VARIABILITY ON STABLE ISOTOPES (13C, 15N) OF CAMELIDS BONE COLLAGEN: IMPLICATION TO HOLOCENE HUMAN PALEOECOLOGY

ADOLFO F. GIL; ARMANDO DAUVERNE; CLARA OTAOLA; CINTHIA ABONA; EVA PERALTA; GUSTAVO A, NEME; GISELA QUIROGA

Viña del Mar

Congreso; ISOECOL; 2018

Universidad Andrés Bello

Camelids, mostly guanacos (Lama guanicoe) arethe more prominent big sized herbivorous in South America and one of the most significant resource in human diet during pre industrial time. From anarchaeological perspective, human diet reconstruction using stable isotopes on bone collagen are based mostly using averagevalues of camelids stable isotopes. The present paper confirms the high variation in camelid bone collagen stable isotopes (C and N). North Patagonia data showsa range of variation on Holocene samples between -20? to -14?on ẟ13C and between 3? and 12? on ẟ15N (n= 75). Ecological difference between Monte and Patagonia deserts explain part of these variation.This mean that the macro regional average value on camelids 13C and 15N could generate an inaccurate human isotopic diet reconstruction. A smaller spatial scale taking into account phitogeographic units is prefereable in this kind of studies.