Reconsidering Isla occupation: Pottery, chronology and settlement

Abstract

This chapter presents new evidence, such as unpublished radiocaron dating and the analysis of material context elements from sites located in the central sector of Quebrada de Humahuaca, considered in classical proposals as part of the Middle Period (600-900 AD). As a result of these studies, radiocarbon datings were obtained, repositioning Isla manifestations in the interval between the 12th and 14th centuries. This allows the proposal of interpretative schemes about the interralation of small conglomerates such as La Isla de Tilcara with villages in domestic terraces, given that they where contemporaries according to this new evidence. In this sense, the strong contrast between landscape elements and materiality -mainly ceramics- leads to the formulation of hypotheses concerning the possibility that, after the fall of Tiwanaku and during later times, began the arrival os small groups from the Altiplano towards Quebrada de Humahuaca, a region that did not have a significant population density at that time.