The Use of the Space in the Pampean Atlantic Coast and the Adjacent Plains (Argentina, South America): A Comparative View

Abstract

The archaeological record from different Atlantic littoral regions of Southern South America shows a clear intensive use of marine resources mainly since 6000 RCYBP, after the global Middle Holocene Marine Transgression. This evidence became observable in the shell mounds of Southern Brazil (Gaspar et al. 2008; Lima 1999–2000), Uruguay (Castiñeira et al. 2010; Inda et al. 2006), and Patagonia (Borella and Favier Dubois 2009; ómez Otero 2007; Moreno 2008; Sanguinetti de Bórmida 1999, among others). Moreover, in the island zone of Southern Patagonia, the Beagle Channel, and the Magallanian Strait were inhabited by coastal populations that also formed shell mounds. These societies were adapted to the exploitation of marine fauna with special technological equipment prepared for that purpose (i.e., harpoons and canoes) (Legoupil 2003; Orquera and Piana 1999; Vila et al. 1995; Zangrando 2009). Unlike the Atlantic sector, the Pacific coast of South America shows that maritime adaptations are very nearly as old as the presence of human groups in the continent (Sandweiss 2008:145). The coast of Peru and Northern Chile presents evidence of marine mollusks consumption dated to the Late Pleistocene and the Early Holocene (Jackson and Báez; Llagostera 1992; Sandweiss 2003).