Vidrios entre sierras y pircas. Estudio de los materiales vítreos de las construcciones de piedra del Sistema de Tandilia (Región Pampeana, Argentina)

Abstract

The humid pampa is crossed by two mountain systems. In one of them –named Sistema Serrano de Tandilia- there is a set of structures of various forms and dimensions built with bared stone blocks, which have been studied by historians and archaeologists for more than three decades. Along this time, the questions raised concern primarily function, chronology and cultural assignment of these buildings, issues that have been addressed mainly through the documentary sources and, in rare cases, the archaeological record. Nowadays there is some consensus about the relationship of the stone structures and the native population which inhabited the region after the Spanish conquest up to the 19th century. The economy of these indigenous groups was then based on livestock activities and both intra and inter-ethnic trade, in the hilly environment of the grassland pampas. Nevertheless, there was a constant pressure over the same resources by the Spanish and Creole societies, materialized through the establishment of a military border line and the “Independencia” fort in the decade of 1820. This conflictive process finally takes to the expulsion of native peoples of that region, followed by the settlement of criollos agricultural ranches, villages and cities, along the second half of the 19th century.
This work is part of an investigation focused on a set of stone buildings located in the central portion of Tandilia system and presents the results of the analysis of the vitreous remains that were found in excavations as well as surface collecting in four sites: Sierra Alta IV, Santa Inés IV, Manantiales I and Manantiales II. Studied vitreous materials include remains of various cylindrical and square bottles, flasks and jars, containers mostly elaborated in Europe. Estimated chronology of some of those containers dates to the second half of the 19th century and coincides with a period of great export flux to the Río de la Plata. In addition, the identified bottles corresponds mainly to alcoholic beverages and other imported products commonly consumed and used at that time in the rural border of the pampean region, according to documentary, iconographic and archaeological evidence.
The analysis of glass material from the four buildings presented here suggests that the deposition of these remains appears to be associated to different processes of reuse and recycling of the stone buildings during the 19th and the early 20th century. At this respect, vitreous material study provides an important source of chronological information and, furthermore, contributes to the general discussion concerning the functionality of the group of stone structures located in the study area (together to the other lines of approach such as documentary sources, cartography, architectural studies and chemical analysis).