Death seasonality determination from pinnipeds teeth: the Cueva del Negro site case (Argentine Patagonia)

MIGUEL ANGEL ZUBIMENDI; PABLO AMBRUSTOLO; ENRIQUE CRESPO

ARQUEOLOGÍA (Buenos Aires)

Universidad de Buenos Aires - FFyL

Lugar: Buenos Aires; Año: 2019 vol. 25 p. 247 - 262

0327-5159

In this article, we present the first results on age and season of death from South American sea lions (Otaria flavescens) hunted by hunter-gatherers at the Cueva del Negro site (northern coast of the Santa Cruz Province, Patagonia, Argentina). Age and season of death was determined by growth-layer analysis in sea lion teeth. This analysis, allowed us to suggest potential aboriginal hunting strategies regarding the capture of these pinnipeds. Our results indicate that sea lions were hunted between summer and early fall, more precisely between January and April. This would reflect a marked seasonality in relation to sea lion availability, which could be explained in terms of mobility and subsistence strategies of the human groups that inhabited the area. In this sense, our results are discussed taking into consideration paleodietary data and the existing archaeological studies