Human burials during the hunter-gathering/farming transition in Ojo de Agua, Northern Patagonia, Argentina

PERALTA, EVA; LEANDRO LUNA; ADOLFO F. GIL; CLAUDIA ARANDA; GUSTAVO NEME; LAURA SALGAN; FERNANDO COLOMBO; JORGE ZÁRATE DELGADO; HUGO TUKER; VALERIA AGUIRRE; KARINA DIAZ

International Journal of Osteoarchaeology

John Wiley and Sons Ltd

Lugar: Hoboken; Año: 2023 vol. 34 p. 1 - 14

This paper explores the implications of the conformation of formal burial areas in thesouthernmost limit of agricultural dispersion in South America. Previous researchproposed the development of cemeteries or formal burial areas due to specializationin using specific habitats and the development of territorial ownership. From a paleoecologicalbackground, we hypothesize that hunter-gatherers intensified resourceexploitation and develop territoriality in population growth and pressure overresources. The expectation is that formal burial areas emerged in this context to legitimizethe ties with the territory and ensure exclusive access to the land and itsresources. To evaluate this hypothesis, we analyzed a mortuary context from southernMendoza (Central Western Argentina), named Ojo de Agua, by describing thesite´s characteristics, burial modality, presence of grave goods, age at death profile,and evidence of violence. This site has two main conditions for handling our hypothesis:(1) the chronology and spatial localization coincide with the temporal and geographicdispersion of pre-Hispanic cultigens; (2) systematic procedures duringfieldwork led us to access a significant amount of information not available in othermortuary contexts of the area. Our results point to Ojo de Agua as a cemetery thatemerged in the frame of increasing territoriality and conflict with neighboring groupsand permitted us to improve our knowledge about the dynamic relationship betweenhuman population, environment, and cultural responses in the context of intensificationand contact with food production. These results deepen recent studies in thesame line but with a greater resolution.