Editing South America (section)

===Prehistory===
{{Further|History of South America#Pre-Columbian era}}

[[File:SantaCruz-CuevaManos-P2210651b.jpg|thumb|The prehistoric [[Cueva de las Manos]], or "Cave of the Hands", in Argentina]]
South America is thought to have been first inhabited by humans when people were crossing the [[Bering Land Bridge]] (now the [[Bering Strait]]) at least 15,000 years ago from the territory that is present-day Russia. They migrated south through North America, and eventually reached South America through the [[Isthmus of Panama]].

Amongst the oldest evidence for human presence in South America is the [[Monte Verde|Monte Verde II]] site in Chile, suggested to date to around 14,500 years ago.<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Pino|first1=Mario|last2=Dillehay|first2=Tom D.|date=May 2023|title=Monte Verde II: an assessment of new radiocarbon dates and their sedimentological context|journal=Antiquity|volume=97|issue=393|pages=524–540|doi=10.15184/aqy.2023.32|s2cid=257854108|issn=0003-598X|doi-access=free}}</ref> From around 13,000 years ago, the [[Fishtail projectile point]] style became widespread across South America, with its disappearance around 11,000 years ago coincident with the disappearance of South America's megafauna.<ref name=":12">{{Cite journal|last1=Prates|first1=Luciano|last2=Perez|first2=S. Ivan|date=2021-04-12|title=Late Pleistocene South American megafaunal extinctions associated with rise of Fishtail points and human population|journal=Nature Communications|volume=12|issue=1|page=2175|doi=10.1038/s41467-021-22506-4|issn=2041-1723|pmc=8041891|pmid=33846353|bibcode=2021NatCo..12.2175P}}</ref> Maize was present in northern South America by around 6,000 years ago.<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Pagán-Jiménez|first1=Jaime R.|last2=Rodríguez-Ramos|first2=Reniel|last3=Reid|first3=Basil A.|last4=van den Bel|first4=Martijn|last5=Hofman|first5=Corinne L.|date=September 2015|title=Early dispersals of maize and other food plants into the Southern Caribbean and Northeastern South America|url=https://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S0277379115300445|journal=Quaternary Science Reviews|volume=123|pages=231–246|doi=10.1016/j.quascirev.2015.07.005|bibcode=2015QSRv..123..231P}}</ref>

By 2000 BC, many [[agrarian society|agrarian]] communities had been settled throughout the [[Andes]] and the surrounding regions. Fishing became a widespread practice along the coast, helping establish fish as a primary source of food. Irrigation systems were also developed at this time, which aided in the rise of an [[agrarian society]].<ref name="OBrienP-Oxford_Atlas">O'Brien, Patrick. (General Editor). Oxford Atlas of World History. New York: Oxford University Press, 2005. p. 25.</ref>

South American cultures began domesticating [[llama]]s and [[alpaca]]s in the highlands of the Andes circa 3500 BC. Besides their use as sources of meat and wool, these animals were used for transportation of goods.<ref name="OBrienP-Oxford_Atlas"/>