New Data on South American camelid bone size changes during Middle-Late Holocene transition

ASCHERO, C. A.; IZETA, ANDRES DARIO; HOCSMAN, S.

International Journal of Osteoarchaeology

Wiley

Lugar: Chichester; Año: 2012 p. 1 - 1

1099-1212

The statistical processing of data obtained through osteometry has allowed the determination of metric characteristics of morphotypes similar to those of modern camelid species from the Argentinean Northwest. They were used in camelid assemblages of archaeological sites from Puna and Mesothermal Valleys. The results obtained in the allocation of bones to different morphotypes and the interpretation of data was satisfactory. This paper presents the results of applying these techniques on a set of ten elements from the Peñas Chicas 1.5 site dated around 3800 years BP. The analysis shows the presence of at least three individuals, one of which corresponds to an Andean guanaco (Lama guanicoe) morphotype. The second and the third are similar in size to a modern llama (Lama glama) in their “intermediate” and “cargo” morphotypes. This is consistent with patterns already seen for sites from the Argentinean and Chilean Puna where the identification of larger individuals than the Andean guanaco modern standard shows the early stages of the domestication process of South American camelids. The paper contributes with new data in order to understand the complex processes that occurred in the South Central Andes that led to the domestication of one of the most conspicuous animals in the archaeological record of the Argentinean Northwest.