Archaeobotanical remains found in a house at the archaeological site of Cardonal, valle del Cajón, Argentina: A view of food practices 1,800 years ago

CALO, C.MARILIN

VEGETATION HISTORY AND ARCHAEOBOTANY

SPRINGER

Año: 2013 vol. 23 p. 577 - 590

0939-6314

This paper explores food and daily activities in domestic areas at the archaeological site of Cardonal, Provincia de Catamarca, Argentina. It is based on archaeobotanical carpological macro remains recovered by flotation techniques in a residential compound. A set of five taxa including wild plants such as Geoffroea decorticans (chañar), Phaseolus vulgaris var. aborigineus (wild bean), Prosopis sp. (algarrobo) and the crops P. vulgaris var. vulgaris (domesticated bean) and Zea mays (maize) were identified. These well-known staples of ancient communities in this area suggest that the Cardonal people combined agriculture with foraging practices, taking advantage of a diversified environment and extensive social networks. The most abundant plant food remains were bean cotyledons and maize cupules, which were densely concentrated in the "kitchen", near the hearth. Conversely, chañar endocarps, algarrobo seeds and also Chenopodium sp. seeds were almost exclusively confined to the "patio", in the hearth area. As a result, two distinct food-related activity areas could be identified, defined by the relative density of plant remains, occurrence of plant taxa and the different practices of processing and consumption which they evoke. © 2013 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.