Colonization of the Southern Tip of the World

Abstract

In the last years of the 1980s, Luis Borrero elaborated an archaeological model of the peopling of Patagonia and Tierra del Fuego which still prevails. In particular, this model provides expectations for the settlement of Tierra del Fuego, which have not yet been completely depleted. From a biogeographical perspective, these expectations arise from the vicariance conception, where two separated stages in the history of human populations of southern South America were proposed by the formation of the Magellan Strait (Borrero 1989-90). Diverse cultural processes are involved. Hunter-gatherer populations arrived in Tierra del Fuego during the end of the Pleistocene. As shown by different archaeological contexts, coastal-marine adaptations took place some millennia later (~6000 uncal. BP). Coastal occupations can, however, be traced back to the early Holocene at the south coast of the island. In this paper, we analyze some implications concerning the peopling of Tierra del Fuego by addressing: a) the evidence in relation to settlement and subsistence patterns, and in particular the role of coastal environments in such process; b) problems of site formation and taphonomy, and c) the identification of archaeological discontinuities in the distribution of archaeological evidence.