensional ◽  
Dead Sea ◽  
Species Level ◽  
Dimensional Structure ◽  
Archaeological Sites ◽  
The Holocene ◽  
Three Dimensional Structure ◽  
Archaeological Wood ◽  
Arava Valley

Twenty years of dendroarchaeological investigations in the Negev permit the reconstruction of the vegetational landscape and the macroclimate of the area during antiquity. The research is based on timber identification up to the species level, based on the microscopical three-dimensional structure of the wood. About 5000 wood samples were analyzed. Samples were obtained from 35 archaeological sites located in the northern Negev, central Negev, Arava Valley, and Dead Sea regions, and dated to different periods of time along the archaeological profile. Results show that the same natural arboreal vegetation which today characterizes the different regions of the Negev characterized them also during antiquity, from the PPNA until the Early Arab period. Microclimatic variations, evident from dendrochronological studies available for the region, were too small to cause changes in the arboreal vegetational landscape during the Holocene.

Submerged archaeological sites along the Ionian coast of southeastern Sicily (Italy) and implications for the Holocene relative sea-level change

2008 ◽  
Vol 70 (1) ◽  
pp. 26-39 ◽  
Author(s):  
Giovanni Scicchitano ◽  
Fabrizio Antonioli ◽  
Elena Flavia Castagnino Berlinghieri ◽  
Andrea Dutton ◽  
Carmelo Monaco
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Sea Level ◽  
Sea Level Change ◽  
Archaeological Sites ◽  
Relative Sea Level ◽  
The Holocene ◽  
Archaeological Data ◽  
Level Change ◽  
Direct Observations ◽  
Uplift Rates

AbstractPrecise measurements of submerged archaeological markers in the Siracusa coast (Southeastern Sicily, Italy) provide new data on relative sea-level change during the late Holocene. Four submerged archaeological sites have been studied and investigated through direct observations. Two of them are Greek archaic in age (2.5–2.7 ka) and are now 0.98–1.48 m below sea level; the other two developed during the Bronze age (3.2–3.8 ka) and are now 1.03–1.97 m below sea level. These archaeological data have been integrated with information derived from a submerged speleothem collected in a cave located along the Siracusa coast at − 20 m depth. The positions of the archaeological markers have been measured with respect to present sea level, corrected for tide and pressure at the time of surveys. These data were compared with predicted sea-level rise curves for the Holocene using a glacio-hydro-isostatic model. The comparison with the curve for the southeastern Sicily coast yields a tectonic component of relative sea-level change related to regional uplift. Uplift rates between 0.3 and 0.8 mm/yr have been estimated.

Holocene Vegetation History from Fossil Rodent Middens near Arequipa, Peru

2001 ◽  
Vol 56 (2) ◽  
pp. 242-251 ◽  
Author(s):  
Camille A. Holmgren ◽  
Julio L. Betancourt ◽  
Kate Aasen Rylander ◽  
Jose Roque ◽  
Oscar Tovar ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Vegetation History ◽  
Southern Oscillation ◽  
Atacama Desert ◽  
Summer Rainfall ◽  
Plant Macrofossils ◽  
Poor Correlation ◽  
Apparent Difference ◽  
The Holocene ◽  
Middle Holocene ◽  
The Pacific

AbstractRodent (Abrocoma, Lagidium, Phyllotis) middens collected from 2350 to 2750 m elevation near Arequipa, Peru (16°S), provide an ∼9600-yr vegetation history of the northern Atacama Desert, based on identification of >50 species of plant macrofossils. These midden floras show considerable stability throughout the Holocene, with slightly more mesophytic plant assemblages in the middle Holocene. Unlike the southwestern United States, rodent middens of mid-Holocene age are common. In the Arequipa area, the midden record does not reflect any effects of a mid-Holocene mega drought proposed from the extreme lowstand (100 m below modern levels, >6000 to 3500 yr B.P.) of Lake Titicaca, only 200 km east of Arequipa. This is perhaps not surprising, given other evidence for wetter summers on the Pacific slope of the Andes during the middle Holocene as well as the poor correlation of summer rainfall among modern weather stations in the central Andes-Atacama Desert. The apparent difference in paleoclimatic reconstructions suggests that it is premature to relate changes observed during the Holocene to changes in El Niño Southern Oscillation modes.

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