Chronological database for Southern Chile (35°30'–42° S), ∼33000 BP to present: Human implications and archaeological biases

Abstract

A chronological database of 398 dates (247 14C dates, 148 thermoluminescence dates, and 3 obsidian hydration dates), covering the early peopling period up to the present, is presented for Southern Chile. This information is used to assess both the paleodemography, understood as human population dynamics in the past; and the “archaeo-demography”, understood as the research dynamics of archaeologists in the present, of that region. From the early peopling up to the Late Archaic, information is geographically and chronologically scarce and scattered, the exception being the coast. For this latter area, it is possible to posit the existence of an occupation hiatus extending from at least around 3400 cal BP to around 2350 cal BP. After this latter date, a regional incremental trend is evident, along with the earliest presence of ceramics, as well as evidence of probable horticultural practices. On the other hand, the coast, compared to the valley and cordillera, has been the most active area for archaeological research and dating since the 1990s. This database as a whole helps to expose research biases and current gaps, in order to improve and expand our knowledge of the long history of Southern Chile's human occupation.