LAS VUELTAS 1: UN SITIO DE MATANZA DE GUANACOS DEL HOLOCENO TARDÍO EN EL NORTE DE TIERRA DEL FUEGO (ARGENTINA)

SANTIAGO, FERNANDO; SALEMME, MÓNICA

Arqueologia de la Patagonia. una mirada desde el último confín

Utopias

Lugar: Ushuaia; Año: 2009; p. 825 - 844

ABSTRACT             “Guanacos” have been the main resource and the critical source of meat, bone, fat, and leather for hunter-gatherers from Patagonia and Tierra del Fuego regions. Las Vueltas 1 site (53º 37.715’ S – 68º 01.656 W) is the first place identified as a kill and processing site of Lama guanicoe from the Late Holocene (14C 949 ± 41 years BP) that let us to check with the ethnographical data. It is an open air site exposed by aeolian action that shows a great amount of bones on surface. Most of these bones are guanaco remains (91%) and an unknown quantity of materials is still buried. Other taxa less represented are birds, marine mammals, rodents and carnivores.             More than 70% of 2023 bones were identified at specific level; the sample is very well preserved and shows a high integrity; specimens of appendicular skeleton of guanaco are predominant, and a high frequency of them presents different signals of anthropic origin. The taphonomic analysis indicates the activity of other agents, though with a very low incidence.