4 102 D First colonists @ If, as is generally believed, people entered North America after c 12,000 BC, they must have expanded rapidly, since evidence of hunters has been found in the very south of South America by 9000 BC. Claims for an earlier human presence in South America are tantalizing but none has yet proved convincing.
#Southern tip, Monte Verde
1 103 A Northern villagers @ By 3000 BC, former hunter-gatherers were living in villages like Real Alto, growing maize and making pottery. Similarities to Japanese Jomon pottery for a while suggested cross-Pacific links, but now local pottery antecedents are known. At Real Alto one building was a charnel house (chamber containing bones) in which a woman was buried with eight sacrificed men.
#Ecuador, Panama and Colombia, Valdivia figurine
2 102 B Diverse environments at different altitudes, from desert coast to high grasslands, encouraged co-operation between the inhabitants of different regions. Coastal resources, like shells, were traded into the mountains from which crops and animals were introduced to coastal regions. By 1200 BC monumental ceremonial centres and burials furnished with fine textiles and pottery had appeared, foreshadowing later Andean civilization.
#Andean zone, textile from Huaca Prieta
3 102 C Amazonia @ Because they used perishable materials, the early inhabitants of Amazonia's richly fertile tropical forests have left little trace of their existence, although they probably lived here by 7000 BC. Their presence becomes apparent when they began using pottery, sometime before 2000 BC. Pottery provides clues to their economic activities, and indicates long-distance movement by canoe.
