Bird bone beads in Tierra del Fuego. The use of avifaunal resources in the production of bone ornaments in the Beagle Channel regi

TIVOLI, A; FIORE, D.

Congreso; ICAZ ? 12th. International Conference of Archaeozoology; 2014

This paper presents the first results regardingthe use of bird bones to produce ornamental beads in eight sites of the BeagleChannel region (southern Tierra del Fuego, Argentina). The sites cover anarchaeological sequence of six millenia, ranging from 6400 years BP up to thecontact period. Bird bones form part of archaeofaunal assemblages related tosubsistence remains, and also have been used for technological purposes such asthe production of bone tools (e.g. awls). However, a different andcomplementary use of bird bones as raw material is the production of ornamentalbeads. The analysis of 591 beads shows that these artifacts were produced usingdifferent 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 theulna, the humerus, and the carpometacarpus which entails that the bones forbead production were selected from the wings of the individuals, regardless ofthe taxa. Additionally, around 20% of these artifacts have incised decoration,which involved an increase in the labour invested in their production andenhanced their ornamental purposes. These data are then compared a) to theavailability and dietary consumption of bird species in these sites; b) to thetaxa and anatomical portions used in the production of bone tools. Theseresults shed new light on the production patterns as well as on the ornamentalfunctions of the beads.