Deep-sea fishing among hunter-gatherers of southern South America? Insight from carbon and nitrogen signals in fish bone collagen of Beagle Channel sites

ZANGRANDO, A.F.; RICCIALDELLI, L.; KOCHI, S.; TESSONE, A.

San Rafael

Congreso; ICAZ 2014. 12a International Conference of Archaeozoology; 2014

ICAZ

Bone remains of offshore fish are common in archaeological sites of the Beagle Channel (e.g. Macruronus magellanicus, Merluccius sp. and Thyrsites atun). The zooarchaeological evidence and the current knowledge about fish biology suggest deep-water fishing during the Late Holocene. However, the behaviour and distribution of some of these species were significantly affected by the over-exploitation of modern industrial fishery since 1960 and the present ecological information is not probably the correct parameter for interpretations in the past. A paleoecological perspective is undertaken by a carbon and nitrogen isotope study on collagen extracted from fish bone from archaeological sites of the Middle and Late Holocene in Beagle Channel. The archaeological results are compared with data obtained by modern studies in fish ecology and stable isotope in the south of the Argentinean Sea. The possibility of discriminating fish distribution between modern and pre-industrial times is evaluated and the implications for archaeology discussed.