Hallazgo e interpretación de Zea mays en el sitio arqueológico Loma Pircada (La Rioja, Argentina).

CARRIZO JULIETA I.; OLISZEWSKI NURIT; CANO SERGIO

PUBLICACION ESPECIAL - ASOCIACION PALEONTOLOGICA ARGENTINA

Asociación Paleontológica Argentina

Lugar: Buenos Aires; Año: 2002 p. 79 - 83

0328-347X

The archaeological site Loma Pircada lies in the Chuquis locality (Castro Barros, La Rioja). It is a little hill with a surrounding wall forming a ring on the top. During the first inspection activities carried out in 1998, 17 ambits of circular shape and 3 meters diameter each, situated one besides the other in regular way, were found on the top of the hill. The excavations allowed to find charred archaeological seeds only in same of the ambits. With the purpose of recovering seeds in a systematic way, sediment samples were taken and by mears of floating techniques 88 seeds were found. It was possible to determinate that 95.5 % corresponded to Zea mays L. They are charred grains in excellent conservation state allowing to determine the existence of two morphological types: type A of round shape and small size (6x4 mm) and type B stretched shape and greater size (9x5 mm). The rest of the samples were no determinate because they had no distinctive features. The hypothesis is that Loma Pircada’s ambits may have been maize grains storage.