Domestic Plants, Climate and Human Diet in Transitions: Stable Isotopes Trends in the Late Holocene Southern Andes

GIL, A; NEME, G.

BERN

Congreso; INQUA; 2011

INQUA

How and why the farming spread stop is an anthropological topic as significant as the origin of the domesticate. In order to improve this theme the stable isotopes (ä13C, ä15N, ä18O) information on archaeological human samples from the central west Argentina is presented. The area was the prehispanic farming boundary. The information is compared with paleoeclimate record. Change in the significance of maize in the human diet is proposed and it is discussed using different hypothesis. The higher variance in precipitation and a significant drop of temperature is proposed as a significant causal variable to explain part of this change.