Radiocarbon chronology of early human settlement on the Isthmus of Panama (13,000–7000 BP) with comments on cultural affinities, environments, subsistence, and technological change

Abstract

The first human migrants entering South America must have used the Isthmian route. Convincing archaeological evidence for pre-Clovis groups is lacking. Paleoindian artifacts including Clovis and Fishtail fluted projectile points have been found at several localities, but at only one site (Vampiros-1) in buried and radiocarbon-dated deposits (∼11,500–∼9000 BP). Close similarities between Clovis point reduction sequences at two Panamanian quarry-workshops to those of early US Clovis sites vouch for temporal proximity and suggest rapid movement of Clovis bands through Central America, 11,050–10,800 BP. Vampiros-1 and other rock-shelters were occupied during the early Holocene (10,000–7000 BP) when climate became warmer and wetter. Un-fluted bifacial projectile points were made until ∼7000 BP. Widespread grinding stones and carbonized tree fruits announce a mixed economy at the beginning of the Holocene. Cultivated lerén, arrowroot, squash and bottle gourd appeared by 8000 BP. There are no indicators of human activities at Lake La Yeguada (650 m asl), 14,000–11,150 BP, nor at Vampiros-1, 16,000–11,500 BP. Pre-Clovis populations were probably bound to the now-drowned Pacific coast. Intense burning and deforestation commenced at La Yeguada ∼11,050 BP coevally with Clovis. Human impacts were thenceforth continuous. Swidden farming had largely removed forest cover by 7000 BP across seasonally arid Central Pacific Panama. Lake sediment data from forested areas with less seasonal climates on the Caribbean and Pacific watersheds indicate moderate human interference before 7000 BP. The mtDNA history of modern Panamanians confirms Native American continuity from before 10,000 BP and provides support for the Pacific route of initial dispersal into South America.