From intensive use to abandonment; exploring temporal tendencies in marine resources exploitation in Northern Patagonia since Mid Holocene times. Vancouv

FAVIER-DUBOIS, C.M. Y F. BORELLA

Vancouver. Canadá

Congreso; 73 rd Annual Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology; 2008

Society for American Archaeology

The use of marine resources by prehistoric North Patagonian hunter-gatherers was traditionally considered as marginal and sporadic. However, archaeological projects that we have started in San Matías Gulf (Río Negro, Argentina) demonstrates a plentiful evidence of exploitation of coastal resources. Isotopic values obtained from human remains in this area suggest marine diets from about 3000 to 2000 yr BP. However, a lower representation of marine food was evidenced at about 1200 yr BP, and in historical times the seacoast had been abandoned. We are exploring the causes of these changes in subsistence patterns by studies of technology, bioarchaeology and paleoenvironmental reconstructions.