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This paper explores how significant are the ecological and climatic variables to influence the stable isotopes of guanacos. Lama guanicoe bone collagen carbon and nitrogen stable isotope ratios are assumed as a macro regional average value in west Argentina, mostly as a baseline to model archaeological human diet. If stable isotopes on mammals reflex ecology and climate, we need to know how those variables influence mammals bone stable isotope ratio. This paper analyses the 13C/12C and 15 N/14N ratio on bone collagen on 122 guanacos from Northwest Patagonia during the Holocene. The results confirm significant variation in both isotopes between Monte and Andean-Patagonian specimens. Guanacos from Monte shows higher δ13C and δ15N than those from Andean-Patagonian. Temporal trends indicate variation through Holocene but this variation is not spatially homogeneous. In this paper we suggest that Medieval Climatic Anomaly had stronger effect in Monte desert than in Patagonia desert, generating driest and/or hottest conditions between 1250 and 600 years BP. Those variations need to be considered to reconstruct human diet at least during the second part of the Holocene. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a comparative study of forensic anthropology as the field has developed in Argentina and Uruguay, two Southern Cone countries that have transitioned from dictatorship to democracy in contrasting circumstances. In the context of investigating crimes against humanity, the archaeology of the recent past offers a "third narrative" alongside documentation and testimony, and it has had a great impact as a source of probatory material in judicial contexts in both countries. However, its focus has been almost exclusively on locating and retrieving human remains, whereas we propose a broader integral forensic anthropology that takes account of the wide range of materiality related to crimes against humanity. If forensic anthropology and archaeology are to fulfil this potential, it is fundamental that they remain independent of state power and holistic in scope. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Archaeology has been using stable oxygen as an isotopic tracer linked with water consumption for decades, and it has been demonstrated to be a powerful tool to assess paleomobility in bioarchaeology. Central-eastern North Patagonia (Argentina) is an especially appropriate region to apply it since it presents a high density of hunter-gatherer burials, it was a nodal zone criss-crossed by an extensive network of important routes, and it is characterized by a high environmental fragmentation due to the scarcity of fresh water sources. The aim of this paper is to build an empirical stable oxygen isotope baseline of terrestrial surface waters to assess the potentiality of tracing past human movement. We analyzed 46 water samples from 13 locations with permanent sources (rivers, springs, streams), compared it with predictions of precipitation and evaluated it considering seasonal variation, altitude and distance from the coast. Our results show that different post-precipitation processes change the isotopic signal from the sources with respect to the local precipitation, and highlight the relevance of analyzing terrestrial water sources. According to their oxygen isotope values we defined five hydrologic zones: Colorado River, Negro River, Closed Basins and Plains, Eastern and Western Somuncurá Foothills. Their identification shows the potential to address past human movement using stable oxygen water baselines in central-eastern North Patagonia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we present the archaeological training that archaeology undergraduate students of the University of Buenos Aires performed at a former illegal detention centre from the Argentinian dictatorship, the Espacio para la Memoria y la Promoción de los DDHH ex-Centro Clandestino de Detención Tortura y Exterminio 'Club Atlético' (Memorial Site for the Advancement of Human Rights, Former Illegal Detention, Torture and Extermination Centre 'Athletic Club') between 2016 and 2019. After contextualizing the development of archaeology teaching at the university level in Buenos Aires and the archaeological research at an illegal detention centre from the dictatorship, we present the results of this training to show how approaching archaeological topics in a way that is historically, politically, and physically closer to the students helped them to incorporate fieldwork and lab issues in a committed and meaningful way. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective/context: This paper once again brings the iconographies of Tiwanaku (Titicaca high plateau, Bolivia) and La Aguada (Northwest of Argentina) into discussion, more than 40 years after the works of Rex González and Ponce Sanginés. It does so in an entirely different context with a decolonial emphasis. Objects, images, ethnographic information and archaeologists from both sides of a border between "nations" are assembled with the clear intention of questioning very deep underlying assumptions of archaeology. Methodology: Beginning with the paths posed by images and colors, these knots also bind humans and things, shamanic experiences and meteorological phenomena. Conclusions: After bringing La Aguada and Tiwanaku into dialogue, based on our research trajectories, the discussion leads to a reflection on the present consequences of naturalizing segmented and functionalist gazes of the animal and plant worlds in the past, which originate in the ontological underpinnings of our own modernity. Originality: The text aims to approach decolonial criticism from the study of concrete cases and to contribute to these debates on the basis of archaeological materiality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents an analysis of archaeological materials found at the mining sites Minas Paramillos Sur and Mina La Atala, located in the Paramillos de Uspallata and Divisadero Largo's reserve. The goals of this research are to document consumption patterns of the mining proletariat and to make comparative intra- and inter-site comparisons of artifact trends. Within the framework of historical archaeology, we analyze these artifacts in the successive stages of occupation and within sociocultural contexts marked by peripheral industrial capitalism. In order to do this, we take into account three central elements: the environment, sociocultural practices (diets, techniques, and production technologies, personal care, spatial distribution, etc.), and the political-economic context. The results show that the mining populations of northwestern Mendoza in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries worked in precarious conditions and were socially marginalized by a hegemonic discourse of greater economic development in the province. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, the analysis of a radiocarbon database of the North Coast of Santa Cruz (central Patagonia, Argentina), is presented. Dated archaeological samples were obtained from 56 different types of archaeological sites (open-air -residential sites and burials-, and also rock shelters). The objective of this paper is assessing the continuities and discontinuities in the chronological signal of the area and identifying tendencies along the Holocene. The database currently contains 75 radiocarbon dates falling between ca. 8000 and 300 BP. The radiocarbon data base provides information on the chronological, spatial and contextual variability of the archaeological record of North Coast of Santa Cruz. By means of different analysis of sum of probabilities, we present three different chronological moments of human use of the coast and intermediate zone can be identified. A first moment is represented by early evidence of settlement during Middle Holocene. A second moment corresponds to a hiatus between ca. 5800 and ca. 3900 BP without archaeological evidence. Finally, a third moment is where an increasing of chronological signal occurred, related to greater artifactual variability and an increase in the intensity of human settlement in the Patagonian region. The causes that could have influenced in the discontinuity of the chronological signal of the study area, and the characteristics of the different moments identified are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Over the last decade, we have conducted an actualistic taphonomic research program in the Humid Pampas of Argentina, in order to build a corpus of information about the taphonomic agents and processes characterizing this sub-region. In this paper, we present a summary of our results after ten years of actualistic taphonomic studies in the Pampas. Our program includes both naturalistic and experimental research. Some of the controlled experiments consist of studies with different-aged guanaco bones, including sub-aerial weathering in a controlled environment, and water transport with disarticulated bones. Other studies were conducted at a local zoo, where we offered different types of prey to native small-sized carnivores (canids, felids, mustelids, and mephitids). Our naturalistic observations include the development of taphonomic transects in different environments. Through this method, we were able to study different topics among which some of the more significant are the movement of bones by small-sized carnivores and the distribution of beached Magellanic penguin specimens along the coast. Particular studies included the analyses of the content of dens occupied by small carnivores, the effects of a grassland fire in a vertebrate assemblage, the modifications produced by a local rodent -vizcacha- in the landscape, and the damage generated by pumas in guanaco carcasses. After ten years of systematic research we contributed to identify the potential mixture between modern bones and the archaeological record in relation to the environment; to determine bone preservation biases according to the properties of the record; to recognize agents responsible of bone accumulation and alteration; and to establish diagnostic criteria in order to differentiate cultural from natural patterns. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

"Zanja de Alsina" (Alsina´s trench) (1876-1879) was a milestone in the border dynamics with the autonomous indigenous groups of Pampa and Patagonia. Its establishment was the initial action that led to the transformation of the frontier world into a rural one, integrated with global capitalist dynamics. This trench - 3 m wide x 2 m depth - was conceived and projected from the Ministry of War and Marine Affairs established in Buenos Aires). The trench was planned to have an ideal extension of 600 km but only 400 km were made. In this paper, and from an interdisciplinary approach, we will present the first results of the analyses carried out through satellite images, historical cartography and information provided by an archaeological work in order to locate the aforementioned trench as well as the adjacent military settlements (Machado, Alsina and Alvear - located in the northeastern part of the Pampas). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents the study of the extractive metallurgical technology that was employed in four colonial mining-metallurgical sites in the high plateau (Puna) of Jujuy, Argentina, dedicated to silver exploitation during the 17th and 18th centuries. In these archaeological sites, we have identified the presence of reverberatory furnaces. We explore the development of this technology and show the results of the study of the furnaces found in the Puna of Jujuy, their functions and performance, based on our fieldwork and on the results of archaeometric analyses of smelting slag and vitrified clay samples. The excellent conservation of most of the furnaces makes them not only a great source of information for the study of colonial metallurgy in this region, but also a contribution to our understanding of mining and extractive metallurgy in the Andes, of the circulation of workers and technical knowledge and of the changes generated by the Spanish conquest. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper shows the preliminary results of the zooarchaeological analysis of Dupuy Rockshelter (La Toma, San Luis Province, Argentina). This rock shelter has evidence of Late Holocene (Last Millennium) human occupation dating from 340 ± 40 BP. Some species, including Lama guanicoe and Ozotoceros bezoarticus , were exploited and their bones were used as raw material to make instruments. The zooarchaeological analysis is complemented by geological and phytoarchaological evidence which indicates a humid environment during the Holocene and a mixed diet that included vegetables. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the Patagonian archaeological record, the preservation of wooden artefacts is very restricted. Functional analysis of lithic artefacts is a way to get a better understanding about the use and consumption of the wood. Technological and use-wear analyses are applied in order to reconstruct the production processes of the wooden artefacts, from the raw-material supplying to the production of the finished tools. In this paper we present the results of a taxonomical and techno-functional analysis of the traces preserved on the surface of the two wooden artefact retrieved from layer 17 (9390 ± 40 C14 years BP) and layer 6 (5310 ± 110 BP) at the site of Cerro Casa de Piedra 7 (province of Santa Cruz, Patagonia, Argentina). The interpretation of these two objects is complicated due to the absence of ethnographical references and the lack of similar archaeological findings in Patagonian hunter–gatherers sites. However, through the observation of the use-wear traces it is possible to reconstruct part of the manufacturing process and advance hypothesis on their mode of employment. Due to the distribution of the wears and the mineral-organic residues identified on the surfaces, it is proposed that one of the wooden artefact was probably used for rock-art production. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Archaeological radiocarbon databases are being increasingly used as a proxy of past demographic trends. In this paper we compile and analyze an extensive database of paleoecological information and 14 C dates from archaeological sites in northwestern Patagonia (Argentina, South America). On this basis, we assess the regional distribution of human populations since the late Pleistocene, and their relation with the evolution of Patagonian climate and landscapes. We explore the spatial and temporal distribution of evidence and discuss sampling biases affecting the record in different ecological contexts. The analysis is set in the frame of three main ecological regions that have implications for human subsistence: Andean forest, grass steppe, and shrub steppe. The intensity of the archaeological signal differs among these regions through time, being stronger and more homogeneous in the grass steppe. In the Andean forest and the shrub steppe the signal is weaker and even absent during short periods of the middle Holocene. We suggest likely sampling biases contributing to these tendencies, since these three regions present variable research cover and intensity. On the other hand, we also suggest that these differences may reflect variations in the intensity of human occupation, in favor of more attractive environments for hunting (i.e., areas where guanaco are generally more abundant). This macro-regional synthesis of the paleoecology and archaeology of northwestern Patagonia provides a platform for developing future oriented research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper summarizes and discusses the main results achieved over three decades of research on paleodemographic aspects of Late Holocene hunter-gatherers in Northwestern Santa Cruz (Argentina). Research has been guided by a model of regional settlement that proposes that, as a result of the progressive aridization process recorded in Patagonia during the Late Holocene, human groups would have reduced their residential mobility and concentrated their settlements in low altitude basins with water availability, such as Lake Cardiel and Lake Salitroso. Paleodemographic questions derived from the model relate to population regional continuity and dynamics and were tested using several lines of research at regional and local scales. The assessment of the chronological information and temporal trends of the archaeological record at the regional level allowed for a coarse grain paleodemographic approach, and acted as a mean to support hypotheses related to changes in mobility and land use strategies. Building on this, several lines of bioarchaeological evidence were used to address paleodemographic aspects of the model, including temporal, distributional, and compositional studies of the mortuary record, isotopic, morphometric and DNA analyses and the sex and age structure of the skeletal samples recovered in Lake Salitroso basin. Results point to a biological and cultural population continuity in the region during the Late Holocene. Also, a reduction in residential mobility would have favored a slight population growth of Lake Salitroso populations during the last millennium. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper compiles a database of radiocarbon dates of archaeological sites that are currently available for the Pampean region. Based on the probability distribution of radiocarbon dates from this database, major temporal trends are defined, taphonomic and scientific biases are evaluated, and their implications for demography are suggested. Results indicate a continuous archaeological signal between ca. 14,500 and 100 cal BP. During the final Late Pleistocene and the Early Holocene, the archaeological signal is low in ca. 14,500–12,800 cal BP, and increases to a moderate and continuous signal in ca. 12,800–7500 cal BP. The archaeological signal for the former lapse correspond to the early peopling of the region and is related to the inhabiting and exploitation of key landforms (e.g., rock shelters, river valleys) and critical resources (e.g., lithic raw material, water). The low amount of available dates for the Middle Holocene (ca. 7400–3700 cal BP), and the associated archaeological signal would be due to the combination of various factors such as taphonomic biases, organization of prehistoric populations, and even a possible low population density. The obtained low but continuous signal for this period are discussed in the framework of the proposed models for the human occupation of the region suggesting that a hypothesis about population extinctions and disruptions processes could not be sustained. Finally, during the Late Holocene (from 3700 to 100 cal BP) human occupations are recorded in all the micro-regions. Regardless of biases, this signal is interpreted as an increase in demographic density at a regional level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]