ENVIRONMENT

The major uninterrupted South American grassland stretches from southern Brazil through Uruguay and Argentina. Major physiographic features and indicator plants and animals bind the grassland together over this vast stretch (Soriano et al. 1992) but regional variations occur. Two major subregions are recognized: the campos of southern Brazil and Uruguay (northeast of the Rio de Plata) and the pampas of Argentina (southwest of the Rio de Plata). Climatic types vary from humid (B2) to the east to dry-subhumid (C1) to the west.

Handbook of South American Archaeology, edited by Helaine Silverman and William H. Isbell.

Springer, New York, 2008

Figure 14.1. Physiographic map of the pampas and campos. (Gustavo Politis)

This region, which comprises more than 700,000 km2, is bordered to the northeast by a deciduous tropical and sub-tropical forest (located in higher altitudes, above 700 m, in what is called the planalto), to the northwest by the parkland of the Argentine “Mesopotamia” and to the west and south by the xerophitic forests known as espinal and monte phytogeographic provinces. These last two environments are usually partially integrated into pampean archaeology, despite the fact that they are not open grassland. Moreover, although the limits of the grasslands are determined by its contact with woodland vegetation, forest stands occur within the pampas and campos—as gallery forest along the creeks and main rivers (such as the Parana and Uruguay), encircling marshes in Uruguay or forming isolated groves in southern Brazil. It is important to mention that the lower Parana and Uruguay produced a particular extremely humid, local environment that favored the penetration of the subtropical forest as far south as 35° Lat.