BONE TOOLS REFLECTING ANIMAL EXPLOITATION. THE CASE OF Lama guanicoe IN THE LOWER PARANÁ BASIN

BUC, N.; LOPONTE, D

Cuadernos del Instituto Nacional de Antropología y Pensamiento Latinoamericano, Series Especiales

Instituto Nacional de Antropología y Pensamiento Latinoamericano

Lugar: Buenos Aires; Año: 2016 vol. 3 p. 23 - 53

This paper discusses the selection of osseous raw materials from Late Holocene hunter-gatherer siteslocated in the wetlands that formed in the low basin of the Paraná River. Although most of the bonecomes from local taxa, the bones from a non-local mammal found in the adjacent Pampa plains, Lamaguanicoe (guanaco), was occasionally used in bone tool manufacture. First we characterize this ungulatethrough isotopic data (d18O) as non-local prey and explore the strategies for procurement of the guanacobones. Then we analyze the typology and the specific morphometric properties of the tools that wereproduced from them.The results show that the guanaco bones arrived from the plains of the Pampa plains by way of logistichunting and probably at the same time through trade behavior, to obtain large hides of high qualitywhich were not available from animals living in the wetlands. The guanaco distal metapodials wereprobably attached to the hides when they were brought into the settlement. They were used to producea particular kind of bone projectile. The procurement of these bones was a conscious and particularbehavior associated with the acquisition of blanks with particular morphometric properties. The artifactsmade of metapodia display standardized metric, morphologic and microscopic structures that supportthis statement, suggesting a well-defined and established technological strategy connected to with theseparticular skeletal elements.