Leather funerary packages: Mortuary practices and differential preservation in a Late Holocene prehispanic cemetery (Pampean region, Argentina)

Abstract

The ethnohistorical and archaeological bibliography on mortuary practices of the indigenous societies of Pampa and Patagonia refers extensively to the use of the envelope of bodies, for different purposes. One has been to facilitate the transport of the deceased until their final place of burial. This practice has been registered on the Chenque I site, a hunters- and-gatherers cemetery located in the Parque Nacional Lihué Calel, La Pampa, Argentina, used during the last part of late Holocene. It was applied both for primary as to secondary burials, being single and multiple. Some burials surrounded by a whitish doughy substance, where shell beads are imbricated, were recovered during the excavations carried out in various areas of the site.The purpose of this paper is to communicate the results of the verification methods applied to the aforementioned substance to corroborate that it is the product of the taphonomic degradation of leather. These methods allowed an approach to the identification of the species employed, possibly Rheidae. Secondly, the state of preservation of enveloped burials was compared with others without it, in order to inquire whether this mortuary practice had an effective role in protecting the human remains.