A case of multiple metastasis in late holocene hunter-gatherers from argentine pampean region.

LUNA, L., ARANDA, C., BOSIO, L. Y M. BERÓN

International Journal of Osteoarchaeology

Elsevier Ltd.

Lugar: Nueva York; Año: 2008 vol. 18 p. 492 - 506

Chenque I site is a prehistoric cemetery located in Lihue´ Calel National Park (La Pampa province) in the Western Pampean region of Argentina. Hunter-gatherer societies made use of this site during the Final Late Holocene for at least 700 years (1030–370 BP). Currently 41 burial structures have been excavated, and more than 150 individuals have been recovered. There is great variability in mortuary patterns at the site (simple, multiple, primary, secondary burials, and also a variant not previously observed in the region). The life-ways of this population have been investigated through the evaluation of several biological and cultural factors. Several pathological conditions have also been identified in this cemetery. Burial no. 12 contains a skeleton of an adult male that shows multiple pathological lesions, compatible with a neoplastic disease. These lesions have been analysed using several methodological strategies: macroscopic, radiological and microscopic. This is the first time that this kind of disease has been identified from a prehistoric burial in Argentina. In this paper the location and characteristics of the lesions are evaluated, and the different neoplastic diseases that could have produced them are discussed. Since the people buried in this cemetery belonged to highly mobile societies, a key issue is to infer the consequences that this disease would have had on the dynamics of the group in which this person lived, because of the gradual deterioration of his health and physical strength.