Rafael Suarez

Grant Type

Post PhD Research Grant

Institutional Affiliation

Uruguay, U. de la Republica

Grant number

Gr. 9978

Approve Date

August 26, 2020

Project Title

Suárez, Rafael (University of Republic, College of Humanities) "The Paleoamerican exploration of the Uruguay middle river during the late Pleistocene"

This project seeks to investigate one of the topics of greatest interest in contemporary American archaeology, such as the initial settlement of America. During the late Pleistocene, climatic, faunistic, and ecological changes could produce social readjustments and technological innovations in human populations that were exploring and colonizing the low southeastern plains of South America. In this project an interdisciplinary approach with archaeological and paleoecological data are integrated to systematize and discuss different aspects of early human settlement in the Uruguay river. We seek to make an extensive excavation in open area in the Paleoamerican multicomponent Tigre site, a residential camp, where previously we have recovered evidence of human occupations dated between 14,000 to 10,000 yr cal BP. The planned geo-archeological research, will seek to generate data that help to understand the process of human adaptation to the environmental changes occurred during the last Ice Age, including the late Pleistocene, the Pleistocene Holocene transition and the early Holocene.

Publications

Rafael Suárez & María Julia Melián (2021) Fluted Triangular Nonstemmed Points in Uruguay and Their Extra-regional Relationship: Broadening Technological Diversity during the Early Holocene of South America, PaleoAmerica, 7:3, 190-210, DOI: 10.1080/20555563.2021.1928983

Rafael Suárez, Jenny Volarich, Julia Melian (2023) The initial peopling of South American Plains: An overview on Late Pleistocene and Early Holocene settlers in Uruguay. L’anthropologie (2023), https://doi.org/10.1016/j.anthro.2023.103120