XVI International Botanical Congess

The Pena Roja archaeological site is located in Northwest Amazonia. Rainforest conditions have prevailed since the Quaternary. During the early Holocene, a pollen record nearby shows a drier climate or better drainage in the area. These possibly drier conditions would be an advantage to set, before 9,000 B.P., a small hunter-gatherer camp on a terrace of the Caqueta river. Chronology and stratigraphy point to reutilization of the site for about a thousand years. The preceramic levels contain carbonized fragments of nine species of palms, nine species of fruit/nut trees, and phytoliths of Cucurbita, Calathea allouia, and Lagenaria siceraria. Based on these data, and present-day distribution and ecology of palms, fruit trees and other vegetables, a reconstruction of past resource-use patterns and change in subsistence is proposed.