Climate change and peopling of the Neotropics during the Pleistocene-Holocene transition

Abstract

Santa Marta cave, Chiapas, is a unique archaeological site with high-resolution chronological control and continuous human occupation since 12500 cal BP. In this work we report a correlation between human activity and climate conditions inferred from sedimentological, palynological, archaeozoological and stable isotopic analyses with the aim of assessing the late Pleistocene and early Holocene environmental conditions faced by the first settlers in tropical America. Results suggest that the late Pleistocene and early Holocene periods of abrupt climatic change (ACC), the Younger Dryas and the 8.2 ka event, are recorded in the rock shelter, and coincide with the two main periods of human occupation. The data suggest that these ACC periods were both cold and moist. Human activity had a limited impact at the local or regional level, over a changing environment during the Pleistocene-Holocene transition, though there is some evidence for the introduction of exotic species. © 2018, Instituto de Geologã-a, Universidad Nacional Autãnoma de Mã