Argentine and Spanish researchers have used statistical techniques of automatic learning to analyze mobility patterns and technology of the hunter-gatherer groups that inhabited the Southern Cone of America, from the time they arrived about 12,000 years ago until the end of the 19th century. Big data from archaeological sites located in the extreme south of Patagonia have been used for this study.

The presence of humans on the American continent dates back to at least 14,500 years ago, according to datings made at archaeological sites such as Monte Verde, in Chile's Los Lagos Region. But the first settlers continued moving towards the southernmost confines of America.

Now, researchers from Argentina's National Council for Scientific and Technical Research (CONICET) and two Spanish institutions (the Spanish National Research Council and the University of Burgos) have analyzed the relationships between mobility and technology developed by those societies that originated in the far south of Patagonia. 

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"It is by means of automatic classification algorithms that we have identified two technological packages or 'landscapes': one that characterizes pedestrian hunter-gatherer groups (with their own stone and bone tools) and the other characterizing those that had nautical technology, such as canoes, harpoons and mollusc shells used to make beads," explains Ivan Briz i Godino, an archaeologist of the National Council for Scientific and Technical Research (CONICET) of Argentina and co-author of the work. 

Example of a group with nautical technology: Yámana people in the Anglican mission of Bahía Tekenika (Tierra del Fuego), portrayed in the late 19th or early 20th century. Darwin lived with them during the second voyage of the Beagle.
Example of a group with nautical technology: Yámana people in the Anglican mission of Bahía Tekenika (Tierra del Fuego), portrayed in the late 19th or early 20th century. Darwin lived with them during the second voyage of the Beagle. © Ivan Briz i Godino courtesy of the archives of the South American Missionary Society (United Kingdom)

Ivan Briz i Godino, Virginia Ahedo, Myrian Álvarez, Nélida Pal, Lucas Turnes, José Ignacio Santos, Débora Zurro, Jorge Caro and José Manuel Galán. "Hunter - gatherer mobility and technological landscapes in southernmost South America: a statistical learning approach". Royal Society Open Science, October 2018. http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rsos.180906

Abstract: The present work aims to quantitatively explore and understand the relationship between mobility types (nautical versus pedestrian), specific technological traits and shared technological knowledge in pedestrian hunter–gatherer and nautical hunter–fisher–gatherer societies from the southernmost portion of South America. To that end, advanced statistical learning techniques are used: state-of-the-art classification algorithms and variable importance analyses. Results show a strong relationship between technological knowledge, traits and mobility types. Occupations can be accurately classified into nautical and pedestrian due to the existence of a non-trivial pattern between mobility and a relatively small fraction of variables from some specific technological categories. Cases where the best-fitted classification algorithm fails to generalize are found significantly interesting. These instances can unveil lack of information, not enough entries in the training set, singular features or ambiguity, the latter case being a possible indicator of the interaction between nautical and pedestrian societies.