Scale of Human Mobility in northwestern Patagonia: An Approach Based on Regional Geology and Strontium Isotopes in Human Remains

FERNÁNDEZ, MARÍA VICTORIA; GORDÓN, FLORENCIA; LE ROUX, PETRUS; WINOCUR, DIEGO; LUCERO, GUSTAVO; BENÍTEZ, ANAHÍ; RINDEL, DIEGO D.; DELLA NEGRA, CLAUDIA; BERNAL, VALERIA; BARBERENA, RAMIRO

GEOARCHAEOLOGY-AN INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL

JOHN WILEY & SONS INC

Lugar: New York; Año: 2022 vol. 37 p. 227 - 241

0883-6353

Strontium isotopes allow studying human paleogeography and have widened the scope of archaeological enquiries on mobility. We present an approach based on strontium isotopes ( 87Sr/ 86Sr) to study the mobility of hunter-gatherer societies from northwestern Patagonia(Neuquén, Argentina). The analysis is developed on the basis of a macro-regional geological framework that guides sampling and interpretation of results. We also present results for fauna to begin building a landscape of bioavailable strontium to be utilized in the interpretation of results from human samples. These first results conform to general expectations and show the most radiogenic 87Sr/ 86Sr values for the oldest geological provinces, while low values are recorded forrecent substrates. Additionally, we provide results for human samples from archaeological sites spanning the last 4000 years, a period during which a number of important socio-demographic changes occurred. The results in human samples indicate overall isotopic fidelity to the valuesrecorded in the local geology, suggesting a relatively restricted spatial scale of mobility during the late Holocene. This discussion is situated in a biogeographic research framework assessing topographic variation and landscape seasonality, and contributes to understand the movements ofpeople, flow of material objects, and circulation of information in the Patagonian Andes.