Late Prehistoric High-Altitude Hunter-Gatherer Residential Occupations in the Argentine Southern Andes

ABSTRACT

Test excavations were conducted at Risco de los Indios (RDLI), a site at 2480 masl with 29 residential features and a well-developed midden containing abundant floral, faunal, lithic, and ceramic materials. Analyses indicate the site was intensively used ca. 500 cal b.p. as a residential base for groups focused on hunting guanaco, supplemented by locally-available wild flora and fauna as well as domestic beans transported from the lowlands. Ceramic and obsidian artifacts indicate these groups were highly mobile and in contact with groups on the eastern and western margins of the Andes. These patterns compare favorably to those seen in the region’s other high altitude villages. It appears that the development of these patterns began with population increase and economic intensification in the lowlands ca. 2000 cal b.p. and that the move to slightly lower elevation settings like RDLI may have been conditioned by the onset of the Little Ice Age.

KEYWORDS:

• High altitude
• hunter gatherer
• Andes
• residential
• Late Prehistoric

Acknowledgments

Special thanks are extended to or local guide Don Pedro Ponce and his family who showed us such warmth and hospitality during fieldwork. Thanks are also extended to A. Victor Durán and the National Gendarmerie for initial data and photographs of the site. Funding provided by the Argentine National Agency for Scientific and Technological Promotion (CONICET) Grant No. PICT-2013-0881 and the Office of the Vice Provost for Research and Innovation, University of Nevada, Reno.

Notes on contributors

Christopher Morgan (Ph.D. 2006, University of California, Davis) focuses on the prehistoric human ecology of hunter-gathers operating in marginal environments, particularly high mountains and deserts.

Gustavo Neme (Ph.D. 2002, Universidad Nacional de La Plata) focuses on faunal and floral resource exploitation patterns of the prehistoric inhabitants of the southern Andes and surrounding region, particularly those who lived at high altitudes.

Nuria Sugrañes (Ph.D. candidate, Universidad del Centro de la Provincia de Buenos Aires) focuses on prehistoric ceramic technology and mobility patterns in the southern Andes.

Laura Salgan (Ph.D. 2010, Universidad Nacional de La Plata) focuses on lithic technological organization and obsidian conveyance patterns in the greater southern Andean region.

Adolfo Gil (Ph.D. 2000, Universidad Nacional de La Plata) focuses on long-term diachronic trends in the human paleoecology of Mendoza Province, Argentina and latterly the effect of maize domestication and adoption on settlement patterns and social organization.

Clara Otoala (Ph.D. 2013, University of Bueno Aires, Argentina) focuses on zooarchaeology and foraging adaptations in the Mendoza region of Argentina.

Miquel Giardina (Ph.D. 2010, Universidad Nacional de La Plata) focuses on faunal analysis and the prehistoric economies of the greater southern Andes.

Carina Llano (Ph.D. 2011, Universidad Nacional del Comahue) focuses on archaeobotany and prehistoric plant exploitation strategies in the southern Mendoza region.