Hunting and skeletal element abundance of guanaco during the Holocene of Sierras of Córdoba, Argentina

Abstract

The guanaco (Lama guanicoe) was the most important faunal resource exploited by past people from Sierras of Córdoba (Argentina). However, their relative taxonomic abundance decreased across the Holocene in relation to other small-taxa, which has been interpreted as an evidence of resource depression resulted from changes in the distribution of grassland and human hunting pressure. If the encounter rate with L. guanicoe decreased and hunters needed to travel greater distances to pursue a prey, it should be expected that the pattern in mean utility of body parts would parallel changes in the taxonomic composition of the assemblage. The expectation is that early archaic assemblages will have greater body-parts diversity than late prehispanic assemblages, reflecting a high encounter rate and a more complete deposition of entire carcasses. Conversely, late prehispanic people should respond to the greater cost of hunting by reducing transportation loads, carrying high-ranked body part of carcass to camps. The aim of this article is to test these predictions using a comprehensive analysis of the skeletal part representation from a suite of Holocene archaeological sites dated at 7400-to-360 years BP. The high and low-utility body part frequency observed during the initial and later phases reveals a more dynamic view of late prehispanic site formation process and raises new inquiries regarding whether different taphonomic histories of assemblages can have substantial influence on the skeletal element abundance.