PREHISTORIC HUMAN ADAPTATIONS TO THE SEASONALLY DRY FORESTS OF PANAMA

Since 1981 research in the Santa Maria Basin, an area of seasonally dry forest on the Pacific coast of Panama, has shown that collating environmental records with regional archaeological surveys enables us to identify small dispersed populations in New World tropical forests. Original multiple working hypotheses are reevaluated. Data show that: 1) the watershed has been occupied continuously since 11,000 BP; 2) population increases took place c. 7000 and 2500 BP; 3) domestication of some native tubers occurred before 7000 BP; 4) maize, introduced 7000-5000 BP, was extensively cultivated by sedentary communities by 2500 BP; 5) forest degradation took place earlier on stony hillslopes than in flatter colluvial zones; and 6) coastal resources, first visible at 8600 BP, became important between 7000 and 3500 BP.