Trends in the faunal human exploitation during the late Pleistocene and early Holocene in the pampean region (Argentina)

GUTIERREZ, M. A. Y G. MARTÍNEZ

México, DF

Conferencia; 10th Conference ICAZ2006; 2006

International Council for Archaeozoology

Faunal analysis, with a strong interdisciplinary emphasis, has played a key role in Pampean archaeology since the advent of the ecologic-systemic paradigm in the 1980s. From this point on, the archaeology of the region has made remarkable advances due to the increase in the number of sites investigated and the consequent generation of data that has contributed to fill preexisting spatial and chronological gaps. The main goal of this paper is to highlight regional and temporal variation in the presence and exploitation of faunal resources during the late Pleistocene and early Holocene in the region. The main issues discussed are a summary of zooarchaeological evidences (sites, location, chronology, present and exploited species, etc.) obtained from the region and of the major faunal exploitation patterns, both on a regional and areal scale. The topics included in order to characterize subsistence strategies are the climatic changes that operated on and influenced the species, differential species extinction and survival, exploited species diversity, procurement and processing techniques, and intensity of faunal exploitation, etc. It is proposed that the late Pleistocene-early Holocene period (12,000-7000 BP) is characterized by a generalized regional economy. In general terms, a broad spectrum of resources would have been exploited by humans as suggested by the presence and diversity of consumed species. Given the fluctuating climatic conditions during the transition, a subsistence pattern composed of a broad diet would have been a suitable strategy to promote in unstable environments. Both taxonomic diversity and richness are greater when compared with the following time period (middle Holocene), characterized by a specialized regional economy.