Pre-European Plant Consumption and Cultural Changes in the Coastal Lluta Valley, Atacama Desert, Northern Chile (Ca. 5140–390 Cal Yr BP)

MODELING LONG-TERM HUMAN POPULATION DYNAMICS USING KERNEL DENSITY ANALYSIS OF 14C DATA IN THE ATACAMA DESERT (18º–21ºS)

“…The Archaic period population reaches its highest density between 5300 and 3600 cal BP, which coincides with the first evidence for the domestication of plants among foragers reported for the coast and the valleys, although the addition of these plants did not majorly alter the consumption patterns of these populations (García et al 2020). The gradual population growth from 3000 cal BP onwards, during the forager–farmer transition (Late Archaic–Early Formative), is consistent with the hypothesis of locally based cultural change (Muñoz et al 2016; Santoro et al 2017).…”

“…The Archaic period population reaches its highest density between 5300 and 3600 cal BP, which coincides with the first evidence for the domestication of plants among foragers reported for the coast and the valleys, although the addition of these plants did not majorly alter the consumption patterns of these populations (García et al 2020). The gradual population 10 P Mendez-Quiros et al…”

Pre-Columbian cultivation of vegetatively propagated and fruit tree tropical crops in the Atacama Desert

“…In contrast, towards the south where runoff was seasonally constrained and perhaps involved high year-to-year variance, intensified agriculture could not occur within the intermittent river valleys. In the coast and western valleys of northern Chile, semi-sedentary maritime societies with significant social complexity persisted throughout the Holocene, and although they regularly utilized non-food inland resources, engagement with agriculture did not occur until the Late Holocene (Roberts et al, 2013;Standen et al, 2018Standen et al, , 2021McRostie et al, 2019;García et al, 2020;Ugalde et al, 2021). Starting approximately 3,100 years ago, an emergence of villages, fields and cemeteries, often composed of burial mounds in valleys such as Azapa, Chaca, and Camarones, signals the advent of fully agricultural societies (Focacci and Erices, 1973;Núñez and Santoro, 2011;Muñoz Ovalle, 2012, 2017Barba et al, 2015;Carter, 2016).…”

“…The Atacama Desert of northern Chile is a unique region for the study of agricultural adoption processes. Here between the second and first millenium before the present era, societies primarily focused on the exploitation of marine resources from the highly productive Pacific coast began to adopt the cultivation of different complex of introduced domesticated plants throughout the Desert (García et al, 2020;Bessega et al, 2021;Ugalde et al, 2021). The evidence of these processes is constituted by uniquely preserved archaeobotanical materials including dried tissues of different anatomical parts such as tubers, roots, fruits, and others, thanks to prevailing hyper-arid conditions rarely present in other regions.…”