PRE-HISPANIC EARTHWORK ENGINEERING VARIABILITY IN THE UPPER DELTA OF THE PARANA RIVER: A COMPARATIVE STUDY BETWEEN LOS TRES CERROS MOUNDS

CASTIÑEIRA C; EDUARDO APOLINAIRE; ADRIANA BLASI; GUSTAVO POLITIS; BONOMO MARIANO; FLORENCIA MARI

JOURNAL OF ARCHAEOLOGICAL SCIENCE: REPORTS

ELSEVIER

Lugar: NUEVA YORK; Año: 2017 vol. 13 p. 322 - 332

2352-409X

Earthworks are one of the most distinctive archaeological features in the 7 wetland landscapes of South America. Herein, we provide a case study from one of the 8 southernmost expressions of this earthworking phenomenon, the Paraná River Delta. In 9 this flood-prone wetland, occupation strategies included the construction and habitation 10 of earth-mounds and other topographically elevated areas in order to cope with deluges 11 in a hydrometeorologically suceptible environment. We carried out planialtimetrical, 12 sedimentary, bio-compositional and chronological analyses of the sedimentary matrix of 13 two anthropogenical earthmounds, Los Tres Cerros site 1 and 2, and the results were 14 compared in order to detect similarities and differences in the overall moundbuilding 15 process. Besides its temporal and spatial closeness the succession of alternating humic 16 and charcoal enriched lenses conforms surfaces were conditioning and maintenance 17 activities were developed in both mounds, but the selection and sourcing of materials 18 used in its construction presents notorious differences. Finally, we addresses the 19 occupational strategies that guided the pre-Hispanic human settlement in lowland areas 20 of southern South America and contribute to the acknowledgment of earthwork 21 engineering variability in order to understand the evolution processes of the 22 archaeological landscape of Los Tres Cerros archaeological locality.