Late Holocene plant use in lowland central Argentina: Microfossil evidence from dental calculus

Abstract

The central region of Argentina, especially Córdoba province, has been the subject of numerous bioarchaeologicaland archaeobotanical studies over recent years. However, the available information related to plant use hasbeen mainly obtained in populations that inhabited the Central Highlands, while for the Eastern Lowlands littleinformation is known, with various aspects related to the consumption and/or manipulation of the various plantresources present in the area still needing elucidation. In this context, the objective of this work was to addressfor the first time the consumption and management of plant resources by the populations that inhabited thesouthern coast of the Mar Chiquita lake of the Eastern Lowlands in the late Holocene, through the analysis ofvegetable microremains contained in dental calculus. The dental calculus present in 11 individuals from ElDiquecito archaeological site was analyzed and dated by AMS at between 2562 ± 47 and 537 ± 57 14C yearsBP, of which isotopic data (δ13Ccol) are also available. Our results revealed that the consumption and/or manipulationof wild plant resources, such as Geoffroea decorticans and Prosopis sp., and for the first time, ofTrithrinax campestris, took place throughout the late Holocene. Related to this, there is no previous evidence of itsmanagement in either the Central Highlands or Eastern lowlands. The incorporation of cultivated plants wasshown to have occurred at around 1200 years BP with the presence of Phaseolus sp. and Zea mays (Poaceae),which was followed later by Cucurbita sp. However, the practice of horticulture did not replace the hunting andgathering strategies previously identified.