Human Ecology (2020) 48:585–597 https://doi.org/10.1007/s10745-020-00200-1 Culturally modified trees and forest structure at a Kawésqar ancient settlement at Río Batchelor, western Patagonia Lars Östlund1 & Gabriel Zegers2 & Benjamin Cáceres Murrie2 & Macarena Fernández3 & Robert Carracedo-Recasens4 & Torbjörn Josefsson1 & Alfredo Prieto5 & Samuel Roturier6 Accepted: 18 October 2020 / Published online: 17 November 2020 # The Author(s) 2020 Abstract Indigenous land use occurring on temporal scales over centuries or millennia shapes forests in specific ways and influences the dynamics of forest ecosystems. It is challenging to study such land use, but analysis of “culturally modified trees” (CMTs) can give precise spatial and temporal information on past land use by indigenous people. The aim of this study was to increase our knowledge of indigenous use of land and resources in Nothofagus forests by identifying CMTs and analyzing the forest structure dynamics in an ancient Kawésqar settlement site in western Patagonia. Our results show that there are CMTs at Río Batchelor and that the forest structure varies significantly within the site, indicating that Kawésqar people altered the forest by extracting various resources. We conclude that CMT studies have great potential in Nothofagus forests in southernmost America, but also face specific challenges due to environmental conditions and lack of corroborating historical information. Keywords Culturally modified trees . Bark peeling . Forest history . Indigenous land use . Archaeology Patagonia . Nothofagus Introduction western Patagonia – a region rich in research potential. Culturally modified trees (CMTs) are cultural imprints that Indigenous peoples’ long-term land use and the legacy of can provide precise information, spatially and temporally, on human imprints on forest ecosystems have gained increasing historic and pre-historic land-use (see Mobley and Eldridge attention during recent decades (e.g. Thompson et al. 2002; 1992; Prince 2001;Östlundet al. 2002, 2009;Turneret al. Bayliss-Smith et al. 2003; Heckenberger et al. 2003; 2009;Rautioet al. 2014): studies such as these complement Josefsson et al. 2010;Buergiet al. 2017). Low intensity but archaeological and anthropological research where historical spatially broad and occurring on a scale over centuries or even sources are scarce. millennia, human activities shape forests in specific ways and The Patagonian archipelago covers about one million km2 also influence the dynamics of forest ecosystems. Yet to date at the southern cone of the American continent. This vast area not much attention has been given to the southernmost parts of includes contrasting environments, such as seascapes, the South American rainforests in this respect, including rainforests, tree-less pampas, valleys and mountains of the alpine Andes from Puerto Montt (41°S) to Cape Horn (54°S). In this region there is evidence of human occupation * Samuel Roturier dating back to the late Pleistocene c.14,000calyearsBP [email protected] (Dillehay et al. 2008, 2015; Prieto and Labarca 2011). The 1 Department of Forest Ecology and Management, Swedish University distribution of archaeological sites in the region shows evi- of Agricultural Sciences, 90183 Umeå, Sweden dence of mobile hunter-gatherer groups with distinctive, 2 Asociación de Investigadores de Museo de Historia Natural Río shared characteristics in material culture spread over large Seco, Punta Arenas, Chile areas and a wide variety of resource utilization, both marine 3 Centro Regional Fundación CEQUA, Punta Arenas, Chile and terrestrial (Orquera and Piana 1987). For more than 6,000 years, the Kawésqar and Yagán indigenous peoples 4 Departament de Prehistòria, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, 08193 Barcelona, Spain have used the fragmented seascape as nomads, using canoes to navigate through the fjords and channels from the Gulf of 5 CIGA, Universidad de Magallanes, Punta Arenas, Chile Penas to the end of Tierra del Fuego Island including Cape 6 Ecologie Systématique et Evolution, Université Paris-Saclay, CNRS, Horn until the late 19th and early twentieth centuries AgroParisTech, 91405 Orsay, France 586 Hum Ecol (2020) 48:585–597 (Emperaire 1955;Gusinde1986, 1991; Chapman 2012). This and near the settlement site using analyses of bark-peeled livelihood disappeared during the twentieth century as a result trees and forest structure. This timeframe was chosen be- of 400 years of colonization, forced relocation and assimila- cause it is covered by both biological (tree rings) and tion of the indigenous communities (Emperaire 1955). archaeological and historical records. The objectives of Hunting and gathering benthic organisms was complemented the study were to: (1) identify and describe attributes to some extent with land game and vegetables (Orquera and and the spatial and temporal distribution of bark-peeled Piana 2000; Piana and Orquera 2009; San Román et al. 2002). trees; (2) compare characteristics of bark-peelings to Stranded whales were also an important but intermittent food Kawésqar and Yágan bark objects kept in museum collec- source. This livelihood and resource use created well-known tions; and (3) analyze the relationship between bark- shell middens, which are the characteristic remains of the peeled trees, present forest structure and the settlement long-time process of collecting and eating of shellfish and site. The analyses made in this study forms the basis for other animals that accumulated around the settlement sites, a more general discussion of the potential and challenges creating a typical concave shape (e.g. Orquera et al. 2011). for CMT studies at indigenous settlement sites in southern Notwithstanding the high dependence on marine resources, rainforest ecosystems. these peoples were also strongly connected to forest resources. From previous archaeological and anthropological re- search, it is clear that the Nothofagus coastal rainforests Material and methods provided many important resources that were crucial for survival in the Patagonian archipelago. Settlement sites The Río Batchelor site were most often located in sheltered bays protected from wind, in secluded settings and with ready availability of fresh The study site (53º 33′ S, 72º 18′ W) is located on the south- water. These sites were used repeatedly over time. Trees were ernmost part of the mainland of western Patagonia in Chile used for a variety of purposes including firewood, the construc- (Fig. 1), in the Magellanic rainforest vegetation zone (Veblen tion of huts, the manufacture of tools and equipment, food and 2007). We selected the site based on the following criteria: (1) medicine (Orquera and Piana 1987; Bjerck 2009; Zárraga a late successional coastal Nothofagus forest, (2) in an area 2016). In particular, the bark of Nothofagus betuloides was with known historical land use by the Kawésqar people, with peeled to build canoes, which were essential to the sea nomads’ (3) no known history of commercial forest utilization nor (4) livelihood, and produce various items such as ceremonial modern infrastructure or habitation. The main archaeological masks or buckets (Emperaire 1955; Gusinde 1986, 1991; site (named Batchelor I, see San Román et al. 2002;Prieto Legoupil and Lira 2017), as well as a possible food source et al. 2008) is located at 3 m asl on a sheltered north-western (Zárraga 2016, pers. comm. Gonzáles Gonzáles and Gonzáles bank near the river, and in estuarine waters about 150 m from Calderón). the sea. The site has a flat topography and includes some 30 ha CMTs, such as bark-peeled N. betuloides, can document of forest on both sides of the estuary where the Batchelor river direct or indirect use of forest and trees by indigenous people. enters the sea (Fig. 2a). By using dendrochronological methods on them, CMTs can The forest is dominated by evergreen Nothofagus not only provide temporal precision (Andersson 2005;Rautio betuloides with a minor component of Drimys winteri and et al. 2014), but also precise information about human move- Maytenus magellanica. Most parts of the forest are in late- ment within forests and also the use of specific forest re- successional stages, and the closed-canopy forest has a sources, notably the utilization of tree bark for construction multi-aged tree structure with trees of different ages and household items (Steward 1984), or the use of inner-bark intermixed (Fig. 2b). The ground flora is typical of pure ever- as an important food source (Prince 2001; Rautio et al. 2014). green N. betuloides forest in the area (Cruz and Caldentey Accordingly, linking historical and archaeological informa- 2007), and includes woody vines Luzuriaga marginata and tion with analysis of CMTs and historic forest structure is Lebetanthus myrsinites, shrubs Berberis ilicifolia, Philesia one possible road forward to getting a broader picture of the magellanica, Desfontainia spinosa, Fuchsia magellanica habitation and resource use of indigenous peoples in the past and Empetrum rubrum, and ferns Blechnum magellanicum (Josefsson et al. 2010; Heffner and Heffner 2012;Rautioet al. and Hymenophyllum tortuosum that thrive on the forest floor 2014;Larsonet al. 2019). and lower part of the largest tree trunks. A cold-temperate The aim of this study was to increase our knowledge of climate with great humidity (Pisano 1981) and moderate to indigenous peoples’ use of land and resources in cool summers and snowy winters characterize the region. Nothofagus forests