Private

FS 3.232

Highland–lowland connections and interactions

Details

Full Title
FS 3.232: Highland–lowland connections and interactions
Scheduled
TBA
Location
TBA
Convener
Kurt Rademaker
Co-Conveners
---
Assigned to Synthesis Workshop
SW 3.103: People and Mountains: Stories from an Archaeological Perspective
Thematic Focus
Adaptation, Archaeology, Ecosystems, Paleoperspective
Keywords
Mountain Archaeology

Description

Of the world’s habitable landscapes, mountain environments present humans with striking adaptive challenges but also unique resources and opportunities. Our genus’ early and longstanding engagement with highland environments is demonstrated by abundant archaeological evidence, from pre-Middle Stone Age African populations, to Neandertals and Denisovans in Eurasia, to modern humans in high mountains and plateaus around the globe. Our ability to thrive in highlands is a testament to hominins’ ecological plasticity, our ability to occupy, utilize, and ultimately become specialists in diverse zones. Yet, uplands do not exist in isolation but are intimately integrated with adjacent slopes and lowlands. Complex topography and its attendant microclimates and biodiversity likely exerted a recurrent draw on humans. In this session we invite colleagues working in various mountain regions and time periods to explore highland-lowland connections by humans and our ancestors.

Were the earliest explorations of mountain environments tentative, or was dispersal into highlands a more rapid process?
Were montane environments marginal or productive relative to alternative ecozones?
Were highlands and their resources used to supplement lowland-focused settlement systems, or were highland settlement systems more self-contained?
Did people move between various elevation floors and ecological zones via transhumance, or were inter-zonal connections social or ritual in character? How were highland landscapes and their resources learned over time?

We welcome dialogue connecting with these and other questions concerning human engagement with highlands and connections with lowlands.

Submitted Abstracts

ID: 3.7910

Exploring transtopographic communities in ancient Southwest Asia: Examples from the western Zagros region

Claudia Glatz

Abstract/Description

The topography of Southwest Asia is dominated by several major mountain ranges. Archaeological research in the region – captivated since its beginnings by the earliest cities, states, and empires – has tended to focus on lowland plains and large intermontane plateaus, while survey and excavations in piedmont and mountain regions rarely explicitly engage with broader questions of mountain archaeology or comparative approaches to mountain living. This is in part the result of both ancient and modern biases towards mountain regions and their inhabitants, which have tended to produce historical narratives that centre the political and economic interests and cultural perspectives of outsiders, whose textual sources and iconography consistently cast mountain people as the enemies of lowland, urban ways of life from at least the third millennium BCE. Modern scholarship has tended to adopt and embellish the barbarous archetypes of mountain people offered up in state-derived cuneiform sources as they smoothly interweave with modernist notions of the timelessness of upland rurality, ostensible environmental marginality, and conjectures about adaptive imperatives. In this paper, I aim to step outside of economic rationales and political-imperial frames of reference to explore how communities in the transitional landscapes of the Sirwan/upper Diyala river valley and in the higher altitude zones of the western Zagros, in what is today eastern Iraq and western Iran, interacted with each other. Approaching the question from a practice-centred perspective, I argue that Prehistoric, Bronze and Iron Age communities constructed a series of spheres of commonality and belonging that cross-cut topographic zones, broader cultural differences, and likely also political divides by participating in shared ritual and commensal arenas of practice, meaning-making, and community-building.

ID: 3.8113

Obsidian Procurement and Lithic Technology in Highland–Lowland Networks: Insights from Pampa Lechuza, South-Central Andes

Jalh Dulanto
Pérez-Balarezo, Antonio; Vergara, Daniel; Tarrillo, Dany

Abstract/Description

This study examines the connections between highland and lowland regions in the south-central Andes during the Late Pleistocene to Early Holocene through the analysis of obsidian artifacts from Pampa Lechuza, located in the south-central coastal desert of Peru. Geochemical analysis using portable X-ray fluorescence (pXRF) shows that over 99% of the obsidian originated from the Quispisisa source located approximately 250 km away in the Ayacucho highlands. Technological analysis indicates that the obsidian artifacts primarily reflect advanced reduction stages, suggesting that procurement likely occurred via reciprocal exchange between groups occupying different territories, either through boundary or down-the-line modes. The lithic assemblage from Pampa Lechuza exhibits evidence of Fishtail and Paiján projectile point technology, as well as the manufacture of blades, bladelets, and microblades. This suggests a complex chaîne opératoire that included both local coastal raw materials, such as chalcedony and quartz crystal, and non-local highland raw materials, such as obsidian. These findings suggest that Pampa Lechuza functioned as a node within a vertically organized territory, facilitating connections between highland and coastal ecozones, and possibly linking human groups from these regions. The site’s oasis location and the exclusive presence of maritime fauna in excavated Late Pleistocene and Early Holocene levels underscore its importance as a resting point within regional mobility networks that extend westward to the shores south of the Paracas Peninsula. This study examines early human adaptations in the Andes, focusing on mobility strategies and resource acquisition systems. This highlights the significance of highland-lowland connections in facilitating technological innovation, resource distribution, and social interactions among various ecological zones. This study compares the procurement strategies and technological practices at Pampa Lechuza with those at other sites in the Andes, thereby enhancing our understanding of human interactions with diverse landscapes and the adaptive challenges presented by vertical ecological gradients.

ID: 3.8627

The role of high elevation plateaus of Central West Patagonia in past settlement, mobility, and toolstone procurement

Cesar Mendez
Nuevo-Delaunay, Amalia

Abstract/Description

The study of past human occupation in Central West Patagonia is biased in favor of low elevation valley bottoms where most archaeological sites have been located. Andean river basins have yielded the longest and most redundant sequences, as well as the earliest records of hunter-gatherers who inhabited the region. Conversely, relatively high elevation plateaus and mountainous regions show less occupation likely due to marked seasonal access, although less research efforts may have played a relevant role shaping our current view. However, recent surveys targeted at areas above the tree line have produced numerous records of lithic material ranging from small concentrations to extensive sites, the latter interpreted as quarry workshops. One such area is the Chile Chico plateau where hydrothermal silex distinctively outcrops between 1470 and 1700 meters of elevation. This material reveals the initial stages of toolstone procurement and suggests the plateau was more utilized than previously thought. This variety of raw material has also been recorded in artifacts at the neighbor Jeinemeni River valley (700-200 meters of elevation), thereby highlighting the complementarity between areas at different elevations and with different sorts of resources. Results across Central West Patagonia suggest highlands offered greater visibility of knappable raw materials through less vegetation cover, lower sedimentation, and more erosion. Other plateaus in the broader region share common attributes suggesting a key feature of highlands was toolstone acquisition, likely embedded in other activities such as seasonal hunting.

ID: 3.8909

Parallels and Contrasts of Late Pleistocene-Early Holocene Hunter and Migratory Game Transhumance in the U.S. Rocky Mountains, French Pyrenees, and Polish Carpathians

Robert Brunswig

Abstract/Description

Two European and one American mountain regions, the French Spanish Pyrenees, Poland’s Carpathian Tatras, and the U.S. Southern Rocky Mountains, have been subjected to decades of complementary Late Pleistocene-Early Holocene archaeological and paleoenvironmental studies. Comparative modeling of the three regions’ cultural and environment-climatic histories, including that of the author and his research colleagues in the Colorado Rockies, have documented analogous Late Ice Age through early Holocene hunter-gatherer subsistence systems, specifically adapted to seasonal highland-lowland transhumance of migratory game species. Although each of the regions exhibit distinct traits and behaviors related to localized variations in paleoclimate, paleoecology, geomorphology, and technology, overall montane-based subsistence strategies reflect many common approaches to acquiring game resources at the end of and beyond the Late Pleistocene into the Early Holocene.

ID: 3.9701

Late Pleistocene-Early Holocene Highland-Lowland Interaction in the Rocky Mountains, USA

Bonnie Pitblado
Powell, Noah

Abstract/Description

In many of the world’s mountain ranges, it would have been impossible for any very ancient human group to have occupied only the “high country,” if one defines the “high country” as those reaches of the mountains that are ice and/or snow-covered year-round. And yet, at least in the USA’s Rocky Mountains, people did access those very high mountain reaches just as soon as waning Pleistocene conditions allowed them to do so. In this presentation, we overview the material evidence for Late Pleistocene and Early Holocene use of both highland and lowland Rocky Mountain settings, emphasizing the material evidence for the very earliest incursions into the high country. Fully understanding that evidence, we believe, requires good doses of both art and science: Science to geochemically track the movements of stone and those who quarried and carried it in and around Rocky Mountain landscapes; art to come closer to grasping the non-economic motivations that may have drawn the continent’s first people to its highest points in the first place.

ID: 3.10480

Ancient Subsistence Technologies in an Andean/Amazonian Transition Zone

Lauren Pratt

Abstract/Description

As new archaeological strategies are rapidly growing our understanding of the Amazonian past, there is increasing interest in the influence of the world’s largest rainforest and its inhabitants on the cultures of the Andean highlands—and vice versa. Although lowland plants and animals are found in highland sites by at least 7,000 years ago (a period known as the Preceramic), very few direct archaeological data are available from transition zones believed to have played an important role in the transmission of people, goods, and ideas between the highlands and lowlands during this time. In this paper, I report on a range of subsistence activities, including the introduction of lowland domesticates, documented at the Muyuksha site during and following the Preceramic Period. Located in the tropical montane cloud forest (TMCF) of northern Peru’s eastern Andes, this mid-altitude site (2544 meters above sea level) is set in the heart of a proposed zone of highland-lowland cultural transmission. These results offer an initial window into the mechanisms of the dispersal of lowland foods into the Andean highlands and suggest new hypotheses for ancient human-environment interactions in the tropical montane cloud forest.

ID: 3.10525

Interactions between highlands and coast during Middle Holocene (ca. 7,000 – 3500 BP) in the Atacama Desert (northern Chile, South-Central Andes)

Patricio De Souza
Cartajena, Isabel

Abstract/Description

During the last part of the Middle Holocene (ca. 7,000 – 3,500 years BP), hunter-gatherer societies in the highlands of the Atacama Desert underwent significant social and economic changes, manifested in a growing social complexity that laid the foundations for the emergence of agricultural and pastoralist societies of the Early Formative period (ca. 3,500 – 2,000 BP). Indicators of this process of social complexity include greater sedentarization, economic intensification, increasing production of luxury goods and the development of a process of camelid domestication. In addition, during this period there was an increase of interactions with coastal areas, distant at least 160 km from the highland settlements. In this paper we want to account for the particularities and evolution of this process of interaction between the highlands and the coast throughout the Middle Holocene, taking as a starting point the records of coastal objects and remains found in several archaeological sites that we have been investigating during the last years in the middle and upper basin of the Loa River (Northern Chile, South-Central Andes), at more than 2,500 masl. Our results point to a process of increasing intensification and diversification of these interactions, which initially (ca. 7,000 BP) were limited to the trade of beads made from marine mollusk shells. Subsequently, from 5,500 – 5,000 BP onward, coastal goods moved to the highlands increased and diversified significantly, including shells of various types of mollusks, beads and pendants made from the latter, as well as various species of fish, the latter undoubtedly transported dried for consumption in inland settlements. Our proposal is that the trade of marine goods and meals to the highlands was not primarily driven by dietary needs, even in the case of fish. Instead, we suggest that this trade has a primary role in the emergence and consolidation of new politic relations, where certain emerging leaders seek legitimacy through their access, management and distribution of these goods and products from distant origins.

ID: 3.10899

How to Live the High Life – Past Interaction and Connection with the Afroalpine (Bale Mountains, SE Ethiopia)

Götz Ossendorf
Girma Tekelemariam, Minassie

Abstract/Description

Ethiopia is an ideal testing ground for investigating past human networks’ existence, nature, and extent across different ecozones. These may have existed due to the region’s rugged topography, which resulted in a “mosaic of habitats” for prehistoric populations. Although Ethiopia hosts more than 80% of the African continent’s elevation above 3000 m asl, its famous Stone Age record is almost exclusively associated with sites in its lowlands, such as the Rift Valley, the Afar Depression, and the Omo Valley. Moreover, although questions of human refugia are currently guiding archaeological research, the tropical Ethiopian highlands (including high altitudes) and their connections to the lowlands have paradoxically received very little attention.

Here we focus on the largest Afroalpine ecozone on the African continent – the Bale Mountains of southeastern Ethiopia. We examine three distinct occupation phases, each characterized by significantly different environmental conditions: those of Middle Stone Age foragers under maximum glaciation conditions (47-31 kya), Later Stone Age occupations after the onset (15-14 kya) and after the end (4-2 kya) of the African Humid Period. We use geochemical obsidian provenance and social network analysis of lithic technological traits as independent measures of population connectivity and interaction during the above time windows.

While our approach aims to encompass the Horn of Africa and the last 50 ky, preliminary results suggest relatively stable, large-scale interconnected populations. Many prehistoric phases are characterized by the establishment of reliable networks and the regular integration of high elevations into hunter-gatherer land-use systems. They were maintained even during periods of cultural and behavioural change.

ID: 3.10918

Between Highlands and Lowlands: Settlement Dynamics and Cultural Perceptions in the Alpine Landscape of Alpe Cravariola (Italy – VB)

Giorgia Frangioni
Stagno, Anna Maria

Abstract/Description

The case study of Alpe Cravariola, an Italian enclave in Swiss territory since 1874, offers insights into settlement dynamics and cultural perceptions of the alpine landscape. This research, part of the KORE project, adopts a multidisciplinary approach integrating rural archaeology, historical analysis with GIS, pedology, and drone-based remote sensing to document excavations and update cartography. The goal is to understand the evolution of high-altitude settlements from the 16th to the 21st century, highlighting their relationship with the lowlands. Alpe Cravariola, closely linked to valley villages, was crucial for local communities who undertook long journeys, sometimes up to eight hours on foot, driven by economic needs and a symbolic connection to mountain resources. The alpine pasture was not an isolated space but part of a broader territorial network where livestock farming played a fundamental role. Until the late 18th century, agriculture in the lowlands depended on high-altitude livestock farming, as winters lasted longer, and fresh grass was only available in late summer. The analysis of digitized and georeferenced historical maps, combined with archaeological data, reveals the transformation of alpine pastures: from productive spaces to transit areas and, eventually, tourist destinations. These territories were not only functional for pastoralism but also served as rest stops along trade routes. The “Sentiero degli Spalloni” (Spalloni Path) preserves traces of smuggling activities during and after World War II, testifying to the commercial use of the territory alongside its agro-pastoral role. Land use in these areas was regulated by complex access hierarchies, only partially reflected in current administrative structures. The seasonal and cyclical management of alpine spaces, including timber use and livestock farming, shaped human-environment interactions. Archaeology, by studying material traces, sheds light on land use dynamics over time. Oral testimonies provide insights into agro-pastoral practices and the cultural resilience of alpine populations, emphasizing the role of peripheral areas as historical and cultural nodes. Far from being marginal, these territories were central to economic and social networks that shaped the alpine world over the centuries.

ID: 3.11611

Projectile Points at a Rocky Mountain Communal Hunting Site Suggest Multi-Group Cooperation with Lowland Participation, 3.2–0.2 ka

Claudia Celia
Haas, Randy

Abstract/Description

Large-mammal communal hunting strategies were prevalent in the Rocky Mountains from the Middle Archaic (5.7–3.2 ka) through the Late Prehistoric (1.5-0.2 ka) periods. The prevalence of bison trapping sites in the highlands indicates the cooperation of large labor forces for the construction and operation of communal hunts. Despite the potential of these sites for evaluating hypotheses of cooperative behavior, the cultural dynamics remain unclear. The Willow Springs Bison Pound is a multi-component communal hunting site in the Laramie Basin, Wyoming. High-density projectile-point and bone assemblages indicate sporadic use spanning a millennium from 3.2–0.2 ka. This study evaluates whether variation in the projectile point assemblage represents one or more cultural groups. In identifying the number of cultural groups, we furthermore seek to identify their territorial origins and the extent to which cooperation networks extended into the lowlands. We identify the presence of both atlatl and archery technology. However, the analysis reveals two culturally distinct point forms that cross-cut the two projectile technologies. These results are consistent with a multi-group hunting hypothesis. Preliminary raw material analysis suggests a strong highland presence with some lowland participation. These results inform our understanding of cooperative dynamics among Late Prehistoric bison hunters in the Rocky Mountains.

ID: 3.11739

Intra-site Spatial analysis of lithics from high-altitude western Tibet enables insights into regional diversity in foragers’ approach to the plateau

Ziyan Li

Abstract/Description

Vertical movements along the altitude gradience in the hunting-foraging context on the Tibetan Plateau remains an open inquiry. Traditional models featuring cases in the eastern fringe of the Tibetan Plateau depict occasional forays into high-altitude environments. This study provides new insights into high-elevation adaptations in the early Holocene by examining the occupational strategies at Xiada Co (4,600 m asl) in western Tibet, a newly excavated likely hunting/foraging site dating to 8700-5700 BP. Spatial analysis using kernel density estimation and Getis-Ord Gi* analysis of lithic distributions reveals two well-organized dwellings with distinct patterns regarding internal spatial partitioning and divisions between interior and exterior areas, highlighting the intentional and repeated use of the same place. The evidence presented here from Xiada Co suggests a mode of occupation that is more integrated into the landscape than previously assumed, which invites a reconsideration of how early Holocene hunter-gatherers engaged with the Tibetan Plateau environment and enables insights into regional variations among hunt-foragers in their adaptation in challenging conditions

ID: 3.11742

Intra-site Spatial analysis of lithics from high-altitude western Tibet enables insights into regional diversity in foragers’ approach to the plateau

Ziyan Li

Abstract/Description

Abstract/Description Vertical movements along the altitude gradience in the hunting-foraging context on the Tibetan Plateau remains an open inquiry. Traditional models featuring cases in the eastern fringe of the Tibetan Plateau depict occasional forays into high-altitude environments. This study provides new insights into high-elevation adaptations in the early Holocene by examining the occupational strategies at Xiada Co (4,600 m asl) in western Tibet, a newly excavated likely hunting/foraging site dating to 8700-5700 BP. Spatial analysis using kernel density estimation and Getis-Ord Gi* analysis of lithic distributions reveals two well-organized dwellings with distinct patterns regarding internal spatial partitioning and divisions between interior and exterior areas, highlighting the intentional and repeated use of the same place. The evidence presented here from Xiada Co suggests a mode of occupation that is more integrated into the landscape than previously assumed, which invites a reconsideration of how early Holocene hunter-gatherers engaged with the Tibetan Plateau environment and enables insights into regional variations among foragers in their adaptation in challenging conditions.

ID: 3.11750

The Path of the Buffalo: Connections in Native American Communal Hunting Practices in Western Wyoming

Cadence Truchot

Abstract/Description

These sites explore the historical and cultural connections between high-altitude mountainous regions, specifically the Wind River Range of Western Wyoming, and the lowland plains of the surrounding areas, focusing on Native American communal buffalo hunting structures and jumps. Captain Reynolds wrote, “the Shoshone held the Buffalo in the mountains and killed them as they needed them”. The oral histories suggest use from numerous tribes who have long relied on the buffalo as a central resource for sustenance, clothing, and tools. The Wind River Range, with its rugged terrain, provided both physical and symbolic connections to the hunting grounds on the plains below. This study examines how these highland-lowland relationships were essential to the survival and societal structures of these tribes, emphasizing the strategic use of buffalo jumps—natural cliffs where buffalo were driven over to their deaths. The project integrates archaeological, ethnographic, oral histories, and environmental data to understand how these regions were navigated for hunting, the shared knowledge between highland and lowland communities, and the role of the buffalo in shaping both cultural and ecological landscapes. This work contributes to a deeper understanding of the interconnectedness of mountain and prairie ecosystems in the context of Native American life and resource management.

ID: 3.11782

Late Pleistocene-Early Holocene Pacific coast-Andes connections in southern Peru

Kurt Rademaker
Milton, Emily

Abstract/Description

In the topographically complex central Andes, tremendous ecological variation is expressed over relatively small geographic distance. This feature of the environment must have been apparent to the hunter-gatherers who first dispersed into this region of high plateaus, deeply incised valley systems, intervening slopes, and the coastal plain. Here we summarize results from over a decade investigating contemporary Terminal Pleistocene and Early Holocene sites located in the hyper-arid Pacific coastal desert and the high Andes of western South America. These sites are known to be linked by obsidian transfers from the Andean highlands to the coast, but the nature of this connection has been difficult to resolve. By exploring all elevation floors of the western Andean slope and detailed study of archaeological plant and animal remains and lithic artifacts, our team developed fine-grained provenance information to resolve the foraging patterns at these early sites and the interactions between them. The coastal sites have a marked seasonality of occupation, and they are tethered to the interior, based on use of plants and rocks from higher elevations. In contrast, the highland sites could have been occupied in multiple seasons, lack lowland resources, and exhibit a localized foraging pattern above 3500 m elevation. The origins of these distinct coastal and highland adaptations remain elusive, but they are not well explained by simple models positing a tentative and protracted dispersal into the Andean highlands from the Pacific coast. Current evidence allows for multiple migration models for the peopling of western South America. Once established, lowland-highland connections persisted over time in the Andes.

ID: 3.12610

Walls in the Wilderness: Reassessing Fortified Sites in the Rural and Mountainous Landscapes of Northwestern Greece

Gerasimos Trasanis

Abstract/Description

Fortified sites often do not receive the necessary research attention, especially those located in rural areas and more specifically in mountainous and semi-mountainous regions outside of the well-known and thoroughly studied ancient Greek world, such as those in the regional unit of Grevena, northwestern Greece. The ongoing doctoral thesis examines the fortified sites of Grevena, an area that historically belonged to the broader Upper Macedonia region during antiquity and served as a key passage between
the neighbouring lowlands of Epirus, Thessaly, and Lower Macedonia. As part of the ongoing field survey, over 20 naturally and manmade fortified sites have been identified and revisited. Data collection has utilized both traditional recording methods and modern technologies, such as Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and Unmanned Aerial Systems (drones). Preliminary results from the combined and comparative analysis suggest activity during the Hellenistic and Roman periods, with indications of earlier, later, or even continuous occupation. The building techniques and materials, dimensions and site selection appear to reflect local characteristics, similar to those found in neighboring Upper Macedonian regions, and stand in contrast to the larger, more complex constructions in Lower Macedonia and southern Greece. This study aims to illustrate the character and function of these fortified sites, shaped by both the natural and manmade landscape. It seeks to interpret their spatial distribution and relationships, shedding light on their role in the local and supra-local dynamics within the social, political, and economic context of the time. Ultimately, the research hopes to deepen our understanding of how these factors contributed to the creation of the mountainous identity of the local populations.

ID: 3.13292

‘Things of consequence’: ostrich eggshell beads as indicators of precolonial societal interaction between southern African highlands and lowlands

Brian Stewart
Mitchell, Peter; Dewar, Genevieve; Hopper, Courtneay; Schillaci, Michael

Abstract/Description

Ostriches are peculiar birds and their strangeness has been recognized by southern African hunter-gatherers through multiple symbolic associations. Such qualities are likely to have been enhanced where people had access to beads made from their eggshell but did not have direct knowledge of the birds themselves. Southeastern southern Africa, encompassing the Maloti-Drakensberg Mountains and surrounding lowlands, is one such area. We review the unusual attributes and associations of ostriches and their eggshell and summarize results of strontium isotope analyses to investigate past bead exchange networks in this region. Because bead size can be controlled and varies through time and space, we employ it as an additional indicator of the existence and spatial extent of past social networks. Having critically considered previous efforts to do so, we report on our work to build the largest sample of such data yet obtained in southern Africa and compare our preliminary results with other signals of interaction between precolonial hunter-gatherer and, where applicable, agropastoralist communities. Our results speak to mountain societies enmeshed with those of surrounding lowlands for at least 35,000 years.

FS 3.231: Holistic Resilience of Mountain Systems

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#IMC: September 14 - 18 2025

FS 3.232

Highland–lowland connections and interactions

Details

Full Title

Scheduled

Location

Convener

Co-Conveners

Assigned to Synthesis Workshop

Thematic Focus

Keywords

Description

Submitted Abstracts

Abstract/Description

Abstract/Description

Abstract/Description

Abstract/Description

Abstract/Description

Abstract/Description

Abstract/Description

Abstract/Description

Abstract/Description

Abstract/Description

Abstract/Description

Abstract/Description

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