Incacolonial bone technology from the Gran Chaco lowlands of Argentina

URQUIZA, SILVANA V.; LÓPEZ CAMPENY, SARA M. L.

Johannesburg

Congreso; 14th Conference of the Worked Bone Research Group; 2021

University of Johannesburg

Bone technology studies in the Santiago del Estero Plain (Argentina) are scarce, despite their relevance in other regions of South America. The material analyzed integrates the Museum's collections of Anthropological and Natural Sciences ?Emilio and Duncan Wagner? (Santiago del Estero province), and was recovered in excavations of a collector's nature, carried out until the middle of the 20th century by Wagner French brothers especially. A sample of 47 artifacts of animal raw material from the Laguna Muyoj archaeological site, ascribed to the Inca (XV century) and Colonial (XVI-XVIII centuries) Periods were analyzed. The information obtained allows us to delve into the Late Pre-Hispanic and Early Colonial technology, on the handling of deer antlers (Mazama gouazoubira) and long bones of artiodactyls, mainly metapodia. The high number of artefacts and the diversity of morphologies are remarkable, especially if adverse natural preservation conditions are considered. The presence on the Laguna Muyoj site of almost a hundred spindle-whorls associated with spinning tasks allows proposing a specialization of the local population in the manufacture and/or the use of instruments linked to different stages of textile production of native origin.