Exploitation of faunal resources by marine hunter-gatherer groups during the Middle Holocene at the Copaca 1 site, Atacama Desert coast

Abstract

The article presents the results of a study conducted on an assemblage of archeofaunal remains from the Copaca 1 archeological site, located on the arid coast of Northern Chile. The site corresponds to an extensive shell midden that was used generally as an occupational site and specifically as a funerary one by specialized marine hunter-gatherers exclusively during the Archaic period.

The analysis of the faunal remains enabled a general description of the use of local fauna throughout the site's cultural sequence, which range from 7866 to 5040 cal. BP. According to the results obtained, marine and terrestrial fauna, including marine and terrestrial mammals, sea birds, pelagic and oceanic fish, mollusks, crustaceans and equinoderms, were used as a source of both food and technological implements during the Middle Holocene. This implies that the human groups that inhabited Copaca 1 accessed most of the ecoanthropic spheres of the Southern Cone of the Southwestern Pacific coast from early times onward, an adaptation dated since 12,000 BP in the south-western coast from southern Peru and northern Chile.