Artificial intelligence for studying the ancient human populations of Patagonia
3-DEC-2018
FECYT - SPANISH FOUNDATION FOR SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
Example of a group with nautical technology: Yámana people in the Anglican mission of Bahía Tekenika (Tierra del Fuego), portrayed in the late 19th or early 20th century. Darwin lived with them during the second voyage of the Beagle.
CREDIT
Ivan Briz i Godino courtesy of the archives of the South American Missionary Society (United Kingdom)
Argentine and Spanish researchers have used statistical techniques of automatic learning to analyze mobility patterns and technology of the hunter-gatherer groups that inhabited the Southern Cone of America, from the time they arrived about 12,000 years ago until the end of the 19th century. Big data from archaeological sites located in the extreme south of Patagonia have been used for this study.
The presence of humans on the American continent dates back to at least 14,500 years ago, according to datings made at archaeological sites such as Monte Verde, in Chile's Los Lagos Region. But the first settlers continued moving towards the southernmost confines of America.
Now, researchers from Argentina's National Council for Scientific and Technical Research (CONICET) and two Spanish institutions (the Spanish National Research Council and the University of Burgos) have analyzed the relationships between mobility and technology developed by those societies that originated in the far south of Patagonia.
The study, published in the Royal Society Open Science journal, is based on an extensive database of all available archaeological evidence of human presence in this region, from the time the first groups arrived in the early Holocene (12,000 years ago) until the end of the 19th century.
More:
https://www.eurekalert.org/bysubject/archaeology.php