Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: http://hdl.handle.net/1893/33180
Appears in Collections:Biological and Environmental Sciences Journal Articles
Peer Review Status: Refereed
Title: The nature and timing of landscape change at Cerro Benítez, Última Esperanza, southern Patagonia (52°S): New insights into the history of megafaunal extinctions and human occupation
Author(s): McCulloch, Robert D
Mansilla, Claudia A
Martin, Fabiana
Borrero, Luis
Staff, Richard A
Tisdall, Eileen W
Contact Email: e.w.tisdall@stir.ac.uk
Keywords: Pollen analysis
Palaeoenvironments
Late glacial
Holocene
Megafaunal extinctions
Cave archaeology
Issue Date: 10-Nov-2021
Date Deposited: 27-Aug-2021
Citation: McCulloch RD, Mansilla CA, Martin F, Borrero L, Staff RA & Tisdall EW (2021) The nature and timing of landscape change at Cerro Benítez, Última Esperanza, southern Patagonia (52°S): New insights into the history of megafaunal extinctions and human occupation. Quaternary International, 601, pp. 116-129. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quaint.2021.07.018
Abstract: A new Late glacial – Holocene palaeoenvironmental record from Cerro Benítez (51°33′S 72°35′W), Seno Última Esperanza, is presented. A pollen and spore record, from a closed basin mire, provides insight into the dramatic landscape changes spanning the past ~16,000 years. AMS radiocarbon dating, supplemented by the application of tephrochronology, provides robust age constraint. Our record of landscape change is set alongside a summary of the archaeofaunal records from the suite of caves and rock shelters that surround Cerro Benítez. Our record begins c. 16.3 ka, sometime after glacier retreat from the area, and describes a treeless landscape favoured by large grazing animals. At c. 14.9 ka, southern beech trees began to migrate into the area, but the landscape remained open with sufficient open ground for grazers. At c. 12.0 ka there was a dramatic expansion of woodland, but the decline of large mammals appears to have started some ~700 years earlier and is coincident with the arrival of hunter-gatherers in the area c. 12.7 ka. However, there is no archaeological evidence for human induced mass killing events, and it is likely that Cerro Benítez was a marginal resource area for early hunters that fell in and out of favour as the landscape changed during the Holocene; initially, less favourable during the early Holocene dry period (c. 11.0–8.0 ka) and more in favour during the mid-to late Holocene, although increasingly supplemented by more distant (~5–10 km) materials, including marine resources from the Golfo Almirante Montt.
DOI Link: 10.1016/j.quaint.2021.07.018
Rights: This item has been embargoed for a period. During the embargo please use the Request a Copy feature at the foot of the Repository record to request a copy directly from the author. You can only request a copy if you wish to use this work for your own research or private study. Accepted refereed manuscript of McCulloch RD, Mansilla CA, Martin F, Borrero L, Staff RA & Tisdall EW (2021) The nature and timing of landscape change at Cerro Benítez, Última Esperanza, southern Patagonia (52°S): New insights into the history of megafaunal extinctions and human occupation. Quaternary International, 601, pp. 116-129. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quaint.2021.07.018 © 2021, Elsevier. Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
Licence URL(s): http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/

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