Tom D. Dillehay

• Vanderbilt University

South America’s Pacific margin is subject to recurring subduction-zone earthquakes that have generated devastating historical tsunamis, as well as earlier events impacting indigenous populations that have lived along the region’s rich upwelling coastlines throughout the Holocene. Despite recurring events, the geologic record of paleo-tsunamis is re...

This handbook is currently in development, with individual articles publishing online in advance of print publication. At this time, we cannot add information about unpublished articles in this handbook, however the table of contents will continue to grow as additional articles pass through the review process and are added to the site. Please note...

Over the past several decades a heated debate and gradual Kuhnian-like paradigm shift has been taking place in American archaeology that relates to the initial peopling of the western hemisphere. The central role of the Monte Verde archaeological site in Chile in the debate and paradigm change and the obstacles to its eventual acceptance are discus...

Archaeological cobs from Paredones and Huaca Prieta (Peru) represent some of the oldest maize known to date, yet they present relevant phenotypic traits corresponding to domesticated maize. This contrasts with the earliest Mexican macro-specimens from Guila Naquitz and San Marcos, which are phenotypically intermediate for these traits, even though...

Archaeological cobs from Paredones and Huaca Prieta (Peru) represent some of the oldest maize known to date, yet they present relevant phenotypic traits corresponding to domesticated maize. This contrasts with the earliest Mexican macro-specimens from Guila Naquitz and San Marcos, which are phenotypically intermediate for these traits, even though...

Monte Verde II in southern Chile is one of the most important, and debated, sites for understanding of the early peopling of the Americas. The authors present 43 radiocarbon measurements based on cores of sediments that overlie the archaeological deposits adjacent to the site. Statistical analysis of these dates narrows the deposition of the earlie...

Coasts are dynamic, constantly changing ecosystems offering rich and varied foods and other resources. Compared with the monistic structure of crop production in many terrestrial parts of the world, some coastlines reflect a dualistic structure with complementary maritime and agricultural economies beginning in early prehistoric times. In particular...

Coasts are dynamic, constantly changing ecosystems offering rich and varied foods and other resources. Compared with the monistic structure of crop production in many terrestrial parts of the world, some coastlines reflect a dualistic structure with complementary maritime and agricultural economies beginning in early prehistoric times. In particula...

Corrections are made to Stuart Fiedel’s (2022) recent errors and misrepresentations related to the late Pleistocene sites of Monte Verde and Huaca Prieta and to South American Fishtail projectile points.

Discovery of a late Pleistocene (∼13,300 cal BP) reef-building coral species (Pocillopora damicornis) at the prehistoric Huaca Prieta settlement in Peru raises the question of its origin. Did it arrive in northern Peru from tropical Ecuador via larval dispersal in south-flowing El Niño currents or over land by human trading? The Holocene distributi...

In this study, we analyze extensive segmented and standardized agricultural fields in the marginally productive terrain of the Pampa de Guereque in the Jequetepeque Valley on the north coast of Peru. Although portions of the associated canal system were constructed continuously from late Formative to Chimú times, the segmented fields date to the la...

Archaeological cobs from Paredones and Huaca Prieta (Peru) are phenotypically indistinguishable from modern maize. This contrasts with the earliest Mexican macro-specimens from Guila Naquitz and San Marcos, which are phenotypically intermediate even though they date more recently in time. These observations suggest at least two alternative scenario...

Este artículo presenta la propuesta y algunos resultados de una investigación interdisciplinaria en curso sobre los lavaderos de oro del siglo XVI de La Araucanía. El propósito de la investigación es entender más profundamente las dinámicas socioculturales que se dieron en el territorio mapuche en torno a los placeres auríferos cruzando perspectiva...

Esta investigación se realizó en el marco del Proyecto FONDECYT Regular N° 1170551 (2017-2020), "Tras la ruta del oro. Los habitantes de La Araucanía frente a la ocupación española del siglo XVI, recepción, adaptación y resistencia", financiado por la Agencia Nacional de Investigación Científica y Desarrollo (ANID) del Gobierno de Chile. Nuestros m...

Al informar sobre las pesquerías prehistóricas especializadas de tiburones en el sitio del Período Inicial de Gramalote (~1500-1200 cal AC) en la costa norte de Perú, Prieto sugiere que se capturaron cantidades sustanciales de tiburones mediante el uso de cascabeles de concha para atraer y lazos de fibra para capturarlos desde pequeños botes de tot...

Archaeological concept-, theory-, and model-building in the Andes tend to lag behind some major archaeological regions of the world. A brief review of previous dominant models in the Andes are considered and attention is made of the need to envision new interpretative modelling in the region, based on new and exciting discoveries over the past two...

Este trabajo expone los primeros avances de una investigación interdisciplinaria en curso que desea entender más profundamente las dinámicas socioculturales que se dieron en el territorio mapuche de la Araucanía (Chile), durante el siglo XVI, en torno a los placeres auríferos. La ausencia, hasta ahora, de evidencias históricas claras que permitan c...

Over the past few decades several genetic models have been published to explain the peopling of the Americas. Most of these models have not been fully reconciled with prior ones and with local and regional archaeological records. The implications of this and other concerns are discussed and solutions offered to better coordinate the joint approach...

Significance The manner in which early human populations in the Americas organized their subsistence strategies and exchange have profound implications on their socioeconomic organization. Analysis of two coexisting Preceramic communities in coastal Peru (∼7,500 to 4,000 calibrated [cal] B.P.) shows that despite their proximity, they ate distinct f...

This comment is a brief response to the opinion statement made by Politis and Prates in this issue of PaleoAmerica. Some of their errors and misunderstandings are corrected. We maintain that the psephites from Monte Verde-I and Chinchihuapi-I are allochthonous and cultural in origin.

In a review of the early archaeology of South America, Politis and Prates challenge certain data presented for some early sites. In the process, they misrepresent information presented by original investigators, including us for the Monte Verde and Chinchihuapi sites in Chile. We respond to their critique and correct several errors made by these au...

Raised agricultural fields in the delta of the Paicaví River in the Araucanía region of south-central Chile are described and considered preliminarily in terms of their social and economic implications for the Early Colonial Period. Archival material of the 16th-17th centuries suggests that this area, which was part of the Tucapel province of the A...

Tomando como hilo conductor la información enviada al virrey Toledo por Martín Ruíz de Gamboa en 1579, este artículo analiza la relación existente entre economía aurífera, estructuras poliorcéticas y vías de comunicación en La Araucanía (Ngülümapu) del siglo XVI. Se muestra la fragilidad del sistema de ocupación española, pero al mismo tiempo su gr...

Por su aporte al desarrollo de la arqueología en nuestro país, la Fundación Bunge y Born distinguirá a destacados investigadores. Es la primera vez que este premio se concederá en esta disciplina y que se desdoblará en dos categorías: la tradicional de consagración, que se viene otorgando desde 1964 y que este año recibirá el Lic. Carlos Aschero (5...

Chapter 4 summarizes the construction, subsistence, and social correlates of Huaca Prieta, a mound site in the lower Chicama Valley on the north coast of Peru, from the earliest evidence of human presence in the Late Pleistocene (ca. 12,500 14C BP) through abandonment at 3,800 14C BP. Marine resources were important throughout the sequence, which s...

The artifacts and features recovered during survey and excavations at parlamento site are described. It was discovered that few Spanish artifacts are present at parlamento sites south of the formal frontier at the Bio Bio River, and more are present in sites north of the river, which is to be expected since the Spanish controlled areas to the north...

The broader implications of the archaeological findings are discussed and related to the wider research issues of the project. More specifically, the geo-political aspects of the site locations and site types are discussed and evaluated in terms of the archival data.

The results of site survey and excavations are detailed and the relation of each site to the wider research problems is discussed. The parlamento sites are described in terms of their chronology, geographic location, size, artifact content, and internal characteristics. More specifically, the name and location of parlamento sites (i.e., in open spa...

The role of archaeology in the parlamento project is described and outlined in terms of the specific methodology employed to survey and excavate parlamento sites as well as their geographic location and artifact content. In general, parlamento historical archaeology is described within the context of the Spanish colonial period and the regional Ara...

Anthropological histories and historical geographies of colonialism both have examined the material and discursive processes of colonization and have identified the opportunities for different kinds of relationships to emerge between Europeans and the indigenous people they encountered and in different ways colonized. These studies have revealed co...

Some of the earliest Andean populations settled in the region's arid coastal river valleys, supported by abundant marine life despite having domesticated plant cultigens as early as ∼10 ka. In the Chicama River valley, this maritime economy dominated at the Preceramic site, Huaca Prieta, until ∼6 ka, after which agricultural production began to inc...

Recent research demonstrates that perishable industries – specifically including the manufacture of textiles, basketry, cordage, and netting – were a well-established, integral component of the Upper Paleolithic milieu in many parts of the Old World. Moreover, extant data suggest that not only were these synergistic technologies part and parcel of...

The research project, titled “Following the gold route. The inhabitants of Araucania facing the Spanish occupation of the 16th century: reception, adaptation and resistance”, hinged on archaeological surveys carried out in southern Chile. This paper presents an interpretation of a structure documented in the Quillen estuary of the Carahue commune....

Forty years ago, Knut Fladmark (1979) argued that the Pacific Coast offered a viable alternative to the ice-free corridor model for the initial peopling of the Americas—one of the first to support a “coastal migration theory” that remained marginal for decades. Today, the pre-Clovis occupation at the Monte Verde site is widely accepted, several oth...

El propósito de este ensayo es el de expresar mis inquietudes en relación a los modelos genéticos centrados en el poblamiento temprano de las Américas. Mi interés aquí radica simplemente en plantear preguntas y discutir las formas, desde la perspectiva de la arqueología antropológica, de mejorar las contribuciones de los estudios genéticos y, con a...

This paper presents new excavation data on the Chinchihuapi I (CH-I) locality within the Monte Verde site complex, located along Chinchihuapi Creek in the cool, temperate Valdivian rain forest of south-central Chile. The 2017 and 2018 archaeological excavations carried out in this open-air locality reveal further that CH-I is an intermittently occu...

The first humans to reach the Americas are likely to have come via a coastal route

Early archaeological evidence at Huaca Prieta suggested that the major portion of their diet was marine based, including fish, sea urchins, crabs, clams, starfish, and less frequently sea birds, sea lions, and porpoises (Bird 1948a). Huaca Prieta has provided some of the earliest evidence of maize consumption via the presence of cobs, husks, stalks...

This chapter focuses on the reconstructing the Holocene paleoenvironmental history of the Chicama valley and coastal system, which has provided diverse natural resources for the Preceramic cultures at Huaca Prieta and Paredones (fig. 5.1). Here we present the results of a geological investigation of sediment cores, outcrops, and surface morphology...

In a controversial study published in Nature, Holen et al. (2017) claim that hominins fractured mastodon bones and teeth with stone cobbles in California ∼130,000 years ago. Their claim implies a human colonization of the New World more than 110,000 years earlier than the oldest widely accepted archaeological sites in the Americas. It is also at od...

Simple pebble tools, ephemeral cultural features, and the remains of maritime and terrestrial foods are present in undisturbed Late Pleistocene and Early Holocene deposits underneath a large human-made mound at Huaca Prieta and nearby sites on the Pacific coast of northern Peru. Radiocarbon ages indicate an intermittent human presence dated between...

Archaeological research has identified the use of cultivated cotton (Gossypium barbadense) in the ancient Andes dating back to at least 7800 years ago. Because of unusual circumstances of preservation, 6000-year-old cotton fabrics from the Preceramic site of Huaca Prieta on the north coast of Peru retained traces of a blue pigment that was analyzed...

The images for Figs Figs77 and and88 have been incorrectly swapped. Please view the correct Figs Figs77 and and88 here. Fig 7 Serpentine pebble tool from Unit 17, MV-I, showing bifacially knapped and retouched edge. Serpentine is a raw material available in the coastal cordillera west of Monte Verde. Fig 8 Basalt wedge showing seven facets on o...

Questions surrounding the chronology, place, and character of the initial human colonization of the Americas are a long-standing focus of debate. Interdisciplinary debate continues over the timing of entry, the rapidity and direction of dispersion, the variety of human responses to diverse habitats, the criteria for evaluating the validity of early...

Lands in south-central Chile, long thought to have been marginal until the Spanish conquest, are here shown to have been developing complex societies between at least AD 1000 and 1500. Part of the motor was provided by coastland cultivation on raised platforms, here identified and surveyed for the first time. The authors date the field systems and...

The development of agriculture has often been described as the most important change in all of human history. Volume 2 of The Cambridge World History explores the origins and impact of agriculture and agricultural communities, and also discusses issues associated with pastoralism and hunter-fisher-gatherer economies. To capture the patterns of this...

Documenting Cultural Selection Pressure Changes on Chile Pepper ( Capsicum baccatum L.) Seed Size through Time in Coastal Peru (7,600 B.P.–Present). The chile pepper (Capsicum spp.) was independently domesticated in Mexico, the Amazon region, and the Central Andes of South America, though the exact nature of when, where, and how this process took p...

This chapter presents the broader theoretical and historical significance of the Araucanian polity. Unlike many regions of the Americas where indigenous groups experienced rapid and often drastic changes from contact with and occupation by European colonialism, the intrusion of the Spanish in south-central Chile led to the formation and growth of a...

The settlement patterns of the late pre-Hispanic to the early Hispanic period are presented and discussed in the light of the changing demographic patterns during the study period.

This chapter presents detailed archaeological information, including artifacts, chronology, stratigraphy, function, and meaning, from all excavated mound and domestic sites in the Purén and Lumaco Valley.

The theoretical background and concepts applied in this study are developed and definitions of states and polities are considered.

Soil profiles in and near the TrenTrenkuel, Maicoyakuel, and Boyoncokuel (Scheelkuel) sites were studied to determine the variability of soil characteristics with respect to the Lumaco Series, dominant in the zone, and to correlate the soil horizon sequence with the cultural materials and stratigraphy present in the kuel.

This chapter describes the ceramic and artifact typology defined for all excavated sites. Emphasis is given to the variability and simplicity in style and form during the period of warfare, stress, demographic fragmentation, and intergroup co-residency at some sites.

The archaeological or cultural material expressions of the historical processes known for south-central Chile are presented. The advantages and disadvantages of the archaeological and historical sources are evaluated, as well as the value of a combined approach to the database.

Based on the archives, the type and nature of the Araucanian society of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries and the specifics of its social structure, political organization, religious beliefs and practices, and the demographic structure are discussed. Also considered is the standardization of and simplicity in the material culture during this...

The peopling of South America has become one of the most intriguing research problems in the anthropological archaeology of the New World and a topic that requires not only more site discovery, chronology building, and interregional interpretation, but also new approaches to the diversity of early cultures across the continent. This paper focuses o...