The role of the small vertebrates in the human subsistence in the basins of North-Patagonic Rivers (Argentina) during the Holocene

STOESSEL, LUCIANA; ALCARAZ, ANA PAULA

San Rafael, Mendoza

Congreso; 12da Conferencia Internacional de Arqueozoología; 2014

The objective of this work is to evaluate the contribution of small vertebrates to the subsistence of hunter-gatherers groups who occupied the basins of the main North-Patagonic Rivers throughout the Holocene. In this sense, we analyzed the evidence from the sites linked to the Colorado, Neuquén, Negro and Limay Rivers, whose channels pass through part of Buenos Aires, La Pampa, Mendoza, Neuquén and Río Negro provinces (Argentina). The available literature for each micro-region shows that small size taxa were consumed throughout the Holocene. Although they do not constitute the basis of subsistence, they were a significant complement. However, it place in the diet was variable during this period and between basins. In this sense, while in some areas (Limay and Neuquén Rivers) these were important resources since early moments, in others (Colorado and Negro Rivers) they were consumed mainly towards the final part of the Holocene. Finally, we discuss the possible causes of this differences, which are linked to the age of the human occupation in each microregion, the development of intensification and diversification process, changes in the availability species and in the groups social organization (e.g., settlement patterns, mobility, etc.), differential preservation, investigation bias, among others.