Mid-late Holocene cultural and environmental dynamics in Eastern Uruguay

This paper reviews the relationship between prehistoric mounds (5000 years BP to 17th century) with main landscape features, particularly wetlands, in the east of Uruguay. Former archeological researchers did recognize this relationship, but it was interpreted by extrapolating current environments to 5000 years of cultural behavior. In an effort to better understand how environmental dynamics were linked to the cultural record, a set of proxy records (diatoms, opal phytoliths, gastropods, shells) were introduced to take into account local environmental evolution data according to global and regional environmental evolution models. The main environmental events during the mid and late Holocene show a high correspondence with mound builders' spatial arrangements.