Identifying pre-Hispanic Water Storages in Agricultural Areas of South-Central Andes Through Diatom Evidence

GRANA, LORENA; LANZELOTTI, SONIA L.; ARÉVALO, VICTORIA; TESIO, ALVARO YAMIL; MAIDANA, NORA IRENE

ARCHAEOMETRY

University of Oxford

Lugar: Oxford; Año: 2022

0003-813X

In the Andes, there are several pre-Hispanic irrigation networks with structures destined forwater storage. However, it has not been widely discussed in archaeological research. This isprobably due to their being difficult to identify. The aim of this study is to explore the use ofdiatom assemblage analysis as a methodological tool suitable to help in the identification andcharacterization of these ancient hydraulic structures. We analyzed two archaeologicalstructures interpreted as water reservoirs from North-western Argentina (EH1 in Antofagastade la Sierra and U-88R1 in Yocavil) and compared them to current reservoirs. The diatomspecies composition and the changes in the dominant ecological groups in the studied structureshighlight different periods of hydraulic behavior. EH1 contained and stored water, but therewere periods of time in which there was a lack of use or abandonment of the structure.However, the U88-R1 structure does not have diatom evidence of containing standing waterfor a prolonged time, but presence of wet soils. Thus, the structure could have been used forother water management strategies. The results show that diatom analysis is a methodologicaltool with a high potential to study ancestral hydrotechnologies.