RE-USE OF BURIAL SITES DURING THE LATE HOLOCENE: EVIDENCE FROM MULTIPLE HUMAN BURIALS AT THE RIO BOTE 1 ROCKSHELTER, UPPER SANTA CRUZ RIVER BASIN (SOUTHERN PATAGONIA, ARGENTINA)

NORA VIVIANA FRANCO; GEORGE A. BROOK; SOLANA GARCÍA GURAIEB; MARÍA VIRGINIA MANCINI; ANA LUCÍA GUARIDO; ADRIANA MEHL; TERESITA MONTENEGRO

Latin American Antiquity

Cambridge University Press

Año: 2017 vol. 28 p. 476 - 494

1045-6635

The first systematic research on the funerary record at the Rio Bote 1 (RB1) rock shelter, located next to the Bote River, a tributary of the Santa Cruz River in Southern Patagonia, has revealed at least three human burial events dating to the very early Late Holocene and one dating to the middle Late Holocene. The RB1 site appears to have been used for both subsistence and inhumation activities. All of the burials uncovered postdate the deposition ofa prominent volcanic ash layer. Technological information indicates that RB1 was used by groups that were also using westerly and southerly spaces. Mortuary evidence indicates connections with groups living in areas further south, extending from the Última Esperanzaregion to the Pali Aike volcanic field, at least at the beginning of the Late Holocene. The selection of the same place for multiple burials may explain why so few human burials are known in Southern Patagonia from the beginning of the Late Holocene and earlier periods, asit is possible that sites like RB1 are yet to be discovered.