When and by which routes did Paleoindians enter the Americas, and how did they adapt to inhabit different ecological zones?
Our group seeks to understand the timing, routes, and environmental setting of the earliest human dispersals in western South America.
We integrate archaeology, physical anthropology, genetics, and quaternary science to study prehistoric settlement systems - linked archaeological sites situated in multiple ecological zones from the Pacific coast to the high Andes.
This work provides information about the long-term history and co-evolution of humans and ecological systems, and the formation of landscapes.
New paper online in the American Journal of Physical Anthropology
Karakostis, A., H. Reyes-Centeno, M. Francken, G. Hotz, K. Rademaker, and K. Harvati, 2020. Bio-cultural evidence of precise manual activities in an early Holocene individual of the high-altitude Peruvian Andes. American Journal of Physical Anthropology