Flavia Morello

• Doctor
• Professor (Associate) at Universidad de Magallanes (UMAG)

Se presentan los resultados del estudio de un sondeo del sitio arqueológico Tilly Este, ubicado en la bahía del mismo nombre en la isla Carlos III, estrecho de Magallanes (Chile). El yacimiento es un conchal multicomponente de canoeros que abarca ocupaciones pre-contacto y post-contacto histórico. El registro indica la presencia de eventos ocupacio...

It is reported of three rock shelters excavated by the american archaeologist Junius Bird in the 30s, as well as the analysis of archaeological materials currently deposited at the NMNH in New York.

El investigador norteamericano Junius Bird, del American Museum of Natural History (AMNH) de Nueva York, viajó por el sur de Chile y realizó dos largas campañas de trabajo de campo entre 1933 y 1980, llevando a cabo una amplia gama de excavaciones y estudios arqueológicos. Comenzando por el extremo sur de Tierra del Fuego e Isla Navarino, Hoste y...

Reciprocal relationships between fishers and marine life have been documented in Indigenous fishing contexts, but there are few case studies that describe the mechanisms of such relationships, and even fewer that explore other contexts, such as that of artisanal fishers in Latin American countries. We studied the artisanal hake fishery in the sub‐A...

New surface findings of discoidal stones from Southern Patagonia are presented. The distribution of discoidal stones and Fell Cave projectile points is analyzed and used to enhance our understanding of hunter- gatherer mobility ranges. The available information is presented and the potential for time-transgressive, exapted or other explanations is...

La restauración patrimonial de monumentos históricos presenta particulares desafíos de implementación. En este escenario el trabajo arqueológico es parte fundamental de aquel proceso constructivo, legal, de conservación y comunitario. Presentamos los resultados de la documentación y excavaciones arqueológicas realizadas bajo el piso de la centenari...

Objectives: This study aims to characterize the genetic histories of ancient hunter-gatherer groups in Fuego-Patagonia (Chile) with distinct Marine, Terrestrial, and Mixed Economy subsistence strategies. Mitochondrial (mtDNA) and Y-chromosome data were generated to test three hypotheses. H0: All individuals were drawn from the same panmictic popul...

The authors provide an initial report on possibly the southernmost expansion of humans in pre-industrial times. The archaeological site, in the Cape Horn archipelago, consists of a campfire site, fragments of a weapon, and butchered bones. Radiocarbon dating places the site c . 260–460 years BP.

Durante el Holoceno tardío en el archipiélago patagónico septentrional (~41°30′-47°S), convergerían sistemas culturales diferenciados, interrelacionándose grupos con tradiciones culturales portadoras de cerámica y economías basadas en la producción de alimentos (hortícolas) con grupos de cazadores-recolectores-pescadores marinos presentes desde el...

The southern king crab Lithodes santolla is one of the most economically important fishery species in the southern waters of the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. A combination of stomach content and stable isotope analyses was used to reveal the potential dietary characteristics, isotopic niche, overlap among maturity stages and sexes, and trophic rela...

Abstract Mechanisms that reliably and efficiently guide practitioners to find relevant evidence are urgent for conservation decision‐making in Chilean Patagonia. The objective of this study was to systematically collect, characterize, and synthesize the extensive evidence about conservation knowledge in Chilean Patagonia focusing on the impacts of...

The goal of this study is to describe and assess evidence of trauma in the osteological remains of three individuals that were fortuitously found in southernmost Fuego-Patagonia (52°–56°S). The cases correspond to individuals AH4354 (Laguna Verde), 29751 (Posesión Olympia-2), and 96074 (Caleta Lennox) located in continental Patagonia, Tierra del Fu...

This paper presents the results of the study of the microfossil content of the human dental calculus of 49 individuals from 17 archaeological sites of the Chiloé and Los Chonos archipelago with chronologies between ~4400 to 300 years cal BP. The previous δ 13 C and δ 15 N stable isotope values of the inhabitants of this area revealed an eminently m...

The systematization of the concept of cultural geography and its usefulness in hierarchizing space according to cultural values and knowledge that have archaeological visibility and obstrusiveness, are reviewed. They consider the dynamics of mobility and human circulation in the Fuegian landscapes of the austral region, evaluating its variation und...

On the basis of the concept of cultural geography of the fuegian archipelago a discussion of the circulation of goods, as Miraflores rock, hematite, pirite, and others is presented. In addition, its relationship to human organization and installations involving the use of the hinterland or interior zones -cases like bark search, guanaco (Lama guani...

As part of our research in the Chiloé archipelago, new contextual and chronological data are presented from three archaeological sites recorded on the east central coast of Chiloé Island. The described contexts and their chronology review occupations from the Middle and Late Holocene, and reflect the continuity of marine hunting and gathering tradi...

A Late glacial – Holocene palaeoecological record, constrained by a robust chronology, from a peat bog near Punta Burslem (54°54’S, 67°57’W) on Isla Navarino, southernmost Patagonia documents the shifts in intensity and focus of the Southern Westerly Winds (SWWs) at these high latitudes. Such long-term records are required to reconstruct and better...

ALIMENTARY AND TECHNOLOGICAL PROCESSING OF GUANACOS (LAMA GUANICOE) DURING THE LATE HOLOCENE: THE CASE OF COASTAL SITE MARAZZI 32 (TIERRA DEL FUEGO, CHILE). The analysis of the guanaco assemblage recovered from Marazzi 32 archaeological site, Isla Grande de Tierra del Fuego, is presented. The site, dated between 560 and 635 BP, is noteworthy for it...

Palaeoenvironmental data for the Late Glacial and Holocene periods are provided from Caleta Eugenia, in the eastern sector of Canal Beagle, southernmost Patagonia. The record commences at c. 16 200 cal a bp following glacier retreat in response to climatic warming. However, cooler conditions persisted during the Late Glacial period. The onset of mo...

The historic, ethnographic and archaeological information on the Elizabeth Island, Strait of Magellan, Chile is presented, with an emphasis on the location of the island on the eastern limit of the distribution of patagonian and fuegian maritime hunter-gatherers. Taphonomic and formational observations were also made. The diversity of archaeologica...

Complex processes in the settling of the Americas The expansion into the Americas by the ancestors of present day Native Americans has been difficult to tease apart from analyses of present day populations. To understand how humans diverged and spread across North and South America, Moreno-Mayar et al. sequenced 15 ancient human genomes from Alaska...

Bioarchaeological analyses of teeth rely traditionally on noninvasive methods that reveal essential information about past individuals and populations. Methodological developments have revolutionized the discipline, but their application is commonly invasive and destructive. The resulting loss of material and information can be buffered through 3D...

A new Late glacial-Holocene palaeoenvironmental record from near Lago Lynch (53°54′S, 69°26′W), Tierra del Fuego is presented. The record was sampled from a mire located within the deciduous Nothofagus forest-steppe ecotone and pollen and spore analysis suggest a high degree of vulnerability of past vegetation to changes in effective moisture. AMS...

Junius Bird, archaeologist from the AMNH, NY, traveled through Sourthern Chile and accomplished fieldworks missions between 1933 and 1980. The materials collected are currently housed at the Division of Anthropology of the AMNH, and were recently analyzed as part of the activities of Grant FONDECYT 1140939. All artifacts and bioanthropological rema...

Fuego-Patagonia’s marine and terrestrial groups were historically described as phenotypically distinct but, studies of these phenotypic differences have yet to be conducted. This study evaluates phenotypic variation in Fuego-Patagonia. Phenotypic disparities result from extrinsic and intrinsic factors and therefore can reveal differences in both lo...

El presente trabajo entrega los resultados al análisis arqueofaunístico del conjunto de guanacos provenientes del sitio Marazzi 32 ubicado en las costas de Bahía Inútil en isla de Tierra del Fuego, noroeste de Tierra del Fuego. El sitio, con fechas entre los 560 y 635 años AP, es uno de un conjunto de sitios tardíos a cielo abierto del fondo de bah...

L'étude de l'industrie lithique des populations qui occupaient la Patagonie et la Terre de Feu nous a permis de discuter des dynamiques culturelles mises en œuvre par les chasseurs terrestres et maritimes, de part et d'autre du détroit de Magellan, à l'Holocène moyen et tardif. L'approche techno-économique développée pour les industries de la grott...

The main focus of this work is the proposition of an archaeological sequence for marine hunter-gatherers in Southernmost Patagonia, based on the recent study of different coastal archaeological sites in the Magellan strait, Otway Sea and Almirante Montt Gulf, located between 50º and 53º South latitude. This includes discussing timing, changes and c...

High-resolution palaeoenvironmental records, spanning the Last glacial–interglacial transition (LGIT) and the Holocene have been reconstructed from different ecosystems along a longitudinal transect at ~53°S, Fuego-Patagonia. The nature and extent of environmental and climatic change, inferred from palynological evidence, is supported by lithostrat...

The development of tephrochronology after Thorarinson (1944) has recognised the potential of the instantaneous deposition of geochemically distinct tephra (aka volcanic ash) layers to constrain age estimates for environmental change. This work has been principally applied in Patagonia by Auer (1974) and more recently by Stern (2004; 2008; 2015). Pa...

A synthesis of archaeological research developed in Chonos Archipelago, Chile, is presented (43°50'–46°50'S). Results indicate that marine hunter-gatherer sites located in modern day coastlines are commonly eroded by sea tide and ages not older than 1107 years cal. BC. Background information of an older site led to a methodological survey approach...

This paper focuses on the late Holocene occupation of hunter-gatherers at the Marazzi 2 site located on the northwestern steppe of Tierra del Fuego, Chile. Our aim is to understand stratigraphy, formation processes, and pedogenesis with respect to human occupation over the last 3000 years. Based on archaeological excavations on a fluvial terrace of...

CHARACTERIZATION OF CHORRILLO MIRAFLORES LITHIC RAW MATERIALS AND THEIR ARCHAEOLOGICAL DISTRIBUTION IN SOUTHERN FUEGO-PATAGONIA. The discovery of a primary source of two lithic raw materials (ryolithic tuff and silicified tuff) in Chorrillo Miraflores Valley (Tierra del Fuego province, Chile) promoted the development of joint multidisciplinary rese...

GREEN OBSIDIAN IN TIERRA DEL FUEGO AND PATAGONIA: CHARACTERIZATION, DISTRIBUTION AND CULTURAL ISSUES DURING THE HOLOCENE. Green obsidian as raw material used by prehistoric hunter-gatherer groups of Fuego-Patagonia has been present in the macro-regional archaeological research since its discovery in the 1950s. A new critical synthesis and updated s...

Objectives Nineteenth and twentieth century documents testify that four ethnic groups, generally classified as terrestrial hunters or canoe nomads, inhabited Fuego-Patagonia. Archaeologically, however, their presence and temporal depth remains unknown. This study analyzes the antiquity and geographic distribution of cranial modification, a highly v...

The Fuegian archipelago, dominated by three mayor islands, namely Tierra del Fuego, Dawson and Navarino, is located in the southernmost end of South America and was peopled by hunter-gatherer societies since c. 10.500 BP and until the twentieth century. The interior sea environment formations date to Early Holocene but a human occupation gap exists...

RESUMEN Se presentan los resultados de nuevos trabajos realizados en la cueva del Medio, Ultima Esperanza, Chile. Algunos de los principales procesos de formación de la cueva y de acumulación de sus sedimentos han sido identificados. Nuevas excavaciones mostraron evidencias de fauna extinta utilizando la cueva desde aproximadamente 14,000 años radi...

El sitio arqueológico Punta Baxa 7 es un extenso yacimiento caracterizado como un agregado de diversas concentraciones de material arqueológico (conchales, talleres líticos, restos óseos humanos y fauna). Ubicado en Primera Angostura, en la orilla sur del estrecho de Magallanes, presenta evidencia de depósitos en estratigrafía que fueron sujeto de...

Punta Baxa 7 archeological site is characterized as an aggregate of archaeological concentrations (shell middens, lithic workshops and concentrations of human and animal bones). Located at Primera Angostura, on the southern shore of the Strait of Magellan, it provides evidence of stratigraphic deposits that were subject to archaeological excavation...

Tierra del Fuego represents the southernmost limit of human settlement in the Americas. While people may have started to arrive there around 10 500 BP, when it was still connected to the mainland, the main wave of occupation occurred 5000 years later, by which time it had become an island. The co-existence in the area of maritime huntergatherers (i...

Ultima Esperanza is a region known worldwide, where some of the best preserved remains of late Pleistocene ground sloths were found. Cueva del Milodon produced a large piece of Mylodon darwini skin in 1895 as well as extensive deposits of ground sloth dung that were sampled several times during the 20th Century. These deposits are dated within 13,5...

We present results of research focused on the identification of sites and the analysis of their archaeological evidence in order to reconstruct occupation sequences of marine hunter-gatherer groups at specific localities of Southernmost Patagonia. In this paper we address the characterization of three archaeological sites at Punta Santa Ana area, S...

We present results of research focused on the identification of sites and the analysis of their archaeological evidence in order to reconstruct occupation sequences of marine hunter-gatherer groups at specific localities of Southernmost Patagonia. In this paper we address the characterization of three archaeological sites at Punta Santa Ana area, S...

We present results of research focused on the identification of sites and the analysis of their archaeo-logical evidence in order to reconstruct occupation sequences of marine hunter-gatherer groups at specific localities of Southernmost Patagonia. In this paper we address the characterization of three archaeological sites at Punta Santa Ana area,...

The discovery, excavation and analysis of a burial in Cabo Nose, Tierra del Fuego, Chile, is presented. The burial was deposited in a shell midden composed mostly of mussels and Nacella sp., as well as some fish, birds and mammal bones (sea lion and guanaco). The remains corresponded to a young adult male dated to BP 980+/-40 (Late Holocene). The s...

The discovery, excavation and analysis of a burial in Cabo Nose, Tierra del Fuego, Chile, is presented. The burial was deposited in a shell midden composed mostly of mussels and Nacella sp., as well as some fish, birds and mammal bones (sea lion and guanaco). The remains corresponded to a young adult male dated to BP 980+/-40 (Late Holocene). The s...

A research about the role of prehistoric human peopling of Dawson Island, central Magellan strait zone, is presented through the discussion of data collected in an extensive survey that included the eastern shoreline of the island and its comparison with other canoe core areas. The discovery of 29 archaeological sites permitted recording unknown ev...

The characterization of lithic bolas and modified cobble collections recovered at Laguna Thomas Gould site by M. Massone and J. Bird (Massone 1989-1990) is presented. The site is located at the Pali-Aike Volcanic Field, between Chico River and Seco Canyon. Most of the pieces come from surface survey within the dry margins of the lagoon and a few ar...

A research about the role of prehistoric human peopling of Dawson Island, central Magellan strait zone, is presented through the discussion of data collected in an extensive survey that included the eastern shoreline of the island and its comparison with other canoe core areas. The discovery of 29 archaeolo-gical sites permitted recording unknown e...

The rich fossil record of the family Equidae (Mammalia: Perissodactyla) over the past 55 MY has made it an icon for the patterns and processes of macroevolution. Despite this, many aspects of equid phylogenetic relationships and taxonomy remain unresolved. Recent genetic analyses of extinct equids have revealed unexpected evolutionary patterns and...

Human migration across Fuego-Patagonia during the late-glacial and early Holocene takes place against a backdrop of rapid climate change. To understand the nature and timing of human activity at this time it is essential to reconstruct the sequence of environmental changes as the global oceanatmosphere system switched from glacial to inter-glacial...

The first results of a research focused on the evolution of human terrestrial colonization in Tierra del Fuego during the Holocene are presented. Emphasis is given to moments before 2000 BP, focusing on the integration of a new methodological strategy to approach the detection of archaeological sites for this period.

The Cabo Monmouth 20 site represents new evidence of Middle and Late Holocene occupations (ca. 5.000 years BP) for the north of Isla Grande, Tierra del Fuego. In this paper we evaluate archaeo- logical evidence from a test pit excavation, synthesize stratigraphic and contextual data, and present a new radiocarbon date (5,520 + 50 years BP) on she...

The present techno-economic study of lithic materials recovered in Cerro Castillo 1 site, provincia de Última Esperanza - Chile, delivers new precedents about the terrestrial hunter groups that lived in the area approximately 4.500 years BP. The set allows characterizing reduction schemes that emphasize technical systems based on the management of...

The present techno-economic study of lithic materials recovered in Cerro Castillo I site, provincia de Ultima Esperanza - Chile, delivers new precedents about the terrestrial hunter groups that lived in the area approximately 4.500 years BP. The set allows characterizing reduction schemes that emphasize technical systems based on the management of...

The Cabo Monmouth 20 site represents new evidence of Middle and Late Holocene occupations (ca. 5.000 years BP) for the north of Isla Grande, Tierra del Fuego. In this paper we evaluate archaeological evidence from a test pit excavation, synthesize stratigraphic and contextual data, and present a new radiocarbon date (5,520 +/- 50 years BP) on shell...

La migración humana a través de Fuego-Patagonia durante el Tardi-glacial y Holoceno temprano ocurre en un contexto del cambio rápido del clima. Para entender la naturaleza y los ritmos de la actividad humana en esta época es esencial reconstruir la secuencia de cambios ambientales como sistema global océano-atmósfera cambiado de modo glacial a inte...

The first results of a research focused on the evolution of human terrestrial colonization in Tierra del Fuego during the Holocene are presented. Emphasis is given to moments before 2000 BP, focusing on the integration of a new methodological strategy to approach the detection of archaeological sites for this period.

Results of surface and stratigraphic surveys and artifact collections conducted at the northern coast of Ja- caf channel, Región de Aisén (Chile), are herein presented. Out of these activities, Seno Gala 1 site outstands as the main archaeological locality. We expose settlement characteristics, the chronological context, recorded lithic technology...

Se da cuenta del contexto de un sitio arqueológico de especiales características, por hallarse inmerso en un antiguo turbal y por su datación de ca. 4.000 años AR Los análisis liticos y arqueofaunisticos del sitio Myren 2 apoyan la idea de que se trata de un sitio de difícil adscripción funcional, pero muy interesante por la información que entrega...

Results of surface and stratigraphic surveys and artifact collections conducted at the northern coast of Jacaf channel, Región de Aisén (Chile), are herein presented. Out of these activities, Seno Gala site outstands as the main archaeological locality. We expose settlement characteristics, the chronological context, recorded lithic technology (ope...

The context of an archaeological site with special characteristics, because it is immerse in a peat bog and for its dated age of ca. 4.000 BP, is described. The lithic and archaeofaunistic analysis of Myren 2 site support the idea that it is hard to ascribe functionally, thought it contains interesting information and an outstanding character for T...

This study examines lithic material from the Cabo San Vicente I collection from a technological perspective. This collection, composed of material from the north coast of Tierra del Fuego island, Patagonia - Chile, was put together by Annette Laming-Emperaire in 1959. The study presented here focuses on lithic cores by approaching their reduction s...

A second upper incisor belonging to the tremarctine bear Pararc-totherium was recovered from latest Pleistocene deposits in Cueva de los Chingues, Magallanes, Chile (San Roman et al., 2000; Fig. 1). This is the southernmost record of an ursid in the world and one of the youngest records of Pararctotherium. The paleoenvironment of south-ern Patagoni...

In Chile, the Law N° 19.300 About General Environmental Bases, has been very important for archaeology, in setting the importance of cultural patrim ony. Today, every investment has to make an environmental stud y befare the beginning of its executio n, and in front of archaeo logical sites, the law sets their inviolability. Sometimes, this conditi...