Human predation on sea lion populations in coastal Patagonia during Late Holocene

A. SEBASTIÁN MUÑOZ

Paris

Congreso; 4th ICAZ TAPHONOMY WORKING GROUP MEETING; 2016

ICAZ

Sea lions were one of the preferred preys taken by Patagonian hunter gatherers in Southern Patagonia during the Holocene (see Muñoz, 2011, for a review). Nonetheless, the regional archaeological picture is still incomplete, particularly in what has to do with the complexity of the strategies involved and its related causes and, hence, more research is needed in order to understand the range of variation of human decisions on pinniped populations from a regional perspective. In this presentation we discuss pinniped butchery decisions taken by hunter gatherers from different ecological settings. We compare zooarchaeological data from continental and insular assemblages recovered in the Atlantic coast of Southern Patagonia and Tierra del Fuego island and focus on the zooarchaeological signatures related to butchery decisions under contrasting scenarios. The latter derives from differing latitudinal and insularity settings, differences in sea lions availability (isolated vs aggregated individuals), supplementary resource availability, etc. The results suggest that carcass disorganization is an important source of variation to explain anatomical and bone modification data gathered from different assemblages. Carcass processing marks show a predominance of cut and crushing marks which are related to summary disarticulation and defleshing of anatomical parts. It is concluded that there were no important constraints on the conditions under which pinnipeds were acquired and processed by hunter-gatherers on the continental and insular Atalantic coast of Southern Patagonia during the last 2000 years BP.