HUMAN INTENSIFICATION AND DESERT VARIABILITY IN CENTRAL WESTERN ARGENTINA: ARCHAEOLOGICAL TRENDS

G. NEME, A. GIL, C. LLANO, M, GIARDINA Y A. UGAN,

Menphis

Congreso; Society for American Archaeology Meeting; 2012

Society for American Archaeology

Central western Argentina present significant environmental variability wich was scantly considered in the explanation of human-environment interaction. Three different desert (Monte, Patagonia and Altoandino) characterize the regional ecosystems, based on the taxonomic vegetation distribution. Theses deserts are spatially close between them but with differences in the precipitation pattern and in the other climatic variable. The area was inhabited historically by two different ethnographic groups with significantly differences in their subsistence and It is consider the prehispanic south American boundary of Andean farming production. This paper explores the subsistence and diet variability using archaeofaunal, archaeobotanical and stable isotope information from the last 5000 years.