Starchy food from a potsherd found in Late Holocene hunter-gatherer site in Argentinean Patagonia: towards the visibility of wild Underground storage organ

CIAMPAGNA M. L.; MOLARES SOLEDAD; LADIO ANA; CAPPARELLI AYLEN

VEGETATION HISTORY AND ARCHAEOBOTANY

SPRINGER

Lugar: Berlin; Año: 2021 p. 89 - 105

0939-6314

The aim of this paper is to present recent advances in the microbotanical analyses of a potsherd from a Late Holocene hunter-gatherer site in Argentinean Patagonia, which constitutes the first evidence from ceramic material of the processing of starchy food. Standard methods were carried out for starch grain recovery and morphometric analysis, care being taken in the prevention of cross-contamination and evaluation of post-depositional factors. Diagnostic features of the ancient starch grains recovered were compred against those from a list, available in the bibliography, of plants potentially processed in pottery, but no match was found. An anatomical and starch grainreference collection was established containing three of the most frequently-consumed traditional wild Underground Storage Organs (USOs) of Patagonia: Alstroemeria aurea Graham, Tropaeolum porifolium Cav. and Diposis patagonica Skottsb. in order to compare these against the archaeological record. We suggest that Tropaeolum aff.porifolium (and probably also Alstroemeria aff. aurea) were processed in the archaeological bowl the potsherd waspart of, and discuss these results in terms of a better understanding of the role of wild USOs in subsistence and the possible cooking systems used in hunter-gatherer societies in Argentinean Patagonia