HUNTING AND SKELETAL ELEMENT ABUNDANCE OF GUANACO DURING THE HOLOCENE OF SIERRAS OF CÓRDOBA, ARGENTINA

MEDINA, MATÍAS; RIVERO, DIEGO EDUARDO

Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports

Elsevier Ltd.

Lugar: Cambridge; Año: 2019

2352-409X

The guanaco (Lama guanicoe) was the most important faunal resource exploited bypast people from Sierras of Córdoba (Argentina). However, their relative taxonomicabundance decreased across the Holocene in relation to other small-taxa, which hasbeen interpreted as an evidence of resource depression resulted from changes in thedistribution of grassland and human hunting pressure. If the encounter rate with L.guanicoe decreased and hunters needed to travel greater distances to pursue a prey, itshould be expected that the pattern in mean utility of body parts would parallel changesin the taxonomic composition of the assemblage. The expectation is that early archaicassemblages will have greater body-parts diversity than late prehispanic assemblages,reflecting a high encounter rate and a more complete deposition of entire carcasses.Conversely, late prehispanic people should respond to the greater cost of hunting byreducing transportation loads, carrying high-ranked body part of carcass to camps. Theaim of this article is to test these predictions using a comprehensive analysis of theskeletal part representation from a suite of Holocene archaeological sites dated at 7400-to-360 years BP. The high and low-utility body part frequency observed during the initialand later phases reveals a more dynamic view of late prehispanic site formation processand raises new inquiries regarding whether different taphonomic histories ofassemblages can have substantial influence on the skeletal element abundance.