Human occupation and paleoenvironments in South America: expanding the notion of an “Archaic Gap”

Abstract

An overview of the archaeological data produced in the last decades for Brazil and neighbouring countries, coupled with a background of recent studies on paleoenvironments, suggests that during the mid-Holocene vast areas of South America ceased to be occupied by human groups. Independent data coming from dated human skeletons, rockshelter stratigraphy, and chronology of open-air sites converge to the idea that these areas were, at least, strongly depopulated. Paleoenvironmental data suggest that dryness events constitute the major cause behind the observed trends. Our conclusions expand the already perceived notion that climatic stresses had a major role in the shaping of human settlement patterns in marginal environments, such as deserts and high-altitude settings, showing that the same can occur in tropical and subtropical lowlands.