International Journal of South American Archaeology - IJSA

Header
collapse

Cultural Diversity in Late Pleistocene/Early Holocene Populations in Northwest South America and Lower Central America

2017-12-15  Anthony J. Ranere 444 views

Anthony J. Ranere. Temple University, Philadelphia, USA
E-mail address: ranere@temple.edu
https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3294-2185

Carlos E. López. Universidad Tecnológica de Pereira, Colombia
E-mail address: cel@utp.edu.co
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1625-2371

Abstract: Hunter-gatherer populations lived in wildly different geographic settings in the Americas and, not surprisingly, developed a wide range of subsistence, settlement and organizational patterns over time. This variability is evident even looking only at a restricted geographic area - Northwest South America and lower Central America. Distinctive cultural trajectories are already documented at the end of the Pleistocene in some localities, while others remain unexplored at this early period. This article summarizes these regional differences and attempts to account for them in terms of the environmental settings, changing climatic conditions, arrival of new populations and landscape domestication.

Keywords: Lower Central America; Northwest South America; Hunter-gatherers; Late Pleistocene and Early Holocene; Cultural Diversity.

Received 6 May 2007, Accept 21 July 2007, Available online 30 September 2007.

view_pdf.png

 

TypeResearch Article
InformationInternational Journal of South American Archaeology - IJSA, Issue 21, 2025 , pp. 1-9
 CirexiD: http://cirex.id/0840.2912.4861/29812x
Creative Commons

icon_cc.png

 
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution and reproduction, provided the original article is properly cited.
CopyrightCopyright © The Author(s), 2025. Published by Syllaba Press International Inc.

References

Aceituno, Francisco J. 2002a. Ocupaciones Tempranas del Bosque Tropical Subandino en la Cordillera Centro Occidental de Colombia.  Doctoral Thesis, Dpto of Prehistoria de la Universidad Complutense de Madrid. España. Unpublished.

Aceituno, F. J. 2002b. Interacciones fitoculturales en el Cauca Medio durante el Holoceno Temprano y Medio. Arqueología del Área Intermedia 4:89-113. Sociedad Colombiana de Arqueología - Instituto Colombiano de Antropología e Historia, Bogotá.

Barse, William. 2003. Holocene Climate and Human Occupation in the Orinoco. In Under the Canopy: The Archaeology of Tropical Rain Forests, Mercader, Julio (Ed). Pp. 249-270. Rutgers University Press. New Jersey.

Bird, J. B., & R. G. Cooke. 1977. Los Artefactos Mas Antiguos de Panama.  Revista Nacional de Cultura 6:7-31.

Bird, J. B., & R. G. Cooke. 1978. The Occurrence in Panama of Two Types of Paleo-Indian Projectile Points. In Early Man from a Circum-Pacific Perspective, A.L. Bryan (Ed). Pp. 263-272, Occasional Papers No. 1. Department of Anthropology, University of Alberta, Edmonton. Cano, M., C. López & J. Realpe. 2001. Diez Mil Años de Huellas Culturales en los Suelos del Eje Cafetero. Suelos del Eje Cafetero. Proyecto UTP-GTZ, Pereira. Pp. 183-197.

Cavelier, I. & S. Mora (Eds.). 1995. Ambitos y Ocupaciones Tempranas en América Tropical. Fundación Erigaie - ICAN, Bogotá.

Cooke, Richard. 1998. Human Settlement of Central América and Northern South America: 14000-8000BP. Quaternary International. 49-50:177-190.

Correal, G. & Van Der Hammen, T. 1977. Investigaciones Arqueológicas en los Abrigos Rocosos del Tequendama. Banco Popular, Bogotá.

Correal, Gonzalo. 1981. Evidencias Culturales y Megafauna Pleistocénica en Colombia. Fundación de Investigaciones Arqueológicas Nacionales, No. 12, Banco de la República, Bogotá.

Correal, Gonzalo. 1983. Evidencia de Cazadores Especializados en el Sitio de la Gloria, Golfo de Uraba. Revista de la Academia Colombiana de Ciencias Exactas, Fisicas y Naturales 58:77-82.

Correal, Gonzalo. 1986. Apuntes sobre el Medio Ambiente Pleistocénico y el Hombre Prehistórico en Colombia. In New Evidence for the Pleistocene Peopling of the Americas, Alan Bryan (Ed) Pp. 115-131, Center for Study of Early Man, University of

Maine, Orono. Correal, Gonzalo. 1993. Nuevas Evidencias Culturales Pleistocénicas y Megafauna en Colombia. Boletín de Arqueología 8(1):3-12. FIAN, Bogotá.

Dillehay, T. & J. Rossen. 2002. Plant Food and its Implications for the Peopling of the New World: A View from South America. Memoirs of the Academy of Sciences, The First Americans. Number 27. California Academy of Sciences.

Gnecco, Cristóbal. 1994. The Pleistocene/Holocene Boundary in the Northern Andes: An archaeological Perspective. PhD Dissertation, Washington University, Department of Anthropology, Saint Louis. Unpublished Dissertation.

Gnecco, C. & M. Bravo. 1994. Análisis Sintáctico de la Tecnología de Reducción Bifacial en San Isidro, un Sitio de Cazadores-Recolectores del Holoceno Temprano. Boletin Museo del Oro 37:77-96.

Hurt, Wesley. 1977. The Edge-Trimmed Tool Tradition of Northwest South America. Anthropological Papers 61:268-294. Charles E. (Ed). Cleland, Museum of Anthropology, University of Michigan.

Jaimes, Arturo. 1999. Nuevas Evidencias de Cazadores-Recolectores y Aproximación al Uso del Espacio Geográfico en el Noroccidente de Venezuela. Sus Implicaciones en el Contexto Suramericano. Arqueología del Area Intermedia 1:83-120.

López, C. E. 1995. Dispersión de Puntas de Proyectil Bifaciales en la Cuenca Media del Río Magdalena. In Ámbitos y Ocupaciones Tempranas de la América Tropical, I. Cavelier & S. Mora (Eds). Pp. 73-82. Fundación Erigaie-ICAN, Bogotá.

López, C. E. 1998.  Evidences of Late Pleistocene-Early Holocene Occupations in the Tropical Lowlands of the Middle Magdalena Valley. In Advances in the Archaeology of the Northern Andes: In Memory of G. Reichel-Dolmatoff, A. Oyuela & S. Raymond (Eds). University of California, Los Angeles.

López, C. E. 1999. Ocupaciones Tempranas en las Tierras Bajas del Magdalena Medio, Sitio 05-YON-002, Yondó, Antioquia. FIAN, Bogotá.

López, C. E. 2004 Landscape development and the evidence for early human occupation in the inter-Andean tropical lowlands of the Magdalena River, Colombia.  Unpublished Doctoral Dissertation, Department of Anthropology, Temple University, Philadelphia

Mayer-Oakes, W. J. 1986. El Inga: A Paleo-Indian Site in the Sierra of Northern Ecuador.  Transactions of the American Philosophical Society, Volume 76, Part 4.

Morrow Juliet E. 1994. The Organization of Early Paleoindian Lithic Technology in the Confluence Region of the Mississippi, Illinois and Missouri Rivers. Unpublished PhD. Dissertation. Washington University. St. Luis.

Nieuwenhuis, Ch. J. 2002. Traces on TropicalTools: A Functional Study of Chert Artefacts from Preceramic Sites in Colombia. Archaeological Studies Leiden University. The Netherlands.

Otero, H. & G. Santos. 2002. Aprovechamiento de Recursos y Estrategias de Movilidad de los Grupos Cazadores-Recolectores Holocénicos del Magdalena Medio. Boletín de Antropología. Universidad de Antioquia 16(33):100-134.

Pearson, Georges & Richard, Cooke. 2002. The Role of the Panamenian Land Bridge During the Initial Colonization of the Americas. Antiquity 76: 931-932.

Piperno D. & K. Stothert. 2003. Phytolith Evidence for Early Holocene Cucurbita Domestication in South West Ecuador. Science. 299:1054-1057.

Piperno D., A. Ranere, I. Holst & P. Hansell. 2000. Starch Grains Reveal Early Root Crop Horticulture in the Panamenian Tropical Forest. Nature (407): 894-897.

Piperno, D. & D. Pearsall. 1998. The Origins of Agriculture in the Lowland Neotropics. Academic Press. San Diego.

Ranere, A. & R. Cooke. 1991. Paleoindian Occupation in Central American Tropics. In Clovis Origins and Human Adaptations. R. Bonnichsen & K. Fladmark (Eds): 237-254 Orono. Center for the Study of the First Americans.

Ranere, A. & R. Cooke. 1996. Stone Tools and Cultural Boundaries in Prehistoric Panama: an Initial Assessment. In Paths to Central American Prehistory. F. Lange (Ed): 49-77, University Press of Colorado.

Ranere, A. & R. Cooke. 2003. Glacial and Early Holocene Occupations of Central American Tropical Forests. In Under the Canopy. Julio Mercader (Ed): 219-248. Rutgers University Press.

Snarkis, Michael. 1977. Turrialba: A Paleo-Indian Quarry and Workshop Site in Eastern Costa Rica. American Antiquity 44 (1): 125-138.

Stothert, K., D. R. Piperno, and T. C. 2003. Andres Terminal Pleistocene/Early Holocene Human Adaptation in Coastal Ecuador: The Las Vegas Evidence. Quaternary International.

Van der Hammen T. & G. Correal. 2001. Mastodontes en un Humedal Pleistocénico en el Valle del Magdalena (Colombia) con Evidencias de la Presencia del Hombre en el Pleniglacial. Boletín de Arqueología 16 (1): 4-36. Bogotá.


Share: