Palaeogeographic changes drove prehistoric fishing practices in the Cambaceres Bay (Tierra del Fuego, Argentina) during the middle and late Holocene

Abstract

Fishing intensification is evidenced in the archaeological record of the Beagle Channel region (Tierra del Fuego, Argentina) during the late Holocene by significant diachronic increases in both the representation of coastal taxa and the diversity of pelagic fish species taken. Faunal evidence from the Imiwaia I site, however, shows a different pattern in temporal variation in the exploitation of coastal fish in contrast to that of the regional trend. By comparing data from palaeogeography and archaeoichthyology, we have been able to evaluate how changes in Holocene coastal geomorphology near the Imiwaia I site influenced hunter–gatherer subsistence. The results show that the abundance and taxonomic diversity recorded in ichthyofaunal assemblages at the Imiwaia I site coincide with the environmental expectations arising from palaeogeographic reconstructions of the Cambaceres Bay during the middle and late Holocene.