Climate change, rodents and camelids: Assessing subsistence strategies during the Early and Middle Holocene in the Dry Puna through stable isotope analysis

HUGO YACOBACCIO; CELESTE SAMEC

Londres

Conferencia; UK Archaeological Science Conference; 2017

University College London

The Southern Andes were peopled around 12.000 years BP, during a period characterized by a humid and stable climate changing to more dry and unstable climatic conditions in the Middle Holocene (8000-3500 years BP). The aim of this work is to explore stable isotope compositions of vizcacha (Lagidium viscacia) bone remains recovered in archaeological sites located in the Dry Puna of Argentina and dated between 10,000 and6000 years BP, in order to explore the consequences of climate change on the subsistence strategies employed by hunter-gatherer groups that inhabited this area during the Early-Middle Holocene transition. In this sense, we consider that stable isotope compositions measured on specific animal species, such as small rodents, can provide information about ecosystem modifications dictated by climate change, particularly during the Early-Middle Holocene transition. On the other hand, the isotopic analysis of wild animals tissues can help us to investigate hunting strategies employed by human groups that inhabited this area in the past. Thus, this work presents δ13C and δ15N values measured on bone collagen extracted from Andean vizcacha remains recovered at Hornillos 2 (4050 masl) and Inca Cueva 4 (3650 masl), two archaeological sites of the Dry Puna of Argentina dated to these time periods. At the same time, we compare these results with the δ13C and δ15N values measured on modern plant species collected near the archaeological sites surveyed and the δ13C and δ15Nvalues measured on archaeological camelid species (Lama and Vicugnaspp) recovered at the same sites.