Instrumental nuclear activation analysis of archaeological pottery, from Mendoza, Central Western Argentina

Abstract

El trabajo presenta los resultados de activación neutrónica realizados sobre fragmentos cerámicos de diez sitios arqueológicos del centro y sur de la provincia de Mendoza. A través de estos análisis se conformaron seis grupos químicos que muestran por un lado, una distribución disyunta entre los fragmentos del norte y los del sur, y por otro diferencias entre los grupos químicos de los sitios localizados en cordillera versus aquellos localizados en la planicie. Esto replantea las hipótesis de movilidad mas amplia sostenida históricamente y muestra la presencia de fuertes vínculos de intercambio entre las distintas poblaciones de la región.

In Mendoza, the first record of pottery has been dated ca. 2000 years BP. The technology used varies in terms of manufacture and decoration. Differences in cultural, social and economic organization were also present in the area. The Atuel and Diamante river basins are in a transition zone, where different kinds of social organization, farmers and pastoralists in the north and hunter-gatherers in the south were present. This variability enhances a debate about analytical ways to approach ceramic technology. Actually, archaeometric techniques have been used to study ceramics. These analyses allow us to adjust typologies and improve our knowledge of topics related with production, mobility and interaction within populations from Mendoza. Neutron Activation Analyses (NAA) is a fundamental tool for the development of archeological ceramic research. In this poster, we show the capabilities of this technique applied to ceramics from archaeological sites in the Atuel river basin and Tupungato valley. The preliminary results show well-defined chemical groups that cluster according to chemical variables. Some groups have a strong relationship with regional types and particular environments. We also observed, that one chemical group shows a great variety of types that we assume to be associated with different and distant origins.