Late Prehistoric High-Altitude Hunter-Gatherer Residential Occupations in the Argentine Southern Andes

CHRISTOPHER MORGANA; GUSTAVO A, NEME; NURIA SUGRAEÑES; LAURA SALGAN; ADOLFO GIL; CLARA OTAOLA; MIGUEL GIARDINA; CARINA LLANO

Journal of Field Archaeology

Trstess of Boston University

Lugar: Boston; Año: 2017

0093-4690

Test excavations were conducted at Risco de los Indios (RDLI), a site at 2480 masl with 29 residentialfeatures and a well-developed midden containing abundant floral, faunal, lithic, and ceramic materials.Analyses indicate the site was intensively used CA. 500 CAL B.P. as a residential base for groups focusedon hunting guanaco, supplemented by locally-available wild flora and fauna as well as domestic beanstransported from the lowlands. Ceramic and obsidian artifacts indicate these groups were highlymobile and in contact with groups on the eastern and western margins of the Andes. Thesepatterns compare favorably to those seen in the region?s other high altitude villages. It appearsthat the development of these patterns began with population increase and economicintensification in the lowlands CA. 2000 CAL B.P. and that the move to slightly lower elevationsettings like RDLI may have been conditioned by the onset of the Little Ice Age.