Abstract

Numerous records of human burials in association with shell deposits in the Los Lagos region of Chile, allow describing common funerary aspects of canoeists populations that occupied and moved along the northern costal borders of western Patagonia during the Late Holocene, between 4000 and 2000 years BP. This article presents a synthesis of the main funerary features affiliated with hunter-gatherer-fisher groups that inhabited the area, distinguishing two sectors, the Seno de Reloncaví, and the Archipiélago de Chiloé. Furthermore, given the importance of its funeral component (ca. 2100 years BP) we characterize the Yaco Alto-1 site, registered on the island of Quihua in the district of Calbuco, Seno de Reloncaví sector. The results ofthis characterization help define a spatially and temporally bounded shell midden, with occupation sestablished in aspan of approximately 300 years and a significant concentration of funerary contexts.