Caracterización fitolítica de las secuencias sedimentarias del sitio arqueológico El Pichao (Noroeste Argentino): Cambios ambientales y antrópicos durante el Holoceno superior.

LEFEBVRE, MARÍA GISELA; COLOBIG MARIA DE LOS M; ALEJANDRO FABIÁN ZUCOL; VATTUONE, MARÍA MARTA SAMPIETRO

Estudios Atacameños

Instituto de Arqueología y Antropología San Pedro de Atacama

Lugar: Atacama; Año: 2022 vol. 67

The results of the description of phytoliths recovered from pedosedimentary sequences located in the town of El Pichao (Valle de Santa María, Tucumán, Argentina) belonging to the period of Regional Developments (ca. 1000 - 600 AP) are disclosed. Phytoliths were extracted from the sediment by physical and chemical processing of the samples. The set of phytoliths found allowed the evolution of environmental conditions to be established, leaving evidence of a cold period of arid tendency prior to the establishment of human occupations in El Pichao. During the period of occupation (Regional Developments) the environmental conditions were war-mer and more arid than the current ones. Even so, the land was conditioned for its agricultural exploitation, probably with the application of irrigation practices. The presence of phytoliths in the form of a cross (related to maideas) in the middle section of all the agricultural terraces studied appears together with the increase in the number of diatoms, which would indicate that they could have been cultivated intentionally.