Late Pleistocene/early Holocene tropical forest occupations at San Isidro and Peña Roja, Colombia

Abstract

Evidence of early occupations by hunter-gatherers in diverse tropical forests is increasing the world over (e.g. Gorman 1971; Pavlides & Gosden 1994), even in America (Roosevelt et al. 1996). This paper reports them in northern South America. Several lines of evidence suggest that many kinds of forests, some or all without modern analogues, existed in the American tropics during glacial times and remained there, with changing composition, until the present. According to evidence presented here, human beings adapted to those forests in northern South America since, at least, the end of the Pleistocene.

The Amazonian Formative: Crop Domestication and Anthropogenic Soils

“…Charles Clement [125,126] discussed the role of practices of edible fruit collecting for domestication processes of different arboreal taxa in Amazonia. Previously mentioned data from the Colombian Amazon and other sites of the 'intermediate area' [127][128][129][130][131][132] leave few doubts about the antiquity of similar practices in the early Holocene. This evidence, on the other hand, does not resolve whether early Holocene occupations reflect sedentary lifestyles [133,134]: it is unlikely that arboriculture alone could have supported year-long sedentism [125,126] and the provocative evidence for early cultivation of allochthonous crops identifies a narrow repertoire [7] that hardly suggests high starch production or year-long cropping.…”

The late Pleistocene cultures of South America

“…The primary examples are populations associated with El Jobo points (Venezuela), fishtail or Magallanes points (various parts of the continent, but mainly the southern half), and Paijan points (Peru and Ecuador) at sites in grasslands, savanna plains, and patchy forests. 8,11,13,25,26,[52][53][54][55][56] Although not welldocumented, the diversity of faunal and, when preserved, floral resources at these sites seems to be generally low, comprising mainly large, nomadic prey. The stone tool technology includes a very low proportion of bifacial tools.…”

Method and Theory of Early Farming: The Orinoco and Caribbean Coasts of South America

“…These few Paleo occupations that have been studied are surprisingly sedentary, to judge by the extended seasons represented by their food plants and animals (Gnecco & Mora, 1997;Roosevelt, 2000;Roosevelt et al, 1996), and at all the sites people appear to have disturbed and selectively altered their habitats. In the Brazilian cave, the continuing occupation created a black Indian soil, and anthropic effects on the forest around the site are suggested by the abundance of terra firme palm remains with less negative stable carbon isotope ratios than those of the carbonized wood of trees in the same site levels.…”

“…In San Isidro and other Colombian sites, also, whole cutting tools of ground or flaked stone, such as axes or adzes/limaces, were left behind with mostly broken flaked tools (Santos Vecino et al, 2015;Gnecco, 2000, pp. 51-56;Gnecco & Mora, 1997). However, abundant, fine flaking debris at sites shows that people were making points but must have been taking them away from sites for use.…”