Quaternary International 109–110 (2003) 95–111 When Patagonia was colonized: people mobility at high latitudes during Pleistocene/Holocene transition L. Miotti a, *, M.C. Salemme b a CONICET, Departamento de Arqueolog ! ıa, Museo de La Plata, Paseo del Bosque s/n, 1900, La Plata, Argentina b CADIC-CONICET, C.C. 92. V9410BFD Ushuaia, Tierra del Fuego, Argentina Abstract The Pleistocene–Holocene transition was a critical time for the dispersal of human societies all over South America. People looking for places to settle had to accept high environmental variability during the colonizing process. The case studied for this paper is Patagonia (Southern South America), where the oldest dates (ca. 13–10.5 kaBP) have been obtained for the peopling in the Deseado River Basin and Magellan Basin, as well. However, two archaeological sites yielded similar dates on the western side of the Andes (Monte Verde and Tagua Tagua). Following archaeological and palaeoenvironmental data (palynological, faunal, sedimentological and glaciological information), as well as radiocarbon datings, a hypothesis about the colonization of Patagonia is presented. Analysing the ways and time of colonization for this region, it is remarkable the coincidence of these ages in the centre of the steppe and close to the Magellan Strait, even in the present Tierra del Fuego island, though the eastern Andean foothills seems to be occupied at least two millennia later. It is proposed that independent peopling entries would have occurred both through the Atlantic and Pacific facades, and that the Andean foothills were colonized much later, only when the available spaces allowed it. r 2003 Elsevier Ltd and INQUA. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction The Pleistocene–Holocene transition was a critical time for the dispersal of human societies all over Patagonian. People looking for places to settle, even temporarily, had to accept high environmental varia- bility at the beginning of the colonizing process (Borrero, 1996, 1999; Borrero et al., 1998; Miotti [1989]1998; Miotti and Salemme, 1999). Analysing the map of Patagonia and reviewing those radiocarbon dates known for this period (Table 1, Fig. 1), a remarkable concentration appears in the Deseado Central plateau, in the south-central area of Patagonian Region, and in the Magellan Basin, includ- ing Tierra del Fuego which before 9000 BP was part of continental Patagonia through two narrow proglacial lakes or meltwater channels; after this age, Magellan Strait opened (Clapperton, 1992; Clapperton et al., 1995; Rabassa et al., 2000). As can be seen, dates for the earliest occupational events in extra-Andean Patagonia and the Magellan basin spread between ca. 13,000 and 10,500 yr BP. On the other side, in the eastern Andean foothills, the earliest human occupations are not older than 9500yrBP, even most of them oscillate between ca. 8000–7000 BP (Aschero et al., 1992; Grad ! ın and Aguerre, 1994; Aschero, 1996; Civalero and Aschero, 2002; Franco and Borrero, 2001; Civalero and Franco, 2003). Likewise, the absence of early sites in Central Patagonia is recognizable. On the western side of the Patagonian Andes, a third spot with clear evidence of early radiocarbon dates occurs in Chilean Araucan ! ıa, where dates between 13 and 10.5 ka BP (Dillehay, 1997) relate Monte Verde site with the hypothesis of the peopling through the Pacific rim (Bryan, 1978; Bonnichsen and Steele, 2000; Bryan and Gruhn, 2003; Miotti, 2003). Then, there is a high concentration of the oldest dates farther south in Patagonia, mainly in three areas: Deseado Central Plateau, in the eastern steppe of the Cordillera; Magellan basin; and the region of the Pacific rim at the western slope Andean Cordillera. In this sense, the colonization during the Pleistocene/ Holocene transition in Southern South America could be correlated with the American process of human ARTICLE IN PRESS *Corresponding author. E-mail addresses: lmiotti@museo.fcnym.unlp.edu.ar (L. Miotti), labcuat@satlink.com (M.C. Salemme). 1040-6182/03/$-see front matter r 2003 Elsevier Ltd and INQUA. All rights reserved. PII:S1040-6182(02)00206-9