Mobility of human populations in the Curi Leuvú basin, Northwest Patagonia, during the Holocene: An approach based on oxygen isotopes

Abstract

The Curi Leuvú basin, in the northwest of Patagonia, had a central role for the indigenous groups that inhabited the region during the Holocene. The area has access to critical resources such as water throughout the year and is near highlands with high carrying capacity during the summer, which has led to hypothesize the establishment of a seasonal pattern of vertical mobility. The presence of several large burial sites along the valleys support the use of the basin as a residential area. Here, we assessed the short and long distance mobility of human populations between 5000 and 200 years BP using oxygen isotopes. We show that δ18O terrestrial sources of water display astrong spatial pattern both at regional as well as macro-regional scales, having lower values in the highlands and higher as the altitude and the distance to the Pacific and Atlantic coast decrease. The δ18O values of human bone samples from the Curi Leuvú basin are within the range of nearby sources at low and high altitude, suggesting a predominantly regional scale of mobility throughout the Middle-Late Holocene. For future studies remain to be elucidated whether the seasonal displacement between lowlands and highlands, in winter and summer months respectively, involved a logistic or residential mobility.