Although there is no doubt about human contacts between inland and coast in Southern Brazil during archaic times, these contacts remains unknown. Due to its geomorphologic idiosyncrasies, the Ribeira de Iguape valley, in the State of São Paulo, is one of few regions in Southeastern Brazil where this communication could be easily performed. Here we present results of a craniometric analysis using 12 human skeletons from riverine shellmounds from Ribeira de Iguape valley, dated to between 6,000 and 1,200 years before present (non calibrated). These specimens were compared to 225 human skeletons from several Brazilian pre-historic sites from inland and coast. The biological affinity found in early Holocene individuals from this valley and Paleoamericans was not observed for the archaic riverine shellmound groups. No affinities were found between them and other inland series, as well. The riverine shellmound groups are close to the coastal shellmound groups from São Paulo and Paraná, which can be interpreted as evidence of a relevant contact between coast and inland, at least in Southern São Paulo State in the middle Holocene.
craniometry; riverine shellmound; Principal Component Analysis
