When maize is not the first choice: advances in paleodietary studies in the Archaeological Site Río Doncellas (Jujuy, Argentina)

SAMEC, CELESTE; PANARELLO, HÉCTOR OSVALDO; KILLIAN GALVÁN, VIOLETA A.

anthropological review

DE GRUYTER

Año: 2016 vol. 79 p. 265 - 279

In this work we present new values of stable isotopes of carbon (δ13Cco and δ13Cap) and nitrogen(δ15N) measured in a sample of 13 human individuals found in the Río Doncellas Archaeological Site (LatePeriod or Regional Developments, ca. 1000 AD?1450 AD) located in the Puna of Jujuy, Northwest of Argentina.The skeletal series belong to the collection of Museo E. Casanova, FFyL ? UBA and the InstitutoNacional de Antropología y Pensamiento Latinoamericano, being the result of investigations carried outduring the decades of 1940 and 1970, respectively. In addition, in this work we present isotopic compositionsof food resources (vegetal and fauna) found in the archaeological record as well as gathered in modernfarms located in the study area (Abra Pampa, Cochinoca, Jujuy). This information was used for paleodietaryinference, allowing us to establish a hierarchy of the resources that were consumed. The results indicatethat maize (Zea mays) is less important than other vegetal resources in the diet, which contradicts the expectationsgenerated from the macrobotanical evidence of the site and the cultivated terraces that surroundit. On the other hand, camelids seemed to be widely exploited, which is coherent with the current importanceof meat production within the region. These results allow us to assert that the growth of cereals didnot have a progressive relevance over other resources.