The Archaeofaunas of Piedra Museo: Zooarchaeological and Taphonomic Study of the AEP-1 Site (Argentine Patagonia)

Abstract

The analysis and interpretation of zooarchaeological materials coming from Alero El Puesto 1 (AEP-1), in the Piedra Museo Locality, are presented. This rock-shelter is located on the shore of a shallow paleolake where the evidence of human occupations (15,300–12,200 years cal. BP) is defined in the lower component. The research carried out on this site since 1990 has provided relevant information about the subsistence, technology, and use of the landscape by the hunter-gatherers that inhabited the region, as well as various paleoenvironmental aspects. On the basis of chronological, distributional, zooarcheological, and taphonomic studies, three diachronical assemblages were segregated in the site. The oldest, contained in Stratigraphic Unit 6 (ca.13,000–12,500 cal. years BP), the following contained in Stratigraphic Unit 4/5 (ca. 12,500–11,200 cal. years BP). The youngest archaeological component is deposited in Stratigraphic Unit 2 (ca. 8800–8400 cal. years BP). While the oldest assemblage of the site contains a significant record of extinct fauna: Hippidion saldiasi, Lama gracilis, and Mylodon sp., the two remaining assemblages are characterized by the strong presence of Lama guanicoe (“guanaco”) remains, and in minor proportion rheids. The taphonomic history of the site indicates changes in the intensity that the different natural processes reworked the assemblages over time, but in no case does it allow sustaining the significant loss of archaeological integrity of the site, accounting for a good preservation of the archaeological sequence. In this work, new data are offered on the study of the bone modifications identified on the set of guanacos coming from the three identified Stratigraphic Units. The main objective is to test some of the previous hypothesis on the site functionality and to deepen the discussion about the exploitation strategies of the preys. The results obtained so far allow us to sustain some of the previous hypotheses, which propose that there would have been fundamentally activities related to the primary processing of prey hunted in the vicinity of the paleolake. However, the patterns detected suggest a greater diversity of activities, including some linked to the consumption of certain anatomical parts in this hunting station, which also implies a logistic use of the place on the shores of the shallow lake.