Anthropology

Many American cultivated species have been domesticated in the Neotropical Lowlands. While the southern limit of some cultivars (e.g. maize) is relatively well known for the Andean Region, the south-western limit of lowland horticulture has been poorly established in South America. Sixteenthcentury European accounts mentioned the presence of cultivated plants in the delta of the ParanaŔ iver, but until now this had not been confirmed by direct archaeobotanical data. This paper presents and discusses the results of starch grains analysis from six archaeological sites of the ParanaD elta (Argentina), ranging from 1302 to 1492 years cal. AD, which confirm the pre-Hispanic presence of cultivars in the area. Wild (algarrobo) 1 and domesticated (maize and beans) plant remains were found in ceramic containers and on grinding tools from those sites. Our research contributes new data on the late dispersion of cultivated species in the Parana´Delta, an area so far excluded from continental models for the dispersal of cultivars in the Americas.

This paper presents the latest results of research done in the Colombian Andean region known as Middle
Cauca River Basin, an important location for the study of the origins of plant use and the dispersal of
domesticates throughout the Americas due to its geographical position in northwest South America. We
discuss humaneenvironment interactions during Pleistocene/Holocene transition to middle Holocene
(ca 10,000e4000 BP), specifically humaneplant interaction and environmental factors that led to the
adoption of horticultural practices. Three lines of evidence are analyzed: archaeological stratigraphy,
lithic technology, and microbotanical remains. Our results suggest that early Holocene environmental
stability allowed Middle Cauca settlers to use the diverse local resources for several millennia, altering
the local vegetation, and leading to the development of horticultural practices that included the use of
both local and foreign plants. These results inform the ongoing debate about the antiquity and nature of
plant domestication and dispersals in the Americas.

This paper provides an overview of the lithic technology of human groups that inhabited Colombian territory between the Late Pleistocene and the early Holocene. The chosen methodology was to document and compare the lithic technology regionally, in order to show the differences in theoretical and methodological approaches applied.

Sneider (2012). "Del pa-leoindio al formativo: 10.000 años para la historia de la tecnología lítica en Colombia". En: Boletín de Antropología. Universidad de Antioquia, Medellín, Vol. 26 N. o 43 pp. 124-156. Resumen. En este artículo se presenta una síntesis de las investigaciones arqueológicas que lítica de los periodos denominados: Paleoindio, Arcaico y Formativo, en distintas regiones del país. Palabras clave: Colombia, tecnología lítica, Paleoindio, Arcaico, Formativo. Abstract. This paper provides an overview of the lithic technology of human groups that inhabited Colombian territory since the Late Pleistocene through middle Holocene. The aim is to review the evolution of lithic technology analysis, from the three earliest periods: Paleoindian, Archaic, and Formative, in different regions of the country.

The study of food consumption during the colonial period in Panama Viejo traditionally has been based on chronicles and archival documentation. The present analysis reassesses the historical information about diet in this colonial enclave based on microbotanical, isotopic and bioanthropological evidence obtained from the excavations within and outside the remains of the old city’s Cathedral in two locations and four chronological periods to complement and contrast written sources. The ensuing data sets, once integrated, point to the consumption of native plants, particularly maize, among people of different ancestral origins from the settlement’s earliest years, as well as the consumption of wheat – which could not be grown in the region – plantains and rice, whose cultivation was introduced successfully. Stable isotope evidence indicates a shift from dietary strategies based on maize, seafood and terrestrial animal meat in pre-Hispanic and early colonial times to diets featuring more C3 plants, including rice, wheat, and plantains, as well beef and dairy products during the later colonial period. This gradual shift in dietary strategies appears among individuals of Indigenous American, African, European and mixed origins and ancestries, probably influenced by the nutritional and epidemiological stress registered in all of these populations.