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Climate Change and Social Complexity in the Atacama Desert During the Late Quaternary Antonio Maldonado1, C.M

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Climate Change and Social Complexity in the Atacama Desert During the Late Quaternary Antonio Maldonado1, C.M 56 SCIENCE HIGHLIGHTS: CLIMATE CHANGE AND CULTURAL EVOLUTION doi: 10.22498/pages.24.2.56 Climate change and social complexity in the Atacama Desert during the Late Quaternary Antonio Maldonado1, c.M. Santoro2 and Escallonia members3 Prehistoric human groups in the Atacama Desert developed socio-cultural complexities despite living in the world’s driest desert. Different technological adaptations were developed as part of their interactions with variable environments over the last 14,000 years. Human history can be understood as the to endure the desert even during the driest the hyperarid core of the desert (Gayo et al. constant mutual interaction between climatic periods instead of completely 2012; Fig. 2). During those humid periods, variable environments and social systems. abandoning it or, even worse, suffering the desert became an attractive habitat It is the basis for many archaeological cultural collapse. for hunter-gatherers, plenty of camelids and socio-natural science studies world- (i.e. guanacos and vicuñas), rodents and wide and is particularly prominent in the The first peoples in Pampa del Tamarugal birds. The archaeological evidence shows Atacama Desert in northern chile. Using an and Tarapacá region (14-10 ka BP) human occupations next to paleowetlands eco-anthropological perspective, we focus Ecosystems and human societies in the surrounded by trees (i.e. Prosopis species on identifying and explaining social con- Atacama Desert have been constrained parkland), the dry trunks of which are still tinuities and discontinuities that occurred mainly by the lack of water. The first human preserved and visible on the surface of during key cycles of water availability since occupation occurred at the end of the the desert (Santoro et al. in press; Fig. 1). the first humans arrived, ca. 14 ka ago, Pleistocene, during relatively moist periods Diverse contemporaneous open camps, like at the Pampa del Tamarugal (PdT), in the (at 17.5-14 and 13-10 ka bP; Quade et al. QM12 (Fig. 1 and 2), show complex hunt- hyperarid core of the Atacama Desert (Fig. 2008). In the PdT, these humid periods ing-gathering systems successfully adjusted 1). The major trends of long-term history of increased perennial stream discharge and to the ecosystems in the PdT, coupled with human-environment interactions show that groundwater tables, expanding riparian long-distance human interaction from the people developed different ways of living, and wetland ecosystems into what is now Pacific coast and the high Andes. Environmental stress and socio- environmental discontinuity (10-3 ka BP) The beginning of the Holocene (ca. 10 ka bP) seems to have triggered drastic transformations in settlement patterns and cultural behavior that lasted for several millennia due to the establishment of fluctuating arid conditions in the southern Atacama Desert (Núñez et al. 2013; Fig. 2). Archaeological data show a phenomenon of socio-environmental discontinuity that has been conceptualized as the “silencio ar- queológico” (archaeological silence; Núñez et al. 2013). Particularly in the PdT, the onset of hyper- arid conditions triggered ecological stress characterized by the dramatic reduction of productivity in the ecosystem. Accordingly, people possibly migrated toward more productive areas such as the coast, where sequences of continuous occupation began approximately 9 ka bP, with complex ideological innovations, including artificial mummification (Marquet et al. 2012) and the development of a specialized technol- ogy focused on the exploitation of marine resources. More abundant settlements and the development of new technologies oc- curred along the coast since 7 ka bP (castro et al. in press). The Altiplano, located east- wards of the PdT, was also productive as it may have been less vulnerable to climate change and maintained sustained environ- Figure 1: (A) Location of Early- (orange), Mid-Holocene (green) and Formative (blue) sites. (B) Late Pleistocene ments (Ledru et al. 2013) and key locations projectile points. (C, D, F) Formative villages. (E) cropfields in Guatacondo. red line shows today's border for hunter-gatherers during the arid Mid- between chile and bolivia. Holocene (Pintar 2014). Archaeological data PAGES MAGAZINE ∙ VOLUME 24 ∙ NO 2 ∙ DEcembEr 2016 SCIENCE HIGHLIGHTS: CLIMATE CHANGE AND CULTURAL EVOLUTION 57 human occupation and the use of resources. Around 3 ka bP, a new, though less-intense, pulse of increased rainfall in the highlands reactivated ground- and surface-water flow in the hyperarid core of the Atacama. This boosted the development of complex water management technologies, and new social and ideological structures featured by the proliferation of people in the PdT. These innovations were also triggered by internal socio-cultural factors, which were capital- ized by some communities in the PdT (e.g. caserones village). The end of the wet pe- riod during the late Holocene (1.0-0.7 ka bP) led communities from the highlands and the coast to enlarge and improve novel systems of land use and management in the PdT. A new socio-political order dominated by segmented societies developed and lasted until the Inca epoch. This scenario was the base of the colonial and republican histor- ical processes which accelerated the ex- ploitation of desert environment resources. both the environmental fluctuations and the people decisions based on cultural and Figure 2: Paleoenvironmental and archaeological synthesis of the PdT since the Late Pleistocene showing social interests should be considered to human occupation modes, dry/wet phases, main archaeological sites (Fig. 1) occupation timing and occupation explain the full range of complex sociopo- 14 density (black line) measured through the summed probability c ages from archaeological sites in the PdT. The litical variability in the PdT throughout the grey line is a 2x exaggeration of the black line. Modified from Santoro et al. (2016). prehistory in the Atacama Desert. show intensification in occupation after inequities (Uribe 2006). This resulted in 10 ka bP. Other groups might have settled massive population migrations to high- AcKNOWLEDGEMENTS around local sources of permanent water land areas and the establishment of new cONIcYT/PIA grant project ANILLO SOc1405. within the PdT, or within narrow ravines and numerous settlements on the western AFFILIATIONS such as Sapiga and Tiliviche canyons, whose slope of the Andes, since water resources in 1centro de Estudios Avanzados en Zonas Áridas, archaeological sites (Aragón and Tiliviche 1; these areas were much more abundant and Universidad de La Serena, chile Fig. 1) point out that local ecosystems were predictable (Maldonado and Uribe 2015; 2Instituto Alta Investigación, Universidad de Tarapacá, complemented with protein from coastal see Fig. 2). consequently, new systems of Arica, chile 3 resources (Santoro et al. in press). agriculture (terraces and irrigation canals), M. Uribe, M.E. de Porras, J. capriles, E.M. Gayó, D. Valenzuela, D. Angelo, c. Latorre, P.A. Marquet, A. strategic and defensive urban arrange- Domic, V. Mcrostie, V. castro Evidence from the central Atacama also ments, and land management were devel- shows, however, that populations re- oped. Increasingly circumscribed territories cONTAcT bounded after 6 ka bP, meaning that the were managed by societies of “segmented” Antonio Maldonado: [email protected] Mid-Holocene may not have been as dry as organizations (social groups independently rEFErENcES thought (Gayo et al. 2015; see Fig. 2). organized). Thus, the PdT was transformed castro V et al. (in press) chungara 48 into an inter-nodal territory crossed by The return to the Pampa del trains of llama caravans that connected the Gayo EM et al. (2012) Earth Sci rev 113: 120-140 Tamarugal (3-1 ka BP) highlands with the coast. Gayo EM et al. (2015) Quat Int 356: 4-14 In the late-Holocene in the PdT, between Ledru MP et al. (2013) Holocene 23: 1545-1557 2.5-0.7 ka bP, arid conditions gradually gave During the Inca State regime (0.5-0.4 ka bP), Maldonado A, Uribe M (2015) In: retamal MS et al. (Eds) way to wetter climates, peaking between the scale and organization of mining ex- Actas del XIX congreso Nacional de Arqueología 2-1 ka bP (Maldonado and Uribe 2015; Fig. ploitation of copper and silver ore became chilena. Sociedad chilena de Arqueología, 2). The wet phase is partly coeval with the important; thus, previous socio-economic 193-200 cultural Formative period (2.5-1.5 ka bP), systems were restructured for metal pro- Marquet PA et al. (2012) PNAS 109: 14754-14760 which is characterized by an intensification duction (Zori and Tropper 2010). Traditional Núñez L et al (2013) Quat Int 307: 5-13 of social complexity and diversification of activities (i.e. agriculture, herding and Pintar E (2014) chungara 46: 51-71 communities. Large, dispersed or concen- foraging) gradually increased or intensi- trated villages with monumental public fied. The Spanish conquest (0.4-0.2 ka bP) Quade J et al. (2008) Quat res 69: 343-360 spaces were founded. A wide range of brought new political, technological, de- Santoro cM et al. (2016) In: Aldunate c et al. (Eds) innovative technologies (i.e. ceramic, textile mographic, and land-use conditions which Prehistoria en chile desde sus Primeros Habitantes and metal production) and landscape changed the socio-environmental systems hasta los Incas. Editorial Universitaria, Santiago arrangements were added to the traditional of the Atacama Desert. A proto-capitalist Santoro cM et al. (in press) J Anthropol Archaeol, doi: hunting-gathering systems. This involved regime was introduced, focusing on the 10.1016/j.jaa.2016.08.006 sophisticated technologies for managing exploitation of raw materials, particularly Urbina S et al. (2012) bolet Museo chile Arte surface water including water dams, irriga- minerals, which have dramatically stressed Precolombino 17: 31-60 tion canals and farmland. These innovations the human-environment relationships until Uribe M (2006) In: Lechtman H (Ed) Esferas de Interacción generated a concentration of population today. Prehistóricas y Fronteras Nacionales Modernas: and social power (Urbina et al.
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