The initial human settlement of Northwest South America during the Pleistocene/Holocene transition: Synthesis and perspectives

Abstract

The northwestern corner of South America, represented by the current territory of Colombia, is a key region to assess some relevant issues linked with the initial human peopling of the area, including population dispersals, cultural diversity, and early adaptations to the changing environmental conditions experienced by lowland and highland north-Andean Neotropical ecosystems at the Pleistocene/Holocene transition. The aim of this paper is to present a synthesis of the archaeological research about early peopling carried out in Northwest South America during the last four decades. Specifically, it will focus on the adaptive strategies and the cultural diversity patterns exhibited by the early hunter-gatherer groups that entered the region since late Pleistocene times. The classic ideas about the time of arrival of the first settlers, the dispersal routes, the incidence of the climate change in on the rate of dispersal and colonization of different habitats, and the role of the megafauna in the subsistence will be reviewed, prior to the formulation of new hypotheses about the meaning of the apparent intraregional diversity of the archaeological record and the evolution of economic strategies over time.

Introduction

Due to its geographical position and its high environmental diversity, Northwest South America-mostly corresponding to the current Colombian territory-is a crucial area to address the issue of the timing, pattern, and process of early human colonization of South America at the Pleistocene/Holocene transition (ca. 12,000–8000 BP). Much of the current knowledge about the Pleistocene archaeological record from this area is owed to the intense archaeological and paleoenvironmental research carried out by G. Correal and his associates since the late 1960s to the early 1990s, particularly focused on the Sabana de Bogotá (Eastern Andes Cordillera) (Correal and van der Hammen, 1977; Hurt et al., 1977; Correal, 1979, Correal, 1981, Correal, 1986; Ardila, 1991). With few exceptions, after the latter date the interest in the study of the early peopling of Northwest South America somewhat waned, notwithstanding the fact that over the last two decades the execution of several research projects in different regions of the Colombian territory have contributed to substantially increase the number of findings and data corresponding to Early Holocene times (Salgado, 1988–1990; Cavelier et al., 1995; Gnecco and Mora, 1997; López, 1999; Gnecco, 2000; Mora, 2003; Mora and Gnecco, 2003; Cano, 2004; Aceituno and Castillo, 2005; Aceituno and Loaiza, 2007; Santos, 2010). The particular history of the Paleoindian research in Colombia and the current lack of a coherent program specifically aimed at obtaining information about the settlement patterns and adaptive strategies of early populations, make necessary a thorough and critical review of the available evidence in order to identify the major empirical and interpretive problems that any contemporary archaeological approach to the issue must face. In such a context, the aim of this paper is to present a general view of the Paleoindian record of Northwest South America corresponding to the Pleistocene/Holocene transition, particularly focusing on current knowledge about the different adaptive strategies implemented by early hunter-gatherer groups, the way in which such differences can be explained by environmental factors, and the differential pattern of occupation of highlands and lowlands across the entire region. It is intended to complement a recent paper (Delgado-Burbano et al., in press) that addresses the strengths and weaknesses of the regional radiocarbon database, as part of an effort to lay down the foundations for future research on the early colonization of the Colombian territory.