Abstract

The early peopling of the Americas at the end of the Pleistocene (~13,000–10,000 calibrated 14C years before present or yrs BP) has been the subject of considerable debate over the last several decades. Part of the problem resides in the very limited amount of known and accepted sites for South America, despite a number of systematic surveys by many international and regional researchers since the 1940’s. Aside from the well-known pre-Clovis Monte Verde site, there are extremely few “Paleoindian” archaeological sites in Chile, mostly located either in the southern or central regions of the country. These sites are also completely absent from high altitude (>3500 m) environments. Recently, new records of past climate and vegetation change from northern Chile indicate that the hyperarid environments of the Andean Precordillera and adjacent Atacama Desert (2000 – 3000 m) were considerably wetter and more productive at precisely the time when most of the early Americans came through the region. This extensive eco-zone has been mostly unexplored in terms of its archaeological potential. Here, we present our first findings from this hyperarid region of northernmost Chile (17–21˚S). We use a multidisciplinary predictive model that incorporates data from: (1) local and regional paleoclimate (midden records), (2) geomorphology and stratigraphy (past wetlands and springs), and (3) archaeological prospecting. This strategy has enabled us to develop a relatively precise method for predicting the location and associated cultural patterns of past possible habitats suitable for human societies at the Pleistocene-Holocene transition.