New data on age and death seasonality estimations of pinnipeds in the Beagle channel, Tierra del Fuego (Argentina) Nuevos datos de estimación de edad y estación de muerte de pinnípedos en la región del canal Beagle, Tierra del Fuego (Argentina)

MARTINOLI, MARÍA PAZ; CRESPO, ENRIQUE A.; DELLABIANCA, NATALIA A.; ZANGRANDO, ATILIO FRANCISCO J.

Intersecciones en Antropologia

Universidad Nacional del Centro de la Provincia de Buenos Aires

Año: 2021 vol. 22 p. 195 - 207

1666-2105

For decades, studies of past pinniped exploitation in the Beagle Channel were mainly based on the zooarchaeological assemblages in the Second Component of Túnel I site, dated to the middle Holocene. In recent years, the systematic analysis of further contexts located at different sectors of the north coast of the Beagle Channel have provided new information, especially for the late Holocene. While a hunting pattern focused on adult and subadult males of A. australis remain apparent in middle Holocene assemblages, age and sex profiles show a more heterogeneous pattern in later moments of the archaeological sequence. In this paper, new estimations on the age and season of death of pinniped specimens recovered from archaeological contexts in the Beagle Channel are presented. The results, based on thin sections of canine teeth, indicate variation from the age profiles previously obtained from zooarchaeological studies. The results also indicate a seasonally diverse pattern in pinniped capture during the late Holocene. It is argued that pinniped harvesting strategies probably varied in the Beagle Channel throughout the Holocene.