Late Holocene (~3.9kybp-present) environmental conditions through the analysis of microfauna. Upper Ongamira Valley, Northern Córdoba Province, Central Argentina

MIGNINO, J.; MARTINEZ, J.J.; IZETA, A.D.

San Rafael

Congreso; 12th International Conference of Archaezoology; 2014

Museo de Historia Natural de San Rafael

Archaeological microfauna are widely used to reconstruct cultural and natural processes. In Alero Deodoro Roca (ADR) rockshelter the Late Holocene (ca. 3000 rcybp) archaeological evidence helped to answer questions related to ancient diet, food preferences or in a more general aspect the past environments ant its changes through time. In this last line of investigation this work compares two distinct microfaunal collections from ADR in order to interpret taxa representation through the Late Holocene related to changing environmental conditions. Firstly, an actualistic collection from the rockshelter constituted by owl pellets (n=100) which contains ~30.000 bone elements and specimens. The presence of three sigmodontine rodents taxa (Phyllotis xanthopygus, Akodon cf. A. polopi, and Calomys cf. C. musculinus.), Ctenomys sp., one South American marsupial (Thylamys pallidior) and some unidentified Passeriformes species were registered. A similar taxa distribution was recorded for the surrounding areas. Secondly an archaeological collection (n=447) which suggests different representation in the abundance of the taxa. Reithrodon auritus, along Ctenomys sp. and Microcavia cf. M. australis, were identified. Although sample bias can be affecting the representation of archaeological taxa it is important to acknowledge that the archaeological bones were retrieved both from direct collection during excavations and through sediment samples collected in fieldwork and processed in the lab. As a preliminary result R. auritus, a specie characteristic from colder and dryer environments like those of Patagonia or southern Cordoba province was determined as one of the more abundant species in the archaeological assemblage. This could be related to the environmental change from more cold and dryer climate to a warmer and humid one registered by other environmental proxies such as isotopic results from land snail shells or soil organic matter along with geomorphological interpretations of the area supports the results obtained through the analysis of this vertebrate microfauna.