To and fro the southern Andean highlands (Argentina and Chile): Biogeographic and archaeometric insights on vectors of human mobility

DURÁN, V.; CORTEGOSO, V.; BARBERANA, R.; FRIGOLÉ, C.; NOVELLINO, P.; LUCERO, G.; YEBRA, L.; GASCO, A.; WINOCUR, D.; BENÍTEZ, A.; KNUDSON, K.

JOURNAL OF ARCHAEOLOGICAL SCIENCE

ACADEMIC PRESS LTD-ELSEVIER SCIENCE LTD

Lugar: Manchester; Año: 2018 p. 668 - 678

0305-4403

The Andes mountain range is one keyphysiographic feature of South America with the potential to have acted as abarrier and corridor for human societies. The goal of this paper  is to assess from where and how were thehighlands utilized during the last 2000 years, which is a key period witnessingthe development of productive economies and changes in the organization ofmobility. We develop a regional case study focused on the Highland  wetland Laguna del Diamante (3300 masl),which is a highly productive ecosystem only  accessible during the summer. This case is based on amultidisciplinary approach combining: a) GIS-based landscape modeling designedto assess costs of trans-Andean circulation and seasonality of precipitation;b) geochemical characterization of obsidian sources located in the highlandsand artifacts; c) isotopic approach to ranges of paleomobility of individualsby means of 87Sr/86Sr; and d) stylisticstudy of ceramic assemblages. The GIS analysis shows that this highlandlocality is accessible with lower costs from the  western slope. This is also the area with more pronouncedseasonality of precipitation and drier summer months. The two main obsidiantypes from the highlands have restricted and  decaying spatial distribution, suggesting that thesearchaeological distributions track part of human circuits of mobility insteadof indirect transport acquisition. Their archaeological distribution is heavilyskewed towards the western Andean slope. We present strontium isotope valuesfor four teeth and bone samples from two individuals recovered in the area, whichare interpreted in reference to a framework of biologically availablestrontium. We infer that these individuals had ranges of paleomobilitysystematically connecting the western slope with the highlands. The analysis ofthe ceramic assemblages shows that most of the diagnostic sherds are assignableto styles that have distributional cores in the Central Valley from Chilereaching up to the presence of the Inka state, while only a mínimum portion ofthe sample can be assigned to distributional cores on the eastern Andean slope.By integrating the analysis of biogeographic structure of the landscape,patterns in the transport of artifacts, and paleomobility of individuals, wefind support for the existence of  dominant geographic vectors of access to the highlandsfrom the western Andean slope. This research contradicts previousinterpretations suggesting that the archaeological record from the highlands ismore directly tied to human groups inhabiting the eastern lowlands during mostof the year. Beyond the geographic debate, this issue impinges on the subsistenceorganization of the incoming groups, on the socio-economic role of the  highlands, and on the demographiccontexts leading to trajectories of economic intensification inboth Andean slopes. This research is relevant beyond the local scale of analysisand contributes to build a framework for comparative research on human use of highland environments.