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

Abstract

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.