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July 1995 - present
Publications
Publications (167)
The southern Mendoza province, located in the northern region of Patagonia, was inhabited by hunter-gatherer groups until historic times. Previous archaeological studies have reported canid remains among faunal assemblages, which were assumed to be part of the human diet. However, the taxonomic identification and significance of these canids within...
This paper presents the results of a study on the isotopic ecology of guanacos in central western Argentina. We examine the historical population ecology of guanacos using stable isotope analysis of bone collagen from pre-Hispanic and modern guanaco populations (n = 129), considering variability in two ecoregions: the Monte hot desert and the Andea...
This paper explores the implications of the conformation of formal burial areas in the southernmost limit of agricultural dispersion in South America. Previous research proposed the development of cemeteries or formal burial areas due to specialization in using specific habitats and the development of territorial ownership. From a paleoecological b...
Se presenta una caracterización detallada del arte rupestre del sitio Corcovo 2 (sur de Mendoza, Argentina), un conjunto de bloques grabados que destaca por la elevada frecuencia de motivos cefalomorfos-mascariformes. Estos motivos cuentan en la región con un corpus de información poco explorado y fragmentario. En cambio, en regiones cercanas (e.g....
The main objective of this project was to generate knowledge about the functioning of lacustrine ecosystems in artificial reservoirs. To achieve this, an ecological approach was proposed to study trophic relationships using stable isotopes. "El Nihuil" is the largest freshwater body in Mendoza, and it receives inflows from the Atuel River and the S...
Resumen
Este trabajo busca conocer las estrategias tecnológicas, los rangos de acción y la conectividad en las estrategias humanas de ambientes marginales. Se discute, para el caso del sur de Mendoza, el modelo clásico de trashumancia cazadora recolectora entre tierras bajas y altas. El estudio se centra específicamente en El Payén y en el uso de l...
Hunting by humans impacted the guanaco population in northwestern Patagonia during the late Holocene. A recent ancient DNA study has demonstrated a decrease in guanaco population size during the last 2000 years BP, which appears to be the result of resource depression. In this paper, we examine the genetic structure of the guanaco population during...
Isotope baselines are fundamental to infer diets, and to evaluate trophic relationships between humans, animals, and plants. In this study, we aim to detect spatial patterns of δ¹³C and δ¹⁵N of different plant types (C3, C4 and CAM) along environmental gradients in the eastern slopes of the southern Andes, in order to use them as a baseline to reco...
La jerarquización de recursos constituye uno de los procedimientos más empleados para evaluar la subsistencia de los cazadores-recolectores en el pasado. Para el Centro Occidente Argentino (COA) esta jerarquización se fundaba en el tamaño corporal de las presas. Aquí incorporamos datos sobre los costos de manejo, generando el primer ordenamiento de...
This paper explores the relationships between population change and human diet after the adoption of domesticated resources in northwest Mendoza, a subregion of central western Argentina (CWA). To estimate population, we used summed probability distributions of radiocarbon ages (RC-SPD). We used carbon and nitrogen stable isotope values (ẟ¹³Cco, ẟ¹...
En este trabajo presentamos los primeros resultados de los análisis tecno-morfológicos y geoquímicos realizados en 12 piezas de obsidiana recuperadas en el Norte de Pampa Seca (sur de Córdoba y San Luis). En esta área se propuso un aumento de la ocupación para el Holoceno tardío, junto con recurrencia en la ocupación de los sitios y la presencia de...
En este estudio paleodemográfico contribuimos a la discusión sobre el impacto de la incorporación de recursos vegetales domesticados en poblaciones del sitio Jaime Prats-1, el área de entierros humanos con mayor número de individuos del centro occidente argentino. La ubicación espacial y temporal del sitio arqueológico se corresponde con el registr...
Significance
Understanding how people have shaped landscapes requires detailed information on past changes in climate, vegetation, fire, and land use. The environmental and human history of four sites along the eastern Andes of southern South America (34–52°S) shows the changing influence of people and climate on landscape development over the last...
Archaeologists increasingly use large radiocarbon databases to model prehistoric human demography (also termed paleo-demography). Numerous independent projects, funded over the past decade, have assembled such databases from multiple regions of the world. These data provide unprecedented potential for comparative research on human population ecolog...
The south of Mendoza province has been characterized as the southern frontier of South American pre-Hispanic agriculture on the eastern slope of the Andes. This characterization has been based on the presence of crops at the archaeological sites and adopting a dichotomic perception of hunter-gatherers and farmers. During the last few decades, the a...
En este trabajo se discuten las ocupaciones humanas de altura, entre los 2000 y 3000 msnm, en el extremo Sur andino durante el Holoceno tardío. Para ello, se integran los análisis líticos y cerámicos del sitio Valle Hermoso 1 y los relevamientos de arte rupestre de Valle Hermoso 2 y Valle Hermoso 3. Las evidencias muestran dos momentos de ocupación...
This study tests the hypothesis that the incorporation of cultigens about ca. 2000 years BP substantially changed hunter-gatherer subsistence and mobility in the Atuel River valley (Central-Western Argentina), where the frontier of pre-Hispanic domesticated resource dispersion was defined. Degenerative joint disease and entheseal change markers wer...
Este trabajo tiene como objetivo caracterizar el sitio Cañada Seca-1, un entierro múltiple (NMI=24) localizado en el valle del Atuel y fechado en ca. 1500 años AP, a través de la integración de diferentes líneas de evidencia. A partir de este registro se discuten las interpretaciones en torno a la presencia de cultígenos y sus implicancias para la...
In this paper we evaluate the role of human strategies in the Andean Piedmont from northern Patagonia across the Holocene. Specifically, we present the analysis of the Early Holocene-Late Holocene archaeological record of Salamanca cave (Mendoza-Argentina). We identified technological changes that occurred during the Late Holocene and the implicati...
Explaining the stability of human populations provides knowledge for understanding the resilience of human societies to environmental change. Here, we use archaeological radiocarbon records to evaluate a hypothesis drawn from resilience thinking that may explain the stability of human populations: Faced with long-term increases in population densit...
Zooarchaeologists have relied upon various approaches to study the impacts of harvest pressure and environmental change on ungulate populations, such as analysis of prey mortality patterns and morphometrics. Analysis of ancient DNA from ungulate bones and bone fragments from archaeological sites provides an additional means for studying prey popula...
All crops are the product of a domestication process that started less than 12,000 years ago from one or more wild populations1,2. Farmers selected desirable phenotypic traits (such as improved energy accumulation, palatability of seeds and reduced natural shattering³) while leading domesticated populations through several more or less gradual demo...
En el presente trabajo se evalúan las tendencias tecnológicas de los conjuntos líticos y cerámicos del sitio arqueológico Los Gallegos 1, localizado en el valle medio del río Atuel. El objetivo principal es explorar las estrategias de movilidad y modos de ocupación durante el Holoceno tardío final en la región de Monte, al sur de la provincia de Me...
This study assessed the concentration, bioconcentration, and bioaccumulation of As, Cd, Co, Cr, Cu, Mg, Mn, Ni, Pb, and Zn in juvenile fishes (Acestrorynchus pantaneiro, Brycon orbygnianus, Cyphocharax voga, Megaleporinus obtusidens, Odontesthes bonariensis, Pimelodus maculatus, Prochilodus lineatus, Salminus brasiliensis, and Schizodon borelli) in...
Este trabajo presenta los primeros resultados de un análisis regional del arte rupestre del sur de Mendoza, basado en el estudio de la distribución de 96 sitios en tres áreas biogeográficas, evaluadas según su productividad. La información obtenida permitió identificar un repertorio rupestre de diez clases de motivos, distribuidas en las tres áreas...
Este trabajo presenta los primeros resultados de un análisis regional del arte rupestre del sur de Mendoza, basado en el estudio de la distribución de 96 sitios en tres áreas biogeográficas, evaluadas según su productividad. La información obtenida permitió identificar un repertorio rupestre de diez clases de motivos, distribuidas en las tres áreas...
The southern boundary of prehispanic farming in South America occurs in central Mendoza Province, Argentina at approximately 34 degrees south latitude. Archaeological evidence of farming includes the recovery of macrobotanical remains of cultigens and isotopic chemistry of human bone. Since the 1990s, archaeologists have also hypothesized that the...
This paper reevaluates the significance of plants and animals in Late Holocene human diets of northwestern Patagonia. The area was occupied by hunter-gatherers who, despite the presence of nearby agricultural populations, did not abandon their emphasis on the exploitation of wild resources. Combining new and previously published stable isotope data...
Luego de su introducción por españoles y otras poblaciones europeas, los caballos, burros y mulas se expandieron por todo el continente americano, contribuyeron al proyecto colonial de poder europeo y transformaron el estilo de vida de los pueblos originarios. Los detalles de este proceso, sin embargo, no son bien conocidos. Si bien la zooarqueolog...
In this paper we explore how changes in human strategies are differentially modulated by climate in a border area between hunter-gatherers and farmers. We analyze multiple proxies: radiocarbon summed probability distributions (SPDs), stable C and N isotopes, and zooarchaeological data from northwestern Patagonia. Based on these proxies, we discuss...
El registro arqueológico de cazadores-recolectores localizado en ambientes de altura ha sido ampliamente debatido en la literatura mundial. Las discusiones se han centrado en su funcionalidad, cronología, complementariedad con ambientes bajos y significado en los procesos de poblamiento de distintas regiones. Los Andes meridionales cuentan con un a...
In this paper, we carry out an isotopic study to learn about the diet and mobility patterns of the human groups that inhabited different areas and environments of western Catamarca, Argentina, over almost 2500 years. We present and discuss the results of the isotopic composition of 26 bioarchaeological remains (δ¹³C and δ¹⁵N on bone collagen, and δ...
In Northwestern Patagonia, the obsidian was used during the entire Holocene, and its importance increased with time. Recent field work allowed the discovery of a new obsidian source located in the Rio Grande river, which was called “Coche Quemado” (CQ). The results indicate that the CQ source has a different geochemical signal than all other source...
This paper explores how significant are the ecological and climatic variables to influence the stable isotopes of guanacos. Lama guanicoe bone collagen carbon and nitrogen stable isotope ratios are assumed as a macro regional average value in west Argentina, mostly as a baseline to model archaeological human diet. If stable isotopes on mammals refl...
All crops are the product of a domestication process that started less than 12,000 years ago from one or more wild populations. Farmers selected desirable phenotypic traits, such as improved energy accumulation, palatability of seeds or reduced natural shattering, while leading domesticated populations through several more or less gradual demograph...
Central Western Argentina is an area archeologically defined as one of the southernmost limits of farming in the pre-Hispanic Americas. Optimal foraging models help to predict important changes in faunal use prior to the adoption of agriculture related to resource depression and environmental changes. This paper evaluates changes in pre-Hispanic hu...
El libro ofrece un panorama integral y actualizado de las diferentes estrategias de subsistencia y prácticas alimentarias de las sociedades indígenas que ocuparon los distintos entornos naturales del continente americano desde fines del Pleistoceno, hace más de 14 mil años. Busca, por un lado, construir saberes disciplinares acerca de la subsistenc...
p>El presente trabajo aporta al conocimiento de la biogeografía humana en ambientes áridos y las fases de poblamiento en relación con las trayectorias demográficas humanas. En ese marco, se presenta nueva información arqueológica del área El Corcovo, emplazada en el Monte surmendocino/nordpatagónico. Se detallan los trabajos de campo que contemplar...
Northwest Patagonia was inhabited by hunter gatherers until historic times with evidence of “farming islands” in the north sector (mostly Diamante and Atuel River). Until recent times the human evolutionary trajectory had been focused in a coarse grained temporal resolution, using multi millennial units. This poster explores the archaeological reco...
The PEOPLE 3000 working group focuses
on integrating archaeological and paleoecological
case studies with mathematical
modeling. We seek to understand how coevolving
human societies and ecosystems
can successfully cope with the interrelated
forces of population growth, increasing
social complexity and climate change, and
the diversity of trajectori...
Stable isotope analysis (SIA) coupled with mixing models are powerful tool for examining diet and food-web dynamics in aquatic ecosystems. Nitrogen isotopes can be used to determine trophic position, increasing about 3•4‰ at each trophic level. Carbon can be used to trace energy sources in food webs, because isotope values increase only slightly be...
La diversidad en los desiertos del centro occidente generan condiciones particulares para entender la biogeografía humana de ambientes marginales. Los avances de este tema en la arqueología del sur mendocino manifiestan un desbalance de registro, con trabajos intensos en el sector patagónico y andino pero menos intensos y poco continuos, en el Mont...
El trabajo explora cuan estables fueron las estrategias humanas una vez que estas incorporaron cultígenos. Asimismo evalúa si incorporado el consumo de plantas domésticas, las estrategias fueron, o no, progresivamente apoyándose más sobre la
producción y consumo de las mismas. El estudio compara tres sitios con restos humanos (Jaime Prats-1, Rincón...
Nos ponemos en contacto nuevamente para contarles las últimas novedades acerca de la organización de las VII Jornadas Arqueológicas Cuyanas (JAC). Estamos muy contentos de poder tenerlos a todos en la ciudad de Malargüe para discutir los últimos trabajos desarrollados en la región y compartir momentos gratos con amigos. En esta circular les hacemos...
Estimados colegas y amigos: Nos ponemos en contacto nuevamente para contarles las últimas novedades acerca de la organización de las VII Jornadas Arqueológicas Cuyanas (JAC). Estamos muy contentos de poder tenerlos a todos en la ciudad de Malargüe para discutir los últimos trabajos desarrollados en la región y compartir momentos gratos con amigos....
La aplicación de isótopos estables en la investigación arqueológica y en paleociencias
ha tenido un crecimiento exponencial durante los últimos años en todo el
mundo, y América del sur no fue la excepción. Una muestra de los comienzos del
creciente uso, fue la organización durante 2006 en la ciudad de Malargüe del Taller
de Arqueología e Isótopos E...
El II Taller de Arqueología e Isotopos Estables en el Sur de Sudamérica se llevará a cabo entre el 1 y el 3 de noviembre del corriente año, en el Complejo Tecnológico Los Reyunos de la Universidad Tecnológica Nacional, Facultad Regional San Rafael (http://www.reyunos.utn.edu.ar/) La reunión tiene como principal objetivo debatir acerca de las distin...
La aplicación de isótopos estables en la investigación arqueológica y en paleociencias ha tenido un crecimiento exponencial durante los últimos años en todo el mundo, y América del sur no fue la excepción. Una muestra de los comienzos del creciente uso, fue la organización durante 2006 en la ciudad de Malargüe del Taller de Arqueología e Isótopos E...
One of the less well-understood problems in paleoscience is the role of climate as a modulator of long-term changes in human demography, and, in turn, how changes in human demography influence climate because demography also determines how individuals choose to modify ecosystems. Our workshop compared the long-term interaction between climate, huma...
The Cañadón Amarillo area in northwestern Patagonia (Mendoza Province, Argentina) presents a rich archaeological record contained within thick successions of fine-grained deposits with well-constrained chronological and stratigraphic resolution. Geomorphological, sedimentological, and archaeological analysis of three archaeological localities, cons...
Este trabajo tiene por objetivo contribuir al conocimiento existente sobre la explotación de peces continentales en las zonas áridas de Sudamérica. El aprovechamiento de los peces para la subsistencia humana se aborda a partir de la evidencia zooarqueológica disponible en dos ambientes de humedales del centro-occidente de Argentina: las lagunas de...
One of the least understood aspects of paleoscience is the role of climate in controlling long-term human population, and, in turn, how changes in population influence the strategies that individuals use to manage resources. Understanding the nexus between climate, human population and the management of resources is important in a world where clima...
Test excavations were conducted at Risco de los Indios (RDLI), a site at 2480 masl with 29 residential features and a well-developed midden containing abundant floral, faunal, lithic, and ceramic materials. Analyses indicate the site was intensively used ca. 500 cal b.p. as a residential base for groups focused on hunting guanaco, supplemented by l...
Primera Circular La aplicación de isótopos estables en la investigación arqueológica y en paleociencias ha tenido un creciente desarrollo en todo el mundo. Este impulso reciente de investigaciones que incluyen información isotópica en el sur de Sudamérica, junto a la complejización metodológica de esta línea de investigación, genera la necesidad de...
Se presentan los resultados de los trabajos de campo en el sitio arqueológico Risco de los Indios, localizado en la cuenca alta del río Diamante a unos 2.400 m s.n.m. El sitio reúne un total de veintinueve estructuras habitacionales pircadas y fue fechado en ca. 500 años AP. Las características generales de Risco de los Indios sugieren que es un si...
The causes of Late Pleistocene megafaunal extinctions (60,000 to 11,650 years ago, hereafter 60 to 11.65 ka) remain contentious, with major phases coinciding with both human arrival and climate change around the world. The Americas provide a unique opportunity to disentangle these factors as human colonization took place over a narrow time frame (~...
This paper presents the results of feldwork at Risco de los Indios, an archaeological site situated at 2.400 m elevation in the upper Diamante River watershed. The site contains twenty nine stacked-rock residential structures and dates to ca. 500 cal BP. Recovered faunal and macrobotanical remains indicate the site focused mainly on hunting camelid...
Occupants of the Great Basin 13- 6 kya cannot be understood by direct analogy with ethnographic Great Basin foragers because they lived in climatic circumstance and at population densities utterly unlike those of recent times. Archaeological evidence dating earlier than 8 kya suggests that hunter-gatherers were highly mobile with hunting oriented l...
Obsidian is abundant in archaeological sites throughout Mendoza Province, Argentina but no obsidian hydration rates exist to date these assemblages. Direct dating of obsidian artifacts is particularly important in west-central Argentina because the surface record is extensive but well-defined time marker artifacts are lacking. The costs of non-opti...
Classically, the origin and spread of the farmers at least have been explained by demographics variable. This paper preliminarily explores the use of the frequency of radiocarbon dates as a demographic proxy and compares such trends to cultigens scattering in central western Argentina. The region is accepted as the southern boundary of Prehispanic...
Different but complementary foraging adaptations existed in the Payunia volcanic and the Andean highland (or mountain) subregions of southern Mendoza, Argentina during the late Holocene. We employ an evolutionary ecological perspective to study the zooarchaeology of foraging adaptations after 4000 BP. Seasonal exploitation of guanaco (Lama guanicoe...
The importance of obsidian from the northern Patagonian source at Las Cargas
is reflected in its early use (�8000 years B.P.) and extensive geographic diffusion
but is nonetheless surprising in light of the source’s high altitude (located
in the Andes Cordillera), which makes it both difficult to access under ideal
conditions and inaccessible for m...
This paper presents the archaeological record of La Olla site, located in the Atuel river valley (Mendoza, Argentina). Materials found and analyzed include lithics, ceramics, archaeobotanical, zooarchaeological and human remains. The paper attempts to adjust the state of knowledge of the pre-Hispanic agricultural dispersal using new information. Tw...
Zooarchaeological research from central western Argentina has focused until recently on the relevance of large mammals, camelids in particular. There exists relatively abundant ethnohistorical information that illustrates the importance of fish exploitation in the Guanacache lagoons during historical times. However, –with a few exceptions– the zooa...
Zooarchaeological research from central western Argentina has focused until recently on the relevance of large mammals, camelids in particular. There exists relatively abundant ethnohistorical information that illustrates the importance of fish exploitation in the Guanacache lagoons during historical times. However,-with a few exceptions-the zooarc...
Understanding social-ecological system dynamics is a major research priority for sustainable management of landscapes, ecosystems and resources. But the lack of multi-decadal records represents an important gap in information that hinders the development of the research agenda. Without improved information on the long-term and complex interactions...
Change or continuity of the human diet after the Spanish settlement in America is a topic mostly addressed in historical written documents with little use of the archaeological record and bioarchaeological or culture material. To counteract this weakness, this paper presents a study of the diet in individuals living in central-western Argentina bet...
Understanding social-ecological system dynamics is a major research priority for sustainable management of landscapes, ecosystems and resources. But the lack of multi-decadal records represents an important gap in information that hinders the development of the research agenda. Without improved information on the long-term and complex interactions...
This paper explores variation in maize consumption among human societies in arid environments of central-western Argentina over the last 2500 years. Increasingly positive human δ13C signatures suggest a high intake of C4 resources (maize) until ca. A.D. 1400. After this time, the importance of maize in the diet drops and never reaches pre-Hispanic...
Human populations that occupied The Payunia during the late Holocene, used obsidian from outside sources, with predominant east-west directionality. In this paper we analyze the spatial distribution of obsidian artifacts from known geographical origin in El Payén. We investigate the possible transport routes, procurement strategies and forms and in...
The results of archaeological and bioarchaeological research are presented from an area located in the lower Gualcamayo River Basin (in the northwestern part of the Province of San Juan), which includes sites
with surface and sub-surface material, as well as burials from a period between 2300 and 1100 bp. Using these results, ideas for the developm...
This article discusses the distribution of radiocarbon age signatures obtained from archeological sites between 29° and 35° S in Central Chile and Midwest Argentina. The goal of this analysis is to establish bases from which to interpret regional trends in the distribution of the archaeological record that connect these areas, which have been tradi...
Rheidae eggshells are abundant in the archaeological record of west central Argentina. Eggs were more
important in human diet than the bird meat itself, as with many other Ratite species around the world.
Currently, two species inhabit the south and central areas of Argentina and Chile (Rhea pennata and Rhea
americana), with different geographical...
Stable oxygen isotopes (δ18O) from human bone apatite from central western Argentina (30º–37ºS latitude) were analysed to understand changes in human residential mobility during the Late Holocene. This region contains evidence for the use of domesticated plants over the last 2000 years (Zea mays, Cucurbita sp. and Phaseolus sp., among others), and...
This study uses stable isotope data to improve our understanding of human exploitation of Llancanelo lagoon, a saline lake and wetland located between the Monte and Patagonian deserts of Mendoza, Argentina. We collect stable C, N, and O isotope data from human remains from the eastern and northern margins of Llancanelo and compare them with C and N...
