Zooarchaeology and Biogeography in Central-Western Argentina: a Taphonomic Perspective

CLARA OTAOLA; MIGUEL GIARDINA; FERNANDO J. FERNÁNDEZ; MERCEDES CORBAT

Tahoe, Nevada

Conferencia; The 33rd Great Basin Anthropological Conference; 2012

Great Basin Anthropological Association

We present the results of the zooarchaelogical research focus on the variations in faunal consumption during the peopling of southern Mendoza province, in Argentinean Central West. The main prey consumed during the Holocene is the Guanaco (Lama guanicoe), a big-sized Artiodactyla with a broad geographic distribution and which dominates most of zooarchaeological assemblages. However, smaller preys such as armadillos, fishes, and birds had a significant place in human diet during the process of peopling of this region, mostly through the last 2000 years B.P. In previous researches, it has been stated that the incorporation of small size preys into the diet had been due to an intensification process at a regional scale. However, last taphonomic results have shown that the expectations of the model originally proposed are only met in some areas of the macroregion studied, such as Cordillera and Piedmont.