The Pleistocene-Holocene transition in the Mesoamerican Corridor (Guatemala): Megafauna, Environmental Change and Human Settlement

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Here we apply for funding of a geoarchaeological pilot study on Guatemala. Along with our cooperation partner Lorena Davila from the Universidad de San Carlos in Guatemala City, Guatemala we will evaluate the geoarchaeological and palaeontological potential of three late Pleistocene-early Holocene sites in the Polochic-Motagua and Huehuetenango regions of the country. Samples from these sites at La Estanzuela, Chivacabé and San Rafael, will be used to evaluate the quality and validity of fossils and sediments as representative geoarchives to perform high-end lab-based methodologies. Guatemala, located in the biogeographic corridor between North- and South America, is regarded to be an important region to solve questions on the last elements of the Pleistocene megafauna and, perhaps, the early human settlement of the Americas. The planned project may also be a future kick-off of an interdisciplinary Schwerpunkt encouraged by the DFG (Round-Table panel, 31.1.2017 in Bonn), which would include a wide range of natural sciences as well as archaeology, palaeontology and anthropology.