A paleoecological approach to the archaeology of southern Mendoza.

- NEME, G., V. DURÁN, V. CORTEGOSO, S. DIÉGUEZ, M. GIARDINA, C. DE FRANCESCO, C. LLANO, A. GUERCI Y A. GIL.

Primer Encuentro Científico del ICES

Centro Atómico Constituyentes

Lugar: Buenos Aires; Año: 2006 p. 27 - 36

1667-4308

The work supports the idea that the archaeological record constitutes a valid approach to understand the relationship between humans and environment. It not only constitutes a paleoecological record because of the recovery of biological evidences associated to human occupations but due to the fact that humans themselves are significant components of past ecosystems. In other words, the understanding of human occupations implies the comprehension of making decisions within a particular environmental context. The aim of the work is to report preliminary results obtained from an ongoing pilot study in southern Mendoza focused on the understanding of human occupation in relation to past environmental evolution. A ca. 11,000 years of records bring a potential to understand past processes as well as the modern ecological arrangement of the area. First, information on the environmental setting and expected human strategies is discussed. Second, aspects of human biogeography are assessed. To do that, an emphasis in the mode as the region was explored, colonised and occupied and how the environmental characteristics would have been related to those processes, is given. In addition, ongoing pilot studies on paleoenvironmental reconstruction of the area are presented. These multidisciplinary studies include several disciplines such as stratigraphy, sedimentology, palynology and malacology.