Potters and Herders at the Southern Edge of the Andean World: Subsistence and Mobility in Northern Mendoza (500 BC?AD 1000)

FRIGOLÉ, CECILIA; GASCO, ALEJANDRA

Tunuyán

Conferencia; 4th Southern Deserts Conference; 2014

This poster synthesizes the results of two research projects focusing on mobility patterns, use of space, and subsistence strategies in different environments of northern Mendoza, over 1500 years during the late Holocene. Camelid bones and ceramic assemblages were studied from seven sites in different environments: intermountain valleys, the Precordillera, and the Andes. At each site, systematic excavations and radiocarbon dates established the temporal range of occupation as 500 BC?AD 1000. The methodology involved the macro- and microscopic study (petrography) of ceramic pastes and the geographic setting of each site. For the faunal remains, osteometry was used in conjunction with multivariate statistics? Principal Component Analysis and Cluster Analysis?using measurements of postcranial camelid bones. Through these studies it was possible to document the presence of domestic animals, which included a very large domestic animal. Species discrimination was possible in all the environments. There was a diversification in subsistence strategy over time: continuation of hunting and the implementation of herding. Llama herding, combined with the hunting of guanacos and vicuñas, reveals the adoption of a seasonal mobility strategy that made it possible to take advantage of resources available in different environments at different altitudes. Data from the ceramic analysis suggest that production was domestic, especially at intermountain valley sites, and that there was social interaction and/or circulation of vessels between valley populations and between the valleys and high-altitude areas. Moreover, similar pastes we identified?in terms of the composition and recipes?in all environments. This supports the possibility of seasonal mobility suggested by the faunal studies. Additionally, there is a low percentage of foreign ceramics that may be the result of extra- regional interaction and/or circulation of vessels with societies from the western slope of the Andes. The presence of large domestic animals? castrated/cargo llamas?may indicate the existence of caravans, supporting the possibility of extra-regional exchange.