Isthmian America (7,821 to 6,094 BCE) Early Holocene — Semisedentary Lagoons and Proto-Garden Tending

Geographic & Environmental Context

Isthmian America includes Costa Rica, Panama, Darién (Panama–Colombia), San Andrés Archipelago, Galápagos Islands, and the Ecuadorian Capelands (Cabos Manglares, San Francisco, Pasado, San Lorenzo, Punta Santa Elena; Manta; western Esmeraldas, Manabí, Guayas, Santa Elena).

Anchors: Panama isthmus and Azuero; Darién–Chocó rainforests; Costa Rica Central Valley and Nicoya; San Andrés banks; Galápagos volcanic outliers; Manta–Santa Elena capes and lagoons.

Subsistence & Settlement

• Recurrent hamlets on Nicoya, Azuero, Manta–Santa Elena; estuarine fish, turtle, shellfish; inland tubers/fruits.

• Darién foragers added upland hunts & sago-like palms; San Andrés used seasonally.

Technology & Material Culture

• Ground-stone mortars/querns; net/weir systems; improved dugouts; coarse early pottery at some capes (late in the window).

Movement & Interaction Corridors

• Canoe trunklines Manta/Santa Elena ⇄ Panamá⇄ Nicoya; portage through Darién passes.

Cultural & Symbolic Expressions

• Shrine-stones at springheads; shell-midden ancestral places; feast cycles.

Adaptation & Resilience

• Storage (smoked fish, dried mollusks, nut pastes) + multi-ecozone rounds stabilized settlement.

Transition

• Seeds of proto-horticulture and longer stays at lagoons set the stage for village life.