A guanaco kill site in Tierra del Fuego, Argentina. The case of Las Vueltas 1

SANTIAGO FERNANDO; SALEMME MÓNICA

Before Farming, the archaeology and anthropology of hunter-gatherers

Western Academic & Specialist Press Limited

Lugar: Liverpool England; Año: 2010 vol. 2 p. 1 - 17

1476-4253

The surface record of more than two thousand bones in 600 square meters, makes the site Las Vueltas 1 very special. With 91 percent of the bones belonging to a single species of guanaco (Lama guanicoe), the site is located in a land stripe between two lakes, surrounded by low hills built on Tertiary sediments. Several frames of reference were used to analyse the assemblage: quantitative analysis, age and sex profiles, natural and anthropic modifications, taphonomic approaches, and a review of ethnographic sources. The characteristics of the assemblage, the environment, the written references, and the radiocarbon dating aloud us to interpret this location as a guanaco kill site in the Fuegian steppe during the Holocene.