Human paleodiet studies between ca. 3300–1500 years BP in Quebrada de Los Corrales (Tucumán, Argentina)

Abstract

In Quebrada de Los Corrales, located in northwestern Argentina, a local economic transitional process took place between ca. 3800 and 2000 BP, during which groups of hunter-gatherers incorporated agriculture and pastoralism. In this paper, we characterize the human diet in the period between 3300 and 1500 years BP using stable carbon isotope analysis on collagen and apatite as well as nitrogen. The application of a Bayesian mixing model allowed us to establish the dominant consumption of game meat and C3 plants. These results are the first obtained for the area and form an independent line of evidence for the process of socioeconomic change from societies of nomadic hunters towards societies of agro-pastoral villages. Thus, even when the number of individuals analyzed is low, they are archaeologically relevant as they represented the only pre-Hispanic funerary contexts detected in the study area so far.