Weathering pattern in bones from recent vertebrates in the Pampas region, Argentina

GUTIÉRREZ, MARÍA A.; NAHUEL A. SCHEIFLER; AGUSTINA MASSIGOGE; DANIEL J. RAFUSE; MARÍA CLARA ÁLVAREZ; MARIELA E. GONZÁLEZ; CRISTIAN A. KAUFMANN

Ankara

Congreso; 13th ICAZ International Conference; 2018

Middle East Technical University

During the last ten years we have been conducting a long-term naturalistic study in the Pampas region (Argentina) with the main objective of generating a corpus of actualistic data intended to be used in a variety of environmental and interdisciplinary contexts. One line of this study is based on the development of systematic taphonomic transects in a variety of environmental contexts. Until present, we have covered a total area of 1,046,130 m2, distributed along the coast (501,900 m2), hills (179,310 m2), river valleys (135,300 m2), lagoons (126,670 m2), shallow lakes (75,000 m2), and plains (27,950 m2). We have registered environmental data and we have recorded taphonomic modifications on the bone remains (disarticulated bones, articulated bones, and carcasses). Bone weathering is a world-wide destructive process which influences the overall preservation of faunal remains and masks other bone modifications (such as cut marks and carnivore action). For this reason, in this poster, we focus in this variable, in order to evaluate how this process contributes to the destruction of faunal remains in the archaeological record of the Pampas region. We present a review of the weathering data collected so far, including a comparison of different body sized animals. The main results indicate that weathering is more frequent in the plains and the coast; and that the majority of the bone remains were identified to stage 1. We consider that this information provides a strong frame of reference for archaeologists to interpret assorted weathering stages in the archaeofaunal assemblage.