Chapter 8 The Archaeofaunas of Piedra Museo. Zooarchaeological and Taphonomic Study of the AEP-1 Site (Argentine Patagonia)

L. MARCHIONNI; M. VÁZQUEZ; LAURA MIOTTI

Archaeology of Piedra Museo Locality An Open Window to the Early Population of Patagonia

Springer

Año: 2022; p. 199 - 253

The analysis and interpretation of zooarchaeological materials comingfrom Alero El Puesto 1 (AEP-1), in the Piedra Museo Locality, are presented. Thisrock-shelter is located on the shore of a shallow paleolake where the evidence ofhuman occupations (15,300?12,200 years cal. BP) is defined in the lower component.The research carried out on this site since 1990 has provided relevant informationabout the subsistence, technology, and use of the landscape by the hunter-gatherersthat inhabited the region, as well as various paleoenvironmental aspects. On thebasis of chronological, distributional, zooarcheological, and taphonomic studies,three diachronical assemblages were segregated in the site. The oldest, contained inStratigraphic Unit 6 (ca.13,000?12,500 cal. years BP), the following contained inStratigraphic Unit 4/5 (ca. 12,500?11,200 cal. years BP). The youngest archaeological component is deposited in Stratigraphic Unit 2 (ca. 8800?8400 cal. years BP).While the oldest assemblage ofthe site contains a significantrecord of extinct fauna?Hippidion saldiasi, Lama gracilis, and Mylodon sp., the two remaining assemblagesare characterized by the strong presence of Lama guanicoe (?guanaco?) remains, andin minor proportion rheids. The taphonomic history of the site indicates changes inthe intensity that the different natural processes reworked the assemblages over time,but in no case does it allow sustaining the significant loss of archaeological integrityof the site, accounting for a good preservation of the archaeological sequence. Inthis work, new data are offered on the study of the bone modifications identified onthe set of guanacos coming from the three identified Stratigraphic Units. The mainobjective is to test some of the previous hypothesis on the site functionality and to deepen the discussion about the exploitation strategies of the preys. The resultsobtained so far allow us to sustain some of the previous hypotheses, which proposethat there would have been fundamentally activities related to the primary processingof prey hunted in the vicinity of the paleolake. However, the patterns detected suggesta greater diversity of activities, including some linked to the consumption of certainanatomical parts in this hunting station, which also implies a logistic use of the placeon the shores of the shallow lake.