The use of wood during prehispanic times in the Upper Paraná Delta revealed though analysis of ancient charcoal

RAMOS, R. SOLEDAD; FRANCO, M. JIMENA; BREA, MARIANA; BONOMO, MARIANO; POLITIS, GUSTAVO

VEGETATION HISTORY AND ARCHAEOBOTANY

SPRINGER

Año: 2020

0939-6314

Woody plant resources are important to human societies today and were also in the past. Here we assess the woody plantresources available to peoples in Northeastern Argentina in the pre-Hispanic period and assess how they were used. TheUpper Paraná Delta (Entre Ríos province, Argentina) was occupied by indigenous societies during the last 2000 years, andevidence of those peoples has been found at Los Tres Cerros 1 archaeological site (inhabited at least between 765 to 1505 calyears ad). From the local traditional and ethnographical literature, a broad functionality of the determined taxa is proposed,to use as a basis for palaeoethnobotanical interpretations. Species of the Lauraceae, Passiforaceae, Fabaceae, Salicaceae,Boraginaceae and Apocynaceae families were found dispersed about the site; they possibly grew close to the settlement andhad diverse indigenous uses (e.g. for the construction of canoes and other artefacts in daily use). Other species were foundconcentrated on the archaeological site. They were related to Euphorbaceae, Fabaceae, Cyperaceae, Anacardiaceae, Apocynaceae, Myrtaceae and Primulaceae and were probably used as fuel in domestic activities (e.g. to obtain light, heat andto cook food and fre pottery). Forty-three carbonized wood samples were studied. Charcoals related to Sapium, Nectandraand Aspidosperma genera were identifed next to pottery and animal bones. The presence of Schinopsis in the anthracological record shows the extra-local link of the pre-Hispanic populations that occupied the Paraná river basin. Finally, thesenew advances increase the knowledge about the vegetation nearby the archaeological site at the end of the Late Holocene.