Current Anthropology Volume 57, Number 1, February 2016
Discussion
Harsh Environments and the Terminal
Pleistocene Peopling of the Andean
Highlands
Jos M. Capriles, Calogero M. Santoro,
and Tom D. Dillehay
Departamento de Antropologa, Universidad de Tarapac,
Cardenal Caro 348, Arica, Chile (jmcapriles@gmail.com)/
Instituto de Alta Investigacin, Universidad de Tarapac,
Antofagasta 1520, Arica, Chile/Department of Anthropology,
Vanderbilt University, 124 Garland Hall, Nashville, Tennessee
37325, USA. This paper was submitted 21 V 15 and accepted
8 VI 15.
Rademaker et al. (2014) present novel archaeological evidence
for contending that, during the terminal Pleistocene (TP), hu-
mans were occupying the harsh highlands of southern Peru
on a permanent basis. The evidence consists of 19 14C dates
between 11,400 and 12,400 cal before present (BP) associated
with stone tools, features, burned plants, and artiodactyl faunal
remains recovered from the Cuncaicha rock shelter (4,480 m
above sea level) in the Pucuncho basin. Near the rock shelter,
two open-air workshops evidence obsidian exploitation from
the Alca source, previously identied at Quebrada Jaguay, a
TP open-air site on the south coast of Peru (Sandweiss et al.
1998). This research is signicant and thought provoking but,
as discussed below, merits further contextual and theoretical
consideration.
Although a robust set of radiocarbon dates supports a TP
human presence at Cuncaicha, we are concerned that only
bone remains were assayed and that there is no adequate de-
scription of the taxa, elements, human modication, and ta-
phonomic history of these remains. Was carnivore gnawing
present on the bones? High-altitude rock shelters are prefer-
ential lairs for predators such as pumas and foxes, implying
that not all bones necessarily represent a human presence and
chronology. It is also unclear why carbonized plant materials
reported from hearths were not directly dated.
In our opinion, the few artifacts and informal features re-
ported from Cuncaicha are insufcient to substantiate an
intense or year-round occupation. A diverse and complete
lithic reduction sequence comes from the surface of the work-
shops and not from the occupied rock shelter, where only a
portion of the sequence traditionally associated with perma-
nent subsistence and related activities is represented.1
q 2016 by The Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research.
All rights reserved. 0011-3204/2016/5701-0007$10.00. DOI: 10.1086
/684694
99
The idea of early human colonization in high-altitude An-
dean environments rapidly leading to a permanent occupation
is provocative. Nonetheless, all previous studies in other high-
altitude Andean areas, many of which are located in less harsh
or equally harsh environments, currently do not support this
idea (Aldenderfer 2008; Capriles and Albarracin-Jordan 2013;
Jolie et al. 2011; Lavalle 2000; Osorio et al. 2011; Rick 1980;
Santoro et al. 2011). Recent research in the south-central An-
des, for example, suggests a close linkage between intermittent
TP human exploration of high altitudes and ameliorated en-
vironments (Moreno, Santoro, and Latorre 2009; Nez, Gros-
jean, and Cartajena 2002). A number of early sites, including
Cuncaicha, bear evidence of signicant human foraging in
these environments, but most likely within broad geographic
circuits of seasonal logistical mobility.
The above argument that humans colonized harsh high
altitudes in the Andes raises the question of what constitutes
a harsh environment. While the majority of the earth main-
tains a climate and environment that are suitable for people,
plants, and animals to thrive, there are certain areas of the
world that are much more extreme. Many factors can make
an environment harsh for humans (e.g., temperature extremes,
rough terrain, new pathogens and diseases, economic uncer-
tainty, political hostility, and social unrest). In spite of these
challenges, people still manage to live under these extreme
conditions. Although living at an altitude of 4,500 m above
sea level in Cuncaicha exposed humans to hypoxia, a veritably
harsh condition, it is an environment that also provides a di-
versity and seasonal abundance of food resources. Further-
more, there are other impeding environments in South Amer-
ica, such as the dense and humid forests of the Amazon, the
cold and glacial extremes of southern Patagonia, and the hyper-
arid and barren Atacama Desert. Although each of these en-
vironments, and others, presented different degrees of harsh-
ness, they challenged but apparently did not prevent human
exploration during the TP (Dillehay 2014). Harshness, thus, is
relative and perhaps should not be emphasized as a major
factor in evaluating early human colonization.
Finally, new archaeological discoveries and systematic re-
search of early sites are pushing back in time the initial entry
of humans into the high Andes, but as this research prog-
resses, it should be integrated within broad theoretical pro-
grams. In fact, based on evolutionary ecology principles, Al-
denderfer has argued that the effective occupation of the
Andes and other highlands must have been characterized by
the progressive evolution of specic behavioral, technological,
and biological adaptations (Aldenderfer 1998, 2008, 2011). In
1. Finding a complete reduction sequence near sources of raw ma-
terial is common, because foragers often select nodules and knap them
into nal tools. Surface artifacts accumulated during multiple visits can
produce an unrelated palimpsest of lithics, which can be mistaken for
complete activity sequences.
 100
this regard, whether the archaeological evidence at Cuncaicha
represents the rst efforts by humans to colonize the high-
lands or simply the consequence of tactical foraging cannot be
resolved on the basis of the current evidence. Clearly, more
collaborative and interdisciplinary research is required to rec-
oncile these differences and to better understand the processes
involved in human peopling of new environments.
Acknowledgments
Research supported by Chilean FONDECYT grants 1120454
and 3140008 and CONICYT Programa de Investigacin
Asociativa Anillo SOC 1405.
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