Alteration of tropical forest vegetation from the Pleistocene–Holocene transition and plant cultivation from the end of early Holocene through middle Holocene in Northwest Colombia

In northwest Colombia, recent studies in the Medellín-Porce River Basin have revealed occupations of human groups that altered tropical forests from the Pleistocene–Holocene transition (10,000 BP) onward, and that likely implemented small-scale cultivation of wild and domesticated plants from the end of the early Holocene (8000 BP) until the end of the middle Holocene (3000 BP). These interpretations are based on archaeological evidence of stone tools for processing plants as well as botanical microfossil indicators of forest disturbance and plants exploitation and cultivation. In a continental context, the evidence from these studies are consistent with the idea that in South America, early settlers modified ecosystems through the selection and exploitation of useful species, thus generating anthropogenic landscapes beginning as early as the Pleistocene–Holocene transition.