The pre-Columbian cemetery Río Salado-Coronda and the low-level food production explored by stable isotopes in the Paraná basin, South America

Abstract

In this paper we present the results of δ13C and δ15N from individuals buried in the pre-Columbian cemetery of Río Salado-Coronda, which correspond to complex hunter-gatherer of the middle basin of the Paraná River, Argentina (South America). The results obtained are integrated with previously published values in order to discuss the local low-level food production based on stable isotopes. Local trophic chains, both terrestrial and aquatic, were analyzed. The results, at a population level, suggest an intensification process focused on fishing rather than food production in most archaeological units, with the exception of humans buried at the sites belonging to the Incised Pottery Cluster, where the plant intake could have represented a strategy to expand the niche in a sustained way, based on small-scale production.