Ice Age megafauna rock art in the Colombian Amazon?

Megafauna paintings have accompanied the earliest archaeological contexts across the continents, revealing a fundamental inter-relationship between early humans and megafauna during the global human expansion as unfamiliar landscapes were humanized and identities built into new territories. However, the identification of extinct megafauna from rock art is controversial. Here, we examine potential megafauna depictions in the rock art of Serranía de la Lindosa, Colombian Amazon, that includes a giant sloth, a gomphothere, a camelid, horses and three-toed ungulates with trunks. We argue that they are Ice Age rock art based on the (i) naturalistic appearance and diagnostic morphological features of the animal images, (ii) late Pleistocene archaeological dates from La Lindosa confirming the contemporaneity of humans and megafauna, (iii) recovery of ochre pigments in late Pleistocene archaeological strata, (iv) the presence of most megafauna identified in the region during the late Pleistocene as attested by archaeological and palaeontological records, and (v) widespread depiction of extinct megafauna in rock art across the Americas. Our findings contribute to the emerging picture of considerable geographical and stylistic variation of geometric and figurative rock art from early human occupations across South America. Lastly, we discuss the implications of our findings for understanding the early human history of tropical South America. This article is part of the theme issue ‘Tropical forests in the deep human past’.1. Introduction 2. Early rock art in the Americas, study region and brief archaeological background 3. The La Lindosa rock art 4. The megafauna paintings (a) Giant ground sloth (Megatheriidae) (b) Proboscidean (Gomphotheriidae) (c) Horse (Equidae) (d) Camelid (Camelidae) (e) Macraucheniid (Macraucheniidae) 5. Concluding remark

Evidence confirms an anthropic origin of Amazonian Dark Earths

Archaeology of the America

Evidence confirms an anthropic origin of Amazonian Dark Earths.

Arising from: Silva et al. Nature Communications https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-020-20184-2 (2021

The peopling of Amazonia: Chrono-stratigraphic evidence from Serranía La Lindosa, Colombian Amazon

This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from Elsevier via the DOI in this recordData availability: Data will be made available on request.Amazonia constitutes one of the most ethnically diverse regions in the world. However, our understanding of the arrival and historical trajectories of people in Amazonia is still poorly understood. Our recent excavations in the Serranía de la Lindosa have begun to fill this gap and provide new insights into the first human societies that settled in the Colombian Amazon region during the Younger Dryas (YD) period of the late Pleistocene. This paper details the stratigraphy, taphonomy and chronological framework of two rock shelters, Cerro Montoya 1 and Limoncillos, from excavations carried out by the LASTOURNEY project between 2021 and 2022. Based on radiocarbon dates from five multicomponent sites (Cerro Azul, Cerro Montoya 1, Limoncillos, Angosturas II and Casita de Piedra), four distinct phases of occupation are modelled using OxCal program (v.4.4). late Pleistocene-early Holocene (12.6–10.0 cal ka BP); early to middle Holocene (9.5–5.9 cal ka BP); initial late Holocene (4.1–3.7 cal ka BP), and late Holocene (3.0–0.3 cal ka BP). We establish the arrival date of the first human groups to the Colombia Amazon by ∼12.6 cal ka BP, who settled in a tropical rainforest environment, practised a generalised subsistence, had an expedient unifacial technology, and began to paint with ochre on the walls of the mesa-top tepuis by at least ∼10.2 cal ka BP. The chronology indicates gaps in the sequence during the middle Holocene, between 5.9–4.1 cal ka BP, likely representing periods of abandonment.European Union Horizon 202

Arte rupestre de la megafauna de la edad de hielo en la Amazonia Colombiana

El arte rupestre ha desempeñado un papel importante en la arqueología del Pleistoceno. Las representaciones de megafauna han acompañado a los primeros contextos arqueológicos en todos los continentes, revelando una interrelación fundamental entre los primeros seres humanos y la megafauna durante la expansión humana global, a medida que se humanizaban paisajes desconocidos y se construían identidades en nuevos territorios. Sin embargo, la identificación de la megafauna extinguida a partir del arte rupestre ha sido una cuestión controvertida. En este artículo examinamos las posibles representaciones de megafauna en el arte rupestre de la Serranía de la Lindosa (Colombia), que incluyen un perezoso gigante, un gomfótero, un camélido, caballos y ungulados de tres dedos con tronco. Concluimos que hay motivos sólidos para considerarlos arte rupestre de la Edad de Hielo basándonos en i) la apariencia naturalista y los rasgos morfológicos diagnósticos de las imágenes de animales, ii) las fechas arqueológicas del Pleistoceno tardío de la Lindosa que confirman la contemporaneidad de los humanos y la megafauna, iii) la recuperación de pigmentos ocres en los estratos arqueológicos del Pleistoceno tardío, iv) la presencia de megafauna identificada en la región durante el Pleistoceno tardío, tal y como atestiguan los registros paleontológicos, y v) la representación generalizada de megafauna extinta en el arte rupestre a lo largo de todas las Américas. Nuestros hallazgos contribuyen a la imagen emergente de una considerable variación geográfica y estilística del arte rupestre geométrico y figurativo de las primeras ocupaciones humanas en toda América del Sur. Por último, discutimos las implicaciones de nuestros hallazgos para entender la historia humana temprana de América del Sur.Introduccion Arte rupestre temprano en las américas, región de estudio y breves antecedentes arqueológicos El arte rupestre de la Lindosa - Perezoso terrestre gigante (Megatheriidae) - Proboscídeo (Gomphotheriidae) - Caballo (Equidae) - Camélido (Camelidae) - Macraucheniidae (Macraucheniidae) Observaciones finale

The Domestication of Annatto (Bixa orellana) from Bixa urucurana in Amazonia

Annatto (Bixa orellana) is an important colorant domesticated in theNeotropics, although it is not clear where or from which wild populations. We reviewed the available biological, archaeological, and ethnographic information about annatto, and integrated this with our recent ethnobotanical observations of cultivated and non-cultivated populations in order to evaluate the hypothesis thatwhat is classified as Bixa urucurana is the wild ancestor of cultivated annatto, Bixa orellana. Most B. urucurana populations we found in Amazonia occurred in open forests or anthropogenic landscapes, although never cultivated, and always associated with riparian environments. While cultivated annatto always produces abundant pigment, B. urucurana populations that we observed contained variable amounts of pigment, fromvery little to nearly the amount of cultivated annatto, suggesting gene flow fromcultivated to non-cultivated. Bixa urucurana has indehiscent fruits, which indicate changes in dehiscence during annatto domestication, a notable feature rarely found in other tree species. Local residents identified the non-cultivated populations aswild annatto (urucum bravo), and they emphasized their smaller fruits with less pigment, their spontaneous regeneration, their non-use, and that they hybridize with cultivated annatto. Ethnography identified the symbolic importance of annatto, but an explicit mention of origin only comes from southern Amazonia. Although the oldest annatto archaeological record came from the Caribbean, domestication occurred in northern South America, since B. urucurana does not occur in the Caribbean. Traditional ecological knowledge and morphology identified the close relationship between B. urucurana (never cultivated) and B. orellana (always cultivated). Evidence reported here strongly supports Kuntze's (1925) suggestion that Bixa urucurana Willd. is a variety of B. orellana L., thus identifying the wild ancestor of cultivated annatto. © 2015, by The New York Botanical Garden Press, Bronx, NY 10458-5126 U.S.A