Como en otras regiones americanas, en Colombia la tecnología lítica ha ocupado un lugar central a... more Como en otras regiones americanas, en Colombia la tecnología lítica ha ocupado un lugar central a la hora de documentar y caracterizar las ocupaciones humanas antes de la aparición de la alfarería. El objetivo del presente artículo es hacer una revisión de dos temas de la arqueología temprana colombiana mirados desde la tecnología lítica. El primero, el poblamiento pleistoceno de Colombia. En este apartado se analiza la relación de la tecnología lítica con las estrategias de subsistencia, y con potenciales movimientos démicos en el Noroccidente de Suramérica durante el Tardiglacial. El segundo, los cambios adaptativos relacionados con la llegada del Holoceno. En esta segunda parte, se analizan cambios en las estrategias de subsistencia, a partir del análisis de las azadas, uno de los artefactos más representativos de la geografía colombiana, vinculado al uso temprano de plantas y a los orígenes de su cultivo.
ABSTRACT This paper presents the latest results of research done in the Colombian Andean region k... more ABSTRACT This paper presents the latest results of research done in the Colombian Andean region known as Middle Cauca River Basin, an important location for the study of the origins of plant use and the dispersal of domesticates throughout the Americas due to its geographical position in northwest South America. We discuss human–environment interactions during Pleistocene/Holocene transition to middle Holocene (ca 10,000–4000 BP), specifically human–plant interaction and environmental factors that led to the adoption of horticultural practices. Three lines of evidence are analyzed: archaeological stratigraphy, lithic technology, and microbotanical remains. Our results suggest that early Holocene environmental stability allowed Middle Cauca settlers to use the diverse local resources for several millennia, altering the local vegetation, and leading to the development of horticultural practices that included the use of both local and foreign plants. These results inform the ongoing debate about the antiquity and nature of plant domestication and dispersals in the Americas.
Resumen. Este artículo presenta los resultados de análisis microbotánicos, polen, fitolitos y gra... more Resumen. Este artículo presenta los resultados de análisis microbotánicos, polen, fitolitos y granos de almidón recuperados de sedimentos e implementos líticos de varios contextos arqueoló-gicos del Holoceno temprano y medio de la región del Cauca medio. Tales análisis han posibilitado, además de reconstruir la fitocenosis, la identificación de las plantas aprovechadas por los grupos de cazadores-recolectores que habitaron dicha región. Asimismo ha sido posible determinar el manejo selectivo de algunos taxones a través de la incidencia en su reproducción, mediante la dispersión intencional a lo largo de los territorios de explotación. Palabras claves: Colombia, Valle del Cauca, polen, fitolitos, almidones, cazadores-recolectores. Abstract This paper presents the results of micro botanical analysis, pollen, phytoliths and starch grains recovered from sediments and stone tools founded in various archaeological contexts from early and middle holocene on the Cauca Medio region. Such analysis have opened the posibility, besides reconstructing the past ecosystems, the identification of the plants used by hunters-gatherers, whom inhabited this region. More as, it has been possible lo determine the selective management of some taxons by the incidence in reproduction, through intentional dispersion along the territories.
Fil: Delgado Burbano, Miguel Eduardo. Universidad Nacional de la Plata. Facultad de Cs.naturales ... more Fil: Delgado Burbano, Miguel Eduardo. Universidad Nacional de la Plata. Facultad de Cs.naturales y Museo. Div. Antropologia; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Cientificas y Tecnicas; Argentina
En los años sesenta, Reichel-Dolmatoff aplicó el esquema evolutivo de la arqueología americana... more En los años sesenta, Reichel-Dolmatoff aplicó el esquema evolutivo de la arqueología americana, con el fin de ordenar la profundidad temporal del mundo prehispánico en Colombia. Sin embargo, uno de los periodos más ambiguos en su definición fue el Arcaico, principalmente por la falta de datos para la época. Cincuenta años después, el panorama ha cambiado y actualmente se cuenta con un volumen de evidencias suficiente para entender mejor un periodo clave en la historia prehispánica, caracterizado por la diversidad cultural, vista en perspectiva espacial, y la plasticidad de las estrategias adaptativas de los diferentes grupos, entre las que cabe destacar el origen de la producción de alimentos.
In the 1960s Reichel Dolmatoff applied the evolutionary model of the American archeology to order the prehispanic record in Colombia. Nonetheless, the Archaic period was loosely defined because of the lack of data existing at the time. Fifty years after that things have changed and we now have robust evidences to be able to understand this key period in the prehispanic history, characterized by its cultural diversity and the adaptive strategies plasticity displayed by the different human groups, among which the origin of food production stands out.
This paper presents the latest results of research done in the Colombian Andean region known as M... more This paper presents the latest results of research done in the Colombian Andean region known as Middle Cauca River Basin, an important location for the study of the origins of plant use and the dispersal of domesticates throughout the Americas due to its geographical position in northwest South America. We discuss humaneenvironment interactions during Pleistocene/Holocene transition to middle Holocene (ca 10,000e4000 BP), specifically humaneplant interaction and environmental factors that led to the adoption of horticultural practices. Three lines of evidence are analyzed: archaeological stratigraphy, lithic technology, and microbotanical remains. Our results suggest that early Holocene environmental stability allowed Middle Cauca settlers to use the diverse local resources for several millennia, altering the local vegetation, and leading to the development of horticultural practices that included the use of both local and foreign plants. These results inform the ongoing debate about the antiquity and nature of plant domestication and dispersals in the Americas.
Here we present an invited volume in Quaternary International integrated by a series of papers th... more Here we present an invited volume in Quaternary International integrated by a series of papers that deal with the human-environment interaction during the initial peopling phase from a continental perspective from Mexico to Patagonia, including the Pacific coast of South America, the Andean highlands, the tropical lowlands and the wide grasslands of the South of the continent. Also the evidences studied and the methodological and theoretical approaches were diverse. This volume is the result of the session chaired for Miguel Delgado and Francisco Aceituno entitled “Multidisciplinary studies on the human-environment interaction during the initial phase of the American peopling” held during the VI International Symposium Early Man in America: Models and Contributions from Tropical Territories” presented in Pereira, Colombia in November (19-24) 2012. The main aims of the session were to offer a place to present recent results favoring multidisciplinary approaches on the interaction between humans, the environment (climate and landscape) and other animal and vegetal species during the Pleistocene/Holocene transition and to discuss new theoretical and methodological strategies to address such interaction from the archaeological record in relation with other evidences.
Archaeological research over the past two decades in the Middle Cauca region of central Colombia ... more Archaeological research over the past two decades in the Middle Cauca region of central Colombia has documented numerous preceramic sites dating from the terminal Pleistocene to middle Holocene, along with substantial artifactual and archaeobotanical evidence for early plant use and food production. We present a radiocarbon chronology of 26 sites, including dates previously available only in unpublished reports, and 36 new AMS dates from 11 sites. This chronology solidly establishes the preceramic (before 3600 14C BP) human occupation in the Middle Cauca. The earliest date clearly associated with cultural evidence of occupation is 10,619 ± 66 14C BP at the site of Cuba. Four sites show occupation before 10,000 14C BP, but between 10,000 and 9000 14C BP, this number increases to eleven sites. Thereafter, despite evidence of episodic volcanic activity, there is a relatively constant and continuous sequence of human occupation in the region, although small localized population movements may have occurred. The fertility of periodically renewed andisols likely attracted settlement and continued occupation of the region by people practicing early plant cultivation, based on the archaeobotanical evidence for the early adoption and use of domesticates.
This paper presents the latest results of research done in the Colombian Andean region known as M... more This paper presents the latest results of research done in the Colombian Andean region known as Middle Cauca River Basin, an important location for the study of the origins of plant use and the dispersal of domesticates throughout the Americas due to its geographical position in northwest South America. We discuss human–environment interactions during Pleistocene/Holocene transition to middle Holocene (ca 10,000–4000 BP), specifically human–plant interaction and environmental factors that led to the adoption of horticultural practices. Three lines of evidence are analyzed: archaeological stratigraphy, lithic technology, and microbotanical remains. Our results suggest that early Holocene environmental stability allowed Middle Cauca settlers to use the diverse local resources for several millennia, altering the local vegetation, and leading to the development of horticultural practices that included the use of both local and foreign plants. These results inform the ongoing debate about the antiquity and nature of plant domestication and dispersals in the Americas.
The northwestern corner of South America, represented by the current territory of Colombia, is a ... more The northwestern corner of South America, represented by the current territory of Colombia, is a key region to assess some relevant issues linked with the initial human peopling of the area, including population dispersals, cultural diversity, and early adaptations to the changing environmental conditions experienced by lowland and highland north-Andean Neotropical ecosystems at the Pleistocene/Holocene transition. The aim of this paper is to present a synthesis of the archaeological research about early peopling carried out in Northwest South America during the last four decades. Specifically, it will focus on the adaptive strategies and the cultural diversity patterns exhibited by the early hunter-gatherer groups that entered the region since late Pleistocene times. The classic ideas about the time of arrival of the first settlers, the dispersal routes, the incidence of the climate change in on the rate of dispersal and colonization of different habitats, and the role of the megafauna in the subsistence will be reviewed, prior to the formulation of new hypotheses about the meaning of the apparent intraregional diversity of the archaeological record and the evolution of economic strategies over time.
Como en otras regiones americanas, en Colombia la tecnología lítica ha ocupado un lugar central a... more Como en otras regiones americanas, en Colombia la tecnología lítica ha ocupado un lugar central a la hora de documentar y caracterizar las ocupaciones humanas antes de la aparición de la alfarería. El objetivo del presente artículo es hacer una revisión de dos temas de la arqueología temprana colombiana mirados desde la tecnología lítica. El primero, el poblamiento pleistoceno de Colombia. En este apartado se analiza la relación de la tecnología lítica con las estrategias de subsistencia, y con potenciales movimientos démicos en el Noroccidente de Suramérica durante el Tardiglacial. El segundo, los cambios adaptativos relacionados con la llegada del Holoceno. En esta segunda parte, se analizan cambios en las estrategias de subsistencia, a partir del análisis de las azadas, uno de los artefactos más representativos de la geografía colombiana, vinculado al uso temprano de plantas y a los orígenes de su cultivo.
ABSTRACT This paper presents the latest results of research done in the Colombian Andean region k... more ABSTRACT This paper presents the latest results of research done in the Colombian Andean region known as Middle Cauca River Basin, an important location for the study of the origins of plant use and the dispersal of domesticates throughout the Americas due to its geographical position in northwest South America. We discuss human–environment interactions during Pleistocene/Holocene transition to middle Holocene (ca 10,000–4000 BP), specifically human–plant interaction and environmental factors that led to the adoption of horticultural practices. Three lines of evidence are analyzed: archaeological stratigraphy, lithic technology, and microbotanical remains. Our results suggest that early Holocene environmental stability allowed Middle Cauca settlers to use the diverse local resources for several millennia, altering the local vegetation, and leading to the development of horticultural practices that included the use of both local and foreign plants. These results inform the ongoing debate about the antiquity and nature of plant domestication and dispersals in the Americas.
Resumen. Este artículo presenta los resultados de análisis microbotánicos, polen, fitolitos y gra... more Resumen. Este artículo presenta los resultados de análisis microbotánicos, polen, fitolitos y granos de almidón recuperados de sedimentos e implementos líticos de varios contextos arqueoló-gicos del Holoceno temprano y medio de la región del Cauca medio. Tales análisis han posibilitado, además de reconstruir la fitocenosis, la identificación de las plantas aprovechadas por los grupos de cazadores-recolectores que habitaron dicha región. Asimismo ha sido posible determinar el manejo selectivo de algunos taxones a través de la incidencia en su reproducción, mediante la dispersión intencional a lo largo de los territorios de explotación. Palabras claves: Colombia, Valle del Cauca, polen, fitolitos, almidones, cazadores-recolectores. Abstract This paper presents the results of micro botanical analysis, pollen, phytoliths and starch grains recovered from sediments and stone tools founded in various archaeological contexts from early and middle holocene on the Cauca Medio region. Such analysis have opened the posibility, besides reconstructing the past ecosystems, the identification of the plants used by hunters-gatherers, whom inhabited this region. More as, it has been possible lo determine the selective management of some taxons by the incidence in reproduction, through intentional dispersion along the territories.
Fil: Delgado Burbano, Miguel Eduardo. Universidad Nacional de la Plata. Facultad de Cs.naturales ... more Fil: Delgado Burbano, Miguel Eduardo. Universidad Nacional de la Plata. Facultad de Cs.naturales y Museo. Div. Antropologia; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Cientificas y Tecnicas; Argentina
En los años sesenta, Reichel-Dolmatoff aplicó el esquema evolutivo de la arqueología americana... more En los años sesenta, Reichel-Dolmatoff aplicó el esquema evolutivo de la arqueología americana, con el fin de ordenar la profundidad temporal del mundo prehispánico en Colombia. Sin embargo, uno de los periodos más ambiguos en su definición fue el Arcaico, principalmente por la falta de datos para la época. Cincuenta años después, el panorama ha cambiado y actualmente se cuenta con un volumen de evidencias suficiente para entender mejor un periodo clave en la historia prehispánica, caracterizado por la diversidad cultural, vista en perspectiva espacial, y la plasticidad de las estrategias adaptativas de los diferentes grupos, entre las que cabe destacar el origen de la producción de alimentos.
In the 1960s Reichel Dolmatoff applied the evolutionary model of the American archeology to order the prehispanic record in Colombia. Nonetheless, the Archaic period was loosely defined because of the lack of data existing at the time. Fifty years after that things have changed and we now have robust evidences to be able to understand this key period in the prehispanic history, characterized by its cultural diversity and the adaptive strategies plasticity displayed by the different human groups, among which the origin of food production stands out.
This paper presents the latest results of research done in the Colombian Andean region known as M... more This paper presents the latest results of research done in the Colombian Andean region known as Middle Cauca River Basin, an important location for the study of the origins of plant use and the dispersal of domesticates throughout the Americas due to its geographical position in northwest South America. We discuss humaneenvironment interactions during Pleistocene/Holocene transition to middle Holocene (ca 10,000e4000 BP), specifically humaneplant interaction and environmental factors that led to the adoption of horticultural practices. Three lines of evidence are analyzed: archaeological stratigraphy, lithic technology, and microbotanical remains. Our results suggest that early Holocene environmental stability allowed Middle Cauca settlers to use the diverse local resources for several millennia, altering the local vegetation, and leading to the development of horticultural practices that included the use of both local and foreign plants. These results inform the ongoing debate about the antiquity and nature of plant domestication and dispersals in the Americas.
Here we present an invited volume in Quaternary International integrated by a series of papers th... more Here we present an invited volume in Quaternary International integrated by a series of papers that deal with the human-environment interaction during the initial peopling phase from a continental perspective from Mexico to Patagonia, including the Pacific coast of South America, the Andean highlands, the tropical lowlands and the wide grasslands of the South of the continent. Also the evidences studied and the methodological and theoretical approaches were diverse. This volume is the result of the session chaired for Miguel Delgado and Francisco Aceituno entitled “Multidisciplinary studies on the human-environment interaction during the initial phase of the American peopling” held during the VI International Symposium Early Man in America: Models and Contributions from Tropical Territories” presented in Pereira, Colombia in November (19-24) 2012. The main aims of the session were to offer a place to present recent results favoring multidisciplinary approaches on the interaction between humans, the environment (climate and landscape) and other animal and vegetal species during the Pleistocene/Holocene transition and to discuss new theoretical and methodological strategies to address such interaction from the archaeological record in relation with other evidences.
Archaeological research over the past two decades in the Middle Cauca region of central Colombia ... more Archaeological research over the past two decades in the Middle Cauca region of central Colombia has documented numerous preceramic sites dating from the terminal Pleistocene to middle Holocene, along with substantial artifactual and archaeobotanical evidence for early plant use and food production. We present a radiocarbon chronology of 26 sites, including dates previously available only in unpublished reports, and 36 new AMS dates from 11 sites. This chronology solidly establishes the preceramic (before 3600 14C BP) human occupation in the Middle Cauca. The earliest date clearly associated with cultural evidence of occupation is 10,619 ± 66 14C BP at the site of Cuba. Four sites show occupation before 10,000 14C BP, but between 10,000 and 9000 14C BP, this number increases to eleven sites. Thereafter, despite evidence of episodic volcanic activity, there is a relatively constant and continuous sequence of human occupation in the region, although small localized population movements may have occurred. The fertility of periodically renewed andisols likely attracted settlement and continued occupation of the region by people practicing early plant cultivation, based on the archaeobotanical evidence for the early adoption and use of domesticates.
This paper presents the latest results of research done in the Colombian Andean region known as M... more This paper presents the latest results of research done in the Colombian Andean region known as Middle Cauca River Basin, an important location for the study of the origins of plant use and the dispersal of domesticates throughout the Americas due to its geographical position in northwest South America. We discuss human–environment interactions during Pleistocene/Holocene transition to middle Holocene (ca 10,000–4000 BP), specifically human–plant interaction and environmental factors that led to the adoption of horticultural practices. Three lines of evidence are analyzed: archaeological stratigraphy, lithic technology, and microbotanical remains. Our results suggest that early Holocene environmental stability allowed Middle Cauca settlers to use the diverse local resources for several millennia, altering the local vegetation, and leading to the development of horticultural practices that included the use of both local and foreign plants. These results inform the ongoing debate about the antiquity and nature of plant domestication and dispersals in the Americas.
The northwestern corner of South America, represented by the current territory of Colombia, is a ... more The northwestern corner of South America, represented by the current territory of Colombia, is a key region to assess some relevant issues linked with the initial human peopling of the area, including population dispersals, cultural diversity, and early adaptations to the changing environmental conditions experienced by lowland and highland north-Andean Neotropical ecosystems at the Pleistocene/Holocene transition. The aim of this paper is to present a synthesis of the archaeological research about early peopling carried out in Northwest South America during the last four decades. Specifically, it will focus on the adaptive strategies and the cultural diversity patterns exhibited by the early hunter-gatherer groups that entered the region since late Pleistocene times. The classic ideas about the time of arrival of the first settlers, the dispersal routes, the incidence of the climate change in on the rate of dispersal and colonization of different habitats, and the role of the megafauna in the subsistence will be reviewed, prior to the formulation of new hypotheses about the meaning of the apparent intraregional diversity of the archaeological record and the evolution of economic strategies over time.
Uploads
Books by Nicolas Loaiza
Papers by Nicolas Loaiza
In the 1960s Reichel Dolmatoff applied the evolutionary model of the American archeology to order the prehispanic record in Colombia. Nonetheless, the Archaic period was loosely defined because of the lack of data existing at the time. Fifty years after that things have changed and we now have robust evidences to be able to understand this key period in the prehispanic history, characterized by its cultural diversity and the adaptive strategies plasticity displayed by the different human groups, among which the origin of food production stands out.
Cauca River Basin, an important location for the study of the origins of plant use and the dispersal of
domesticates throughout the Americas due to its geographical position in northwest South America. We
discuss humaneenvironment interactions during Pleistocene/Holocene transition to middle Holocene
(ca 10,000e4000 BP), specifically humaneplant interaction and environmental factors that led to the
adoption of horticultural practices. Three lines of evidence are analyzed: archaeological stratigraphy,
lithic technology, and microbotanical remains. Our results suggest that early Holocene environmental
stability allowed Middle Cauca settlers to use the diverse local resources for several millennia, altering
the local vegetation, and leading to the development of horticultural practices that included the use of
both local and foreign plants. These results inform the ongoing debate about the antiquity and nature of
plant domestication and dispersals in the Americas.
In the 1960s Reichel Dolmatoff applied the evolutionary model of the American archeology to order the prehispanic record in Colombia. Nonetheless, the Archaic period was loosely defined because of the lack of data existing at the time. Fifty years after that things have changed and we now have robust evidences to be able to understand this key period in the prehispanic history, characterized by its cultural diversity and the adaptive strategies plasticity displayed by the different human groups, among which the origin of food production stands out.
Cauca River Basin, an important location for the study of the origins of plant use and the dispersal of
domesticates throughout the Americas due to its geographical position in northwest South America. We
discuss humaneenvironment interactions during Pleistocene/Holocene transition to middle Holocene
(ca 10,000e4000 BP), specifically humaneplant interaction and environmental factors that led to the
adoption of horticultural practices. Three lines of evidence are analyzed: archaeological stratigraphy,
lithic technology, and microbotanical remains. Our results suggest that early Holocene environmental
stability allowed Middle Cauca settlers to use the diverse local resources for several millennia, altering
the local vegetation, and leading to the development of horticultural practices that included the use of
both local and foreign plants. These results inform the ongoing debate about the antiquity and nature of
plant domestication and dispersals in the Americas.