English: Chronology of Lapa do Santo: b) Scatterplot showing the relationship between vertical position (z-value) and age for different components of Lapa do Santo. Red, green and blue horizontal continuous bars indicated the 95.4%interval of the modelled calibrated radiocarbon dates obtained from charcoal samples. Black and dashed horizontal continuous bars indicate the 95.4%interval of the modelled and non-modelled calibrated radiocarbon dates obtained from bone collagen, respectively. The associated number indicates the burial accession number. Red horizontal dashed bars indicate the 95.4% interval of the OSL dates. The blue, green and red zones indicate the 1light colorand 2intervals strong colorof LSP-1, LSP-2 and LSP-3 (see Supplementary Information for details). The orange dotted and dashed lines indicate, respectively, the average z-value that set apart LSP-3 from LSP-2 and LSP-2 from LSP-1. The blue and red arrows point to the three charcoals that present z-values incompatible with the boundaries defined between LSPs. They are correspondent to the arrows in “b”. Note that Burial 11 does not belong to any of the defined periods. Lapa do Santo is an archaeological site located in the northern part of the Lagoa Santa karst, in the state of Minas Gerais in east-central Brazil. Lithic technology, zooarchaeology, and multi-isotopic analyses indicate typical groups of hunter gathers with low mobility and a subsistence strategy focused on gathering plant foods and hunting small and mid-sized mammals. The use of Lapa do Santo as an interment ground started between 10.3-10.6 cal kyBP with primary burials. Between 9.4-9.6 cal kyBP the reduction of the body by means of mutilation, defleshing, tooth removal, exposure to fire and possibly cannibalism, followed by the secondary burial of the remains according to strict rules, became a central element in the treatment of the dead. In the absence of monumental architecture or grave goods, these groups were using parts of fresh corpses to elaborate their rituals, showing this practice was not restricted to the Andean region at the beginning of the Holocene. Between 8.2-8.6 cal kyBP another change occurred whereby pits were instead filled with disarticulated bones of a single individual without signs of body manipulation, showing that during the early Archaic, Lagoa Santa was a region inhabited by dynamic groups that were in constant transformation over a period of centuries.