Miscanti-1: Human occupation during the arid Mid-Holocene event in the high-altitude lakes of the Atacama Desert, South America Lautaro Nú ~ nez a , Rodrigo Loyola b, * , Isabel Cartajena c , Patricio L  opez d , Boris Santander e , Antonio Maldonado f , Patricio de Souza c , Carlos Carrasco g a Instituto de Arqueología y Antropología, San Pedro de Atacama, Universidad Cat olica del Norte, Gustavo Le Paige No 380, San Pedro de Atacama, Chile b UMR 7055 Prehistoire et Technologie (PreT ech), Universit e Paris Ouest Nanterre La D efense, 92023, Nanterre Cedex, France c Departamento de Antropología, Universidad de Chile, Ignacio Carrera Pinto, 1045, ~ Nu~ noa, Santiago, Chile d Museo de Historia Natural y Cultural del Desierto de Atacama, Chile e Department of Anthropology, Universidad Alberto Hurtado, Almirante Barroso 10, Santiago, Chile f Centro de Estudios Avanzados en Zonas  Aridas, Universidad de La Serena, Departamento de Biología Marina, Universidad Cat olica del Norte, Raúl Bitr an, 1305, La Serena, Chile g Colegio de Arque ologos A.G., Santiago, Chile article info Article history: Received 5 March 2017 Received in revised form 30 November 2017 Accepted 5 December 2017 Available online 16 December 2017 Keywords: Atacama Desert High-altitude environments Mid-Holocene South America Data treatment Data analysis abstract This paper presents an interdisciplinary study of the Miscanti-1 archaeological site, located in the Ho- locene terrace deposits accumulated on the eastern margin of Miscanti Lake (4120 m.a.s.l.), northern Chile (23.7  S, 67.7  W). The human response to environmental and climatic variability in the Mid- Holocene (9500-4500 cal yr BP) is discussed through the zooarchaeological, lithic and paleoenvir- onmental records. We propose that, due to the increased aridity of the period, Miscanti Lake became a brackish paleowetland that attracted discrete groups of hunter-gatherers from lower elevation Andean areas. In contrast with the high frequency of human occupations known for the humid Late Pleistocene and Early Holocene (12600-9500 yr cal BP), the Miscanti-1 site is one of the few occupations recorded in the Atacama Highlands during the Mid-Holocene period. Data analysis suggests logistic and short-term campsite use for hunting the wild camelids that were attracted by the wetlands and fresh water (8100 e8300 yr cal BP). In contrast to previous proposals for this period, we propose that access to high altitude environments did not cease, but was made possible by a shift to highly scheduled mobility and a specialized bifacial technology. Finally, the temporal and spatial links of Miscanti-1 are discussed in a regional context. © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction Consensus currently exists that during the Late Pleistocene and Early Holocene (16000-9700 yr cal BP), climatic conditions in the Atacama Desert (18e25  S) on the western slope of the Andes (>2000 m.a.s.l.) were more humid than today (Betancourt et al., 2000; Grosjean et al., 1997; Latorre et al., 2006, 2002; Moreno et al., 2007; Nester et al., 2007; Nú~ nez et al., 2005; Placzek et al., 2009; Quade et al., 2008; Rech et al., 2002; S aez et al., 2016). The last glacial wet event corresponds to the widespread pluvial stages resulting from the expansion of the tropical circulation belt to 24e25  S(Kessler, 1991; Markgraf, 1989). Also called the “Central Atacama Pluvial Event” (CAPE), has been split into two phases: CAPE I (17500-14200 yr cal BP) and CAPE II (13800-9700 yr cal BP) (Gay o et al., 2012; Latorre et al., 2006; Placzek et al., 2009; Quade et al., 2008). In the Central Andes, two major lake expansion pul- ses have been registered, linked to the regional CAPE event: the Tauca phase (18000-14000 yr cal BP) and the Coipasa phase (13000-10000 yr cal BP) (Placzek et al., 2006; Sylvestre et al., 1999). However, the timing of the Tauca wet phase proposed for the large Central Andean lakes is different from that for lakes in the southern Atacama (25  S), particularly CAPE I dated around 14,500 yr cal BP (S aez et al., 2016). * Corresponding author. E-mail addresses: lautaro.nunez@hotmail.com (L. Nú~ nez), rodarkeo@gmail.com (R. Loyola), isabel.cartajena@gmail.com (I. Cartajena), patriciolopezmend@gmail. com (P. L opez), boris.santander@gmail.com (B. Santander), amaldonado@ceaza.cl (A. Maldonado), desouza.herreros@gmail.com (P. de Souza), carrcag@gmail.com (C. Carrasco). Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Quaternary Science Reviews journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/quascirev https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quascirev.2017.12.010 0277-3791/© 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Quaternary Science Reviews 181 (2018) 109e122