Evidence of prehistoric human activity in the Falkland Islands

Kit M Hamley; Jacquelyn L Gill; Kathryn E Krasinski; Dulcinea V Groff; Brenda L Hall; Daniel H Sandweiss; John R Southon; Paul Brickle; Thomas V Lowell

doi:10.1126/sciadv.abh3803

Evidence of prehistoric human activity in the Falkland Islands

Sci Adv. 2021 Oct 29;7(44):eabh3803. doi: 10.1126/sciadv.abh3803. Epub 2021 Oct 27.

Authors

Kit M Hamley^{1

2}, Jacquelyn L Gill^{1

2}, Kathryn E Krasinski³, Dulcinea V Groff⁴, Brenda L Hall^{1

5}, Daniel H Sandweiss^{1

6}, John R Southon⁷, Paul Brickle^{8

9}, Thomas V Lowell¹⁰

Affiliations

¹ Climate Change Institute, University of Maine, Orono, ME 04469, USA.
² School of Biology and Ecology, University of Maine, Orono, ME 04469, USA.
³ Department of Anthropology, Adelphi University, Garden City, NY 11530-0701, USA.
⁴ Department of Geology and Geophysics, University of Wyoming, Laramie, WY 82071, USA.
⁵ School of Earth and Climate Sciences, University of Maine, Orono, ME 04469, USA.
⁶ Department of Anthropology, University of Maine, Orono, ME 04469, USA.
⁷ Department of Earth System Science, University of California-Irvine, Irvine, CA 92697, USA.
⁸ South Atlantic Environmental Research Institute, Stanley, Falkland Islands.
⁹ School of Biological Sciences (Zoology), University of Aberdeen, Aberdeen AB24 2TZ, UK.
¹⁰ Department of Geology, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, OH 45221, USA.

Abstract

When Darwin visited the Falkland Islands in 1833, he noted the puzzling occurrence of the islands’ sole terrestrial mammal, Dusicyon australis (or “warrah”). The warrah’s origins have been debated, and prehistoric human transport was previously rejected because of a lack of evidence of pre-European human activity in the Falkland Islands. We report several lines of evidence indicating that humans were present in the Falkland Islands centuries before Europeans, including (i) an abrupt increase in fire activity, (ii) deposits of mixed marine vertebrates that predate European exploration by centuries, and (iii) a surface-find projectile point made of local quartzite. Dietary evidence from D. australis remains further supports a potential mutualism with humans. The findings from our study are consistent with the culture of the Yaghan (Yámana) people from Tierra del Fuego. If people reached the Falkland Islands centuries before European colonization, this reopens the possibility of human introduction of the warrah.