Earthen ridges in coastal sand dunes of the Caribbean coast, Venezuela: Anthropogenic or natural?

A study of earthen ridges in the Los Médanos de Coro dune fields, a UNESCO World Heritage Site on Venezuela's Caribbean coast, challenges the long-held belief that these features were constructed by ancient Caquetío people. Through geomorphic, physicochemical, and elemental analyses, along with three radiocarbon dates ranging from 1900 to 3000 years BP, researchers concluded that the ridges are most likely exhumed paleochannels of natural origin. While past human occupants may have utilized these features as causeways, the evidence strongly supports a natural formation process rather than anthropogenic construction.

Bezada, M., Barros, H., Zavala, M., Pedraza, E., Foghin, S., González, O., Godoy, D., Zambrano, E., Herrera, R., & Leal, A. (2020). Earthen ridges in coastal sand dunes of the Caribbean coast, Venezuela: Anthropogenic or natural? Geoarchaeology, 36(2), 351–362. Portico. https://doi.org/10.1002/gea.21835