The vegetable macroremains in the interpretation of formation processes and chronology of archaeological sites. The case of El Colorado, Yocavil valley, northwest Argentina

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to analyse the processes of site formation by integrating into the evaluation the vegetable macroremains recovered in an housing area (E3) from the archaeological locality El Colorado, Yocavil Valley in northwest Argentina (NOA). The locality has an extension of 60 ha., with evidence of occupation since the Formative Period (ca. 2000 BP) to the present. In the excavation of E3 was observed an overlap of four occupation moments, defined from use surfaces and associated features. Space remodeling was recorded, both before and after the construction of the enclosure, from the beginnings of Late Period to the Early Colonial Period. The identified macroremains belong to wild and domesticated native species, and domesticated non-native species such as Triticum sp. and Hordeum sp., the latter were introduced in the Americas in the colonial era and their finding in this archaeological site is the first reported for an indigenous domestic context in the NOA. This information together with the detailed stratigraphy, the analysis of the ceramic styles with chronological value, radiocarbon dating and the presence of seeds with chronological information (charred wheat and barley grains and dried seeds of Trichocereus sp.) in the different occupation deposits and post-abandonment strata allowed us to evaluate the vertical migration of ecofacts, considering the different processes involved in the sedimentation and disturbance of cultural deposits in the site.