Late Prehistoric High-Altitude Hunter-Gatherer Residential Occupations in the Argentine Southern Andes

CHRISTOPHER MORGAN; GUSTAVO NEME; NURIA SUGRAÑES; LAURA SALGÁN; ADOLFO F. GIL; CLARA OTAOLA; GIARDINA, MIGUEL; CARINA LLANO

Journal of Field Archaeology

Boston University

Lugar: Boston; Año: 2017

0093-4690

Test excavations at Risco de los Indios (RDLI), a site at 2480 masl with 29 residential features and well-developed midden containing abundant floral, faunal, lithic and ceramic materials are described. Analyses indicate the site was intensively used ca. 500 CAL B.P. as a residential base for groups focused on hunting guanaco, supplemented by locally-available wild flora and fauna as well as domestic beans transported from the lowlands. Ceramics and obsidian indicate these groups were highly mobile and in contact with groups on the eastern and western margins of the Andes. These patterns compare favorably to those seen in the region´s other high altitude villages. It appears the development of these patterns coincided with population increase and economic intensification in the lowlands ca. 2000 CAL B.P. and that the move to slightly lower elevation settings like RDLI may have been conditioned by the onset of the Little Ice Age.