The use of avifaunal resources in the production of bone ornaments in the Beagle Channel region

TIVOLI, ANGÉLICA MONTSERRAT; FIORE, DÁNAE

San Rafael

Congreso; 12th International Conference of Archaeozoology - International Council for Archaeozoology (ICAZ); 2014

This paper presents the first results regarding the use of bird bones to produce ornamental beads in eight sites of the Beagle Channel region (southern Tierra del Fuego, Argentina). The sites cover an archaeological sequence of six millenia, ranging from 6400 years BP up to the contact period. Bird bones form part of archaeofaunal assemblages related to subsistence remains, and also have been used for technological purposes such as the production of bone tools (e.g. awls). However, a different and complementary use of bird bones as raw material is the production of ornamental beads. The analysis of 591 beads shows that these artifacts were produced using different species, of which the medium-sized (approx. 30%) and the large-sized (approx. 20%) are the most frequent. Regarding the use of anatomical elements, the most frequently selected was the radius (approx. 60%), followed by the ulna, the humerus, and the carpometacarpus which entails that the bones for bead production were selected from the wings of the individuals, regardless of the taxa. Additionally, around 20% of these artifacts have incised decoration, which involved an increase in the labour invested in their production and enhanced their ornamental purposes. These data are then compared a) to the availability and dietary consumption of bird species in these sites; b) to the taxa and anatomical portions used in the production of bone tools. These results shed new light on the production patterns as well as on the ornamental functions of the beads.