Late Pleistocene subsistence and settlement during the initial human colonization of southern South America: Faunal evidence of Cueva Lago Sofía 1 and Tres Arroyos 1, southern Patagonia

Abstract

ABSTRACT Archeological findings in central and southern Patagonia indicate that highly mobile hunter–gatherers swiftly settled in the cold and treeless late‐Pleistocene steppes as early as 13 000 cal a BP. In southern Patagonia, the faunal assemblages from these initial sites have helped clarify taxonomic issues, explore the timing of megafaunal extinction, and reconstruct the paleoecological dynamics involving extinct and extant taxa and humans. Nonetheless, essential aspects such as subsistence strategies and the mobility of these early inhabitants have been less thoroughly studied. This paper offers a detailed zooarchaeological and taphonomic analysis of the faunal remains from late Pleistocene archeological sites Cueva Lago Sofía 1 in the Última Esperanza area and Tres Arroyos 1 rock shelter in northern Tierra del Fuego. We identified at least 17 taxa, including both extinct and living species; taphonomic evidence suggests that Canidae and Camelidae were the primary groups exploited. Extinct taxa probably served as supplementary resources. We propose that Cueva Lago Sofía 1 functioned as a logistic camp for animal processing, while the faunal evidence from Tres Arroyos 1 aligns with a small base camp that was recurrently occupied. The results are compared with other contemporary sites in Patagonia and discussed in the context of human exploration models and spatial usage proposed for the region.

Affiliated Institutions

• Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile CL
• Universidad Bernardo O'Higgins CL

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