Andean landscape legacies: comprehensive digital mapping of ancient settlement and connectivity and its potential for sustainable heritage features (NW Argentina)

Abstract

The south-central Andes region provides an exceptional record of high-altitude settlement and circulation of humans, goods, animals, and plants at various spatial scales. These practices have long been the focus of researchers, often drawing on the region’s rich historical and ethnographic record as inspiration for modelling the past. Such approaches have highlighted the uniqueness of the Andes region compared to other high-altitude mountainous environments of the world, yet the uncritical extension of some of these models to the distant past has unwittingly obscured the richvariety of indigenous ancient settlement and mobility strategies. As the region continues to be sought after for its mineral wealth, knowledge of its diverse range of human strategies of land use and mobility may not only help us to better understand the region’s past and protect its heritage (understood broadly), but also help towards co-designing strategies for sustainable features with its inhabitants. Building on earlier aerial and field-based mapping, our paper presents the results of the first comprehensive digital mapping of archaeological features visible on the western slopes of the Aconquija Sierra (NW Argentina, South-Central Andes, 66º 15’ Long W; 27º 15’ Lat S). We applied a multi-scalar methodology using interpreter-led assessment of freely accessible and commercial multispectral satellite imagery and DSM data, as well as of fieldwork including UAV photogrammetric surveys and excavations at key locations on key connecting routes. The potential of these activities to contribute to collaborative heritage protection will also be discussed in the presentation.