Zooarchaeology, taphonomy and palaeoenvironments: small mammal remains from an intermountain valley of the southern Andean cordillera (Mendoza, Argentina)

Abstract

The present study analyzes zooarchaeological and palaeoenvironmental trends from an assemblage of small mammals recovered from Agua de la Tinaja (AT), an archaeological site from an intermountain valley of the Andean cordillera (northern Mendoza, Argentina). Small mammal remains recovered from AT, chronologically associated with 900–600 years BP, showed taphonomic traces corresponding to the action of owls and humans. Such results were included and compared within the framework of a resource intensification process suggested for Prehistoric human societies from northern Mendoza in Central Western Argentina. The small mammal assemblage from AT is composed by typical species from highland areas (Abrothrix andina, Microcavia australis, Phyllotis xanthopygus) mixed with some species from the Monte Desert (Calomys musculinus, Ctenomys sp., Eligmodontia sp., Thylamys pallidior) and Abrocoma sp. The co-occurrence of some species with modern allopatric distributions could support a scenario of greater environmental heterogeneity during the late Holocene than in the present. A situation like this could be consistent with a more dense vegetation cover and larger availability of patch resources.