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The Long-Term Relation Between Human Beings and Shellfish in the Semiarid Coast of Chile

2021; Springer International Publishing; Linguagem: Inglês

10.1007/978-3-030-73998-0_5

2625-8641

César Méndez, A Delaunay,

Archaeological and Geological Studies

Over 12,000 years of shellfish consumption along the coast of Los Vilos in the semiarid region of North Central Chile are evaluated in terms of resource selectivity, gathering behaviors, settlement locations and garbage treatment. A comprehensive radiocarbon dating program in sites on the coastal margin has allowed to carefully position different archaeological records that exemplify ways in which shellfish were utilized for the most part by hunter-gatherers, and during the last millennia, by groups with more restricted mobility. We present data assembled over three decades including site location, stratigraphic excavations, radiocarbon ages and contextual information from various sites spanning the Holocene. Differences across time are indicative of ways in which peoples engaged with their environment and resources. The changes in shell deposition are analyzed from a comparative point of view and show a great variability ranging from low visible shell middens to redundantly occupied mounds. A possible scenario of monumentalization, between 4700 and 2300 years ago, is discussed as the most remarkable of these changes; a feature which was restricted both in time and space.