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Archaeology of Fuegian Islands: environmental changes along the Holocene,

Human Settlement and Cultural Interaction (Patagonia, Chile)

Conference Paper · July 2015

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13 authors, including:

Flavia Morello Robert D McCulloch

Universidad de Magallanes (UMAG) The University of Edinburgh
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Luis Alberto Borrero Manuel Arroyo-Kalin

Instituto Multidisciplinario de Historia y Ciencias Humanas University College London
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 T02722
H06: Palaeobiogeographical and cultural dynamics within island
environments
Poster Presentation / 28 July (Tue) 2015 / Event Hall

T02722(02208)
#Presenting author
H06-P02 *Corresponding author
H06

Archaeology of Fuegian Islands: environmental changes along the Holocene, Human Set-
tlement and Cultural Interaction (Patagonia, Chile)
∗Flavia Morello[1]; Mauricio Massone[1]; Fabiana M. Martin[1]; Robert McCulloch[2]; Luis A. Borrero[3]; Manuel Arroyo-
Kalin[4]; # Omar Reyes[1]; Marta P. Alfonso-Durruty[5]; Marianne Christensen[6]; Nicole Misarti[7]; Charles Stern[8]; Karen
Borrazzo[3]; Manuel San Roman[1]

[1] Univ. of Magallanes, Institute of Patagonia, Centro de Estudios del Hombre Austral; [2] University of Stirling, School of
Biological & Environmental Science; [3] CONICET, Instituto Multidisciplinario de Historia y Ciencias Humanas; [4] Univer-
sity College London, Institute of Archaeology; [5] Kansas State University, Department of Sociology, Anthropology and Social
Work; [6] Universite Paris I Pantheon Sorbonne, UMR 7041 of CNRS, ArScAn; [7] University of Alaska Fairbanks, Water and
Environmental Research Center; [8] University of Colorado, Geology Dept.

The Fuegian archipelago, dominated by three mayor islands, namely Tierra del Fuego, Dawson and Navarino, is located in
the southernmost end of South America and was peopled by hunter-gatherer societies since c. 10.500 BP and until the twentieth
century. The interior sea environment formations date to Early Holocene but a human occupation gap exists for this moment.
Sea coastline areas have evidence of specialized marine adaptation since c. 6.500 BP, including navigation technology that trans-
forms the notion of biogeographic barriers into paths for islands. Other researchers have questionably characterized these marine
hunter-gatherer occupations during the Middle and Late Holocene as culturally homogenous, stable and continuous.
Ethnohistoric and ethnographic records account for an overlapping network area of three groups: selk’nam land hunters and
alacalufe or kawesqar from central-western Patagonia and yamana or yaghan, south of Beagle channel, the latter two groups
being defined as specialized maritime nomads.
This subsistence dichotomy -terrestrial/marine and pedestrian/canoe- has restrained research and comprehension of the archae-
ological record. Therefore a broad assessment considering changes in environment, human settlement and cultural interaction
throughout the Holocene has been undertaken.

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