The Shape of Mountains: Settlement and Circulation In NW Argentina at the Onset of Sedentary Lifeways ca. 1500 BC-AD 600

LAZZARI, MARISA; KORSTANJE, MARÍA ALEJANDRA

Berna

Congreso; Interntional Conference of the European Asociation of Archaeologist (EAA); 2019

European Asociation of Archaeologist (EAA)

Abstract #: 1908THE SHAPE OF MOUNTAINS: SETTLEMENT AND CIRCULATION IN NW ARGENTINAAT THE ONSET OF SEDENTARY LIFEWAYS (CA. 1500 BC-AD600).Marisa Lazzari1, Maria Alejandra Korstanje2,31 University of Exeter2 Instituto de Arqueologia y Museo, Universidad Nacional de Tucuman, Argentina3 Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Cientificas y Tecnicas (CONICET) ArgentinaCorresponding author's e-mail: m.lazzari@exeter.ac.ukThe Andean region provides a unique record of human habitation in high-altitude areas.Although camelid-assisted mobility gradually developed over the long term, thesepractices were very different from the mobile lifeways observed in other high-altitudesettings in the world. In the south-central Andes, archaeology and cognate disciplineshave proposed a variety of settlement and mobility models, emphasizing the increasingrole of llama caravans as the connective agents across its starkly diverse landscape. TheFormative period (ca 1500 BC-AD600) in NW Argentina (NWA) is of interest as a timewhen new technologies and forms of settlement emerged, based on access to theexploitation of diverse microenvironments. Combining sedentism with varying degrees ofresidential mobility, these communities built upon the legacy of long-distancemovements of the earlier hunter-gatherers and created a new social landscape. Fueledby their increased productive capacities and their ability to maintain social bondsthrough exchanged materials, these new practices shaped the topography of thismountainous area in unprecedented ways.Traditional approaches have proposed the increasing centralization of interactionthrough the ability of some areas of NWA to control agricultural surplus, craft productionand regional traffic. Based on typological similarities and vague assumptions onagricultural practices, these interpretations have left much to speculation. Focusing onkey sites in the El Bolsón Valley and the southern Calchaquí valleys area of NWA, wediscuss archaeometry, artifact analysis, paleoecology, and environmental evidence toprovide a multi-scalar view of community production and reproduction, thereby offeringan alternative approach to this period in the region. Formative period communities werehighly creative, generating enough resources to support both internal and regionalnetworks of cooperation and alliance, and to circumvent or even undermine those thatsought to concentrate power and resources. Our approach offers a comparative,nuanced perspective to high-altitude lifeways worldwide.