Synopsis of the Archaeology of Tierra del Fuego

Abstract

The archaeology of the Fuegian archipelago can be understood as an example of diverse cultural trajectories related with corresponding high environmental diversity. The main archaeological results of the different areas of the archipelago are introduced and commented. The limited evidences of the initial occupations, older than 10,000 years, inform about terrestrial hunter-gatherers still interacting with extinct fauna. In the north coast of the Beagle channel, segments of the Atlantic coast and the Strait of Magellan the regional archaeological signal intensifies during the early Holocene and the first part of the middle Holocene. Sites dated during the Late Holocene are progressively more abundant everywhere, especially during the last 1500 years, when there is increasing intensity of use of the different environments and when new areas are included within the mobility circuits of both terrestrial and littoral hunter-gatherers.