Rapid radiation of humans in South America after the last glacial maximum: a radiocarbon-based study

Autores
Prates, Luciano Raúl; Politis, Gustavo Gabriel; Pérez, Sergio Iván
Año de publicación
2020
Idioma
inglés
Tipo de recurso
artículo
Estado
versión publicada
Descripción
The early peopling of the Americas has been one of the most hotly contested topics in American anthropology and a research issue that draws archaeologists into a multidisciplinary debate. In South America, although the background data on this issue has increased exponentially in recent decades, the core questions related to the temporal and spatial patterns of the colonization process remain open. In this paper we tackle these questions in the light of the quantitative analysis of a screened radiocarbon database of more than 1600 early dates. We explore the frequency of radiocarbon dates as proxies for assessing population growth; and define a reliable and statistically well supported lower chronological bound (not to the exact date) for the earliest human arrival. Our results suggest that the earliest chronological threshold for the peopling of South America should be between 16,600 and 15,100, with a mean estimated date ~ 15,500 cal BP (post Last Glacial Maximum). Population would have grown until the end of Antarctic Cold Reversal stadial ~12,500 cal BP at the time of the main extinctions of megafauna–, when the increase rate slows, probably as a result of the changes that occurred in the trophic niche of humans.
Facultad de Ciencias Naturales y Museo
Materia
Antropología
Arqueología
South America
Population growth
Radiocarbon dates
Nivel de accesibilidad
acceso abierto
Condiciones de uso
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Repositorio
SEDICI (UNLP)
Institución
Universidad Nacional de La Plata
OAI Identificador
oai:sedici.unlp.edu.ar:10915/107687

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spelling Rapid radiation of humans in South America after the last glacial maximum: a radiocarbon-based studyPrates, Luciano RaúlPolitis, Gustavo GabrielPérez, Sergio IvánAntropologíaArqueologíaSouth AmericaPopulation growthRadiocarbon datesThe early peopling of the Americas has been one of the most hotly contested topics in American anthropology and a research issue that draws archaeologists into a multidisciplinary debate. In South America, although the background data on this issue has increased exponentially in recent decades, the core questions related to the temporal and spatial patterns of the colonization process remain open. In this paper we tackle these questions in the light of the quantitative analysis of a screened radiocarbon database of more than 1600 early dates. We explore the frequency of radiocarbon dates as proxies for assessing population growth; and define a reliable and statistically well supported lower chronological bound (not to the exact date) for the earliest human arrival. Our results suggest that the earliest chronological threshold for the peopling of South America should be between 16,600 and 15,100, with a mean estimated date ~ 15,500 cal BP (post Last Glacial Maximum). Population would have grown until the end of Antarctic Cold Reversal stadial ~12,500 cal BP at the time of the main extinctions of megafauna–, when the increase rate slows, probably as a result of the changes that occurred in the trophic niche of humans.Facultad de Ciencias Naturales y Museo2020info:eu-repo/semantics/articleinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersionArticulohttp://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_6501info:ar-repo/semantics/articuloapplication/pdfhttp://sedici.unlp.edu.ar/handle/10915/107687enginfo:eu-repo/semantics/altIdentifier/url/http://europepmc.org/backend/ptpmcrender.fcgi?accid=PMC7375534&blobtype=pdfinfo:eu-repo/semantics/altIdentifier/issn/1932-6203info:eu-repo/semantics/altIdentifier/pmid/32697794info:eu-repo/semantics/altIdentifier/doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0236023info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccesshttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)reponame:SEDICI (UNLP)instname:Universidad Nacional de La Platainstacron:UNLP2025-09-29T11:23:51Zoai:sedici.unlp.edu.ar:10915/107687Institucionalhttp://sedici.unlp.edu.ar/Universidad públicaNo correspondehttp://sedici.unlp.edu.ar/oai/snrdalira@sedici.unlp.edu.arArgentinaNo correspondeNo correspondeNo correspondeopendoar:13292025-09-29 11:23:51.909SEDICI (UNLP) - Universidad Nacional de La Platafalse
dc.title.none.fl_str_mv Rapid radiation of humans in South America after the last glacial maximum: a radiocarbon-based study
title Rapid radiation of humans in South America after the last glacial maximum: a radiocarbon-based study
spellingShingle Rapid radiation of humans in South America after the last glacial maximum: a radiocarbon-based study
Prates, Luciano Raúl
Antropología
Arqueología
South America
Population growth
Radiocarbon dates
title_short Rapid radiation of humans in South America after the last glacial maximum: a radiocarbon-based study
title_full Rapid radiation of humans in South America after the last glacial maximum: a radiocarbon-based study
title_fullStr Rapid radiation of humans in South America after the last glacial maximum: a radiocarbon-based study
title_full_unstemmed Rapid radiation of humans in South America after the last glacial maximum: a radiocarbon-based study
title_sort Rapid radiation of humans in South America after the last glacial maximum: a radiocarbon-based study
dc.creator.none.fl_str_mv Prates, Luciano Raúl
Politis, Gustavo Gabriel
Pérez, Sergio Iván
author Prates, Luciano Raúl
author_facet Prates, Luciano Raúl
Politis, Gustavo Gabriel
Pérez, Sergio Iván
author_role author
author2 Politis, Gustavo Gabriel
Pérez, Sergio Iván
author2_role author
author
dc.subject.none.fl_str_mv Antropología
Arqueología
South America
Population growth
Radiocarbon dates
topic Antropología
Arqueología
South America
Population growth
Radiocarbon dates
dc.description.none.fl_txt_mv The early peopling of the Americas has been one of the most hotly contested topics in American anthropology and a research issue that draws archaeologists into a multidisciplinary debate. In South America, although the background data on this issue has increased exponentially in recent decades, the core questions related to the temporal and spatial patterns of the colonization process remain open. In this paper we tackle these questions in the light of the quantitative analysis of a screened radiocarbon database of more than 1600 early dates. We explore the frequency of radiocarbon dates as proxies for assessing population growth; and define a reliable and statistically well supported lower chronological bound (not to the exact date) for the earliest human arrival. Our results suggest that the earliest chronological threshold for the peopling of South America should be between 16,600 and 15,100, with a mean estimated date ~ 15,500 cal BP (post Last Glacial Maximum). Population would have grown until the end of Antarctic Cold Reversal stadial ~12,500 cal BP at the time of the main extinctions of megafauna–, when the increase rate slows, probably as a result of the changes that occurred in the trophic niche of humans.
Facultad de Ciencias Naturales y Museo
description The early peopling of the Americas has been one of the most hotly contested topics in American anthropology and a research issue that draws archaeologists into a multidisciplinary debate. In South America, although the background data on this issue has increased exponentially in recent decades, the core questions related to the temporal and spatial patterns of the colonization process remain open. In this paper we tackle these questions in the light of the quantitative analysis of a screened radiocarbon database of more than 1600 early dates. We explore the frequency of radiocarbon dates as proxies for assessing population growth; and define a reliable and statistically well supported lower chronological bound (not to the exact date) for the earliest human arrival. Our results suggest that the earliest chronological threshold for the peopling of South America should be between 16,600 and 15,100, with a mean estimated date ~ 15,500 cal BP (post Last Glacial Maximum). Population would have grown until the end of Antarctic Cold Reversal stadial ~12,500 cal BP at the time of the main extinctions of megafauna–, when the increase rate slows, probably as a result of the changes that occurred in the trophic niche of humans.
publishDate 2020
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info:eu-repo/semantics/altIdentifier/pmid/32697794
info:eu-repo/semantics/altIdentifier/doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0236023
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