Andrés Izeta
Universidad Nacional de Córdoba, Museo de Antropología, Faculty Member
This chapter presents our team’s ongoing research on early village societies in the southern Calchaquí Valleys area. We examine regional archaeology over the long term combining several lines of evidence: habitats, ways of doing,... more
This chapter presents our team’s ongoing research on early village societies in the southern Calchaquí Valleys area. We examine regional archaeology over the long term combining several lines of evidence: habitats, ways of doing, practices of circulation, and networks of interaction.
Focusing on the area of La Quebrada, the chapter explores how localities were built as ‘places from where the world is looked at’; that is, as material configurations that were strongly localized, yet also flexible and open to wider material, social, and symbolic entanglements.
La Quebrada is situated on the western slope of the Cajón Valley, encompassing the sites of Cardonal and Bordo Marcial. The village of Yutopián is located a few kilometers to the north. All three sites are very informative of Formative Period life ways and everyday practices, offering insight into people’s own perspectives of inhabiting and perceiving their surroundings in past Andean worlds.
The chapter discusses evidence obtained at these specific places, in relation to other contemporary occupations in the area, such as early sites on the western flanks of the Aconquija Sierra and in the Santa María Valley.
This research is based upon diverse methods, including the technological study of artefacts, zooarchaeology, archaeobotany, physical and chemical analysis (AANI, stable isotopes, DRX, EDAX), chronometric and spatial analysis. The
main objective is to understand the changes in the mechanisms of interaction, production, consumption and representation through time, in order to understand the specific dynamics by which societies of this period constituted their everyday local worlds in entangled ways.
Focusing on the area of La Quebrada, the chapter explores how localities were built as ‘places from where the world is looked at’; that is, as material configurations that were strongly localized, yet also flexible and open to wider material, social, and symbolic entanglements.
La Quebrada is situated on the western slope of the Cajón Valley, encompassing the sites of Cardonal and Bordo Marcial. The village of Yutopián is located a few kilometers to the north. All three sites are very informative of Formative Period life ways and everyday practices, offering insight into people’s own perspectives of inhabiting and perceiving their surroundings in past Andean worlds.
The chapter discusses evidence obtained at these specific places, in relation to other contemporary occupations in the area, such as early sites on the western flanks of the Aconquija Sierra and in the Santa María Valley.
This research is based upon diverse methods, including the technological study of artefacts, zooarchaeology, archaeobotany, physical and chemical analysis (AANI, stable isotopes, DRX, EDAX), chronometric and spatial analysis. The
main objective is to understand the changes in the mechanisms of interaction, production, consumption and representation through time, in order to understand the specific dynamics by which societies of this period constituted their everyday local worlds in entangled ways.
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
This article focuses on the architectural characteristics of a household compound in Cardonal, an early agricultural village located in the southern Cajón Valley (Catamarca, north-western Argentina) dated to the first centuries ad. When... more
This article focuses on the architectural characteristics of a household compound in Cardonal, an early agricultural village located in the southern Cajón Valley (Catamarca, north-western Argentina) dated to the first centuries ad. When architecture, as landscape, is understood as the result of the daily tasks of living, the research carried out in Cardonal gives substance to the ways in which the materiality of everyday life forged the building of this prehistoric village. Cardonal is an example of how houses and architecture are not static but fluidly changing with the contingencies of life.
Research Interests:
Approaching the study of camelid bone size change in the meridional portion of the South Central Andes is a significant subject especially when the assemblages are associated to radiocarbon dates placed at a time of social transition from... more
Approaching the study of camelid bone size change in the meridional portion of the South Central Andes is a significant subject especially when the assemblages are associated to radiocarbon dates placed at a time of social transition from an extractive to a producer economy. In this sense, this paper presents the results of applying osteometric techniques on a set of 10 elements from the Peñas Chicas 1.5 site dated around 3800 BP. The analysis shows the presence of at least three individuals, one of which corresponds to an Andean guanaco (Lama guanicoe) morphotype. The second and the third are similar in size to a modern llama (Lama glama) in their ‘intermediate’ and ‘cargo’ morphotypes. This is consistent with patterns already seen for sites from the Argentinian and Chilean Puna where the identification of larger individuals than the Andean guanaco modern standard shows the early stages of an increasingly bone size variability of South American camelids. This paper contributes with new data to understand the complex processes that occurred in the South Central Andes that led to the domestication of one of the most conspicuous animals in the archaeological record of the Argentinian Northwest. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
... (CARDONAL: A FORMATIVE VILLAGE BETWEEN THE TERRITORIES OF PUNA AND VALLEYS) M. Cristina SCATTOLIN - Lucas Pereyra DOMINGORENA - Leticia I. CORTÉS - M. Fabiana BUGLIANI - C. Marilin CALO - Andrés D. IZETA y Marisa LAZZARI* RESUMEN ...
Bone mineral data are used in archaeology to evaluate density mediated attrition or differential preservation of archaeofaunas. For South American camelids, there are different data sets of bone mineral content. To evaluate their utility,... more
Bone mineral data are used in archaeology to evaluate density mediated attrition or differential preservation of archaeofaunas. For South American camelids, there are different data sets of bone mineral content. To evaluate their utility, these data sets were applied to the analysis of density mediated destruction of five archaeofaunal assemblages from Formative Period archaeological sites in the southern Calchaquíes valleys (Catamarca, Argentina) in order to evaluate interpretations achieved as an ‘end user’. Both inter- and intra-bone element density related survivorship analyses are made, concluding that for fine grain studies more complete data sets and specific analysis are required.
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The human–camelid relation can be traced from the end of the Pleistocene to the present time. During that time span that relations changed transforming from merely extractive techniques to productive ones (e.g. herding). In order to... more
The human–camelid relation can be traced from the end of the Pleistocene to the present time. During that time span that relations changed transforming from merely extractive techniques to productive ones (e.g. herding). In order to recognize the camelid use tendencies within the late productive economies, archaeofaunal assemblages from southern Calchaquíes valleys are compared with other collections from the higher Argentinean Puna (Northwestern Argentina). Some possible signs of distinctive economical use of camelids between these two zones are discussed, as expressed in the archaeofaunal record of the Late Holocene. Three periods were observed. The earliest period shows for both zones the use of three camelid species (Lama glama, Lama guanicoe and Vicugna vicugna) with the presence of more adult remains than subadults. The second period (Middle) shows more variability with less biodiversity in Puna and some regions of lower valleys while proportions of adults and subadults for Puna are the inverse of those during the earliest period. For the Late period the economy shows for Puna the presence of adult camelids while the subadults still are predominant in certain localities. Valley records do not register major changes during the three periods in age classes and species occurrence. The presence of two camelid use models in the region is established.
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This paper summarises the results of an osteological analysis of two pathologically afflicted South American camelid second phalanges. These come from the occupation level at Loma Alta archaeological site (Catamarca, Argentina) assigned... more
This paper summarises the results of an osteological analysis of two pathologically afflicted South American camelid second phalanges. These come from the occupation level at Loma Alta archaeological site (Catamarca, Argentina) assigned to the local Formative Period (ca. 500 BC–AD 600). Analyses were performed in order to identify the elements to species level and their degree of pathological affliction. A discussion on the probable origin of these pathologies is given. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Research Interests:
Stable isotope analysis has been used in archaeology to answer a variety of questions. In general, the study of human palaeodiets has been the main subject. Studies of past animal feeding behaviour have not been considered extensively in... more
Stable isotope analysis has been used in archaeology to answer a variety of questions. In general, the study of human palaeodiets has been the main subject. Studies of past animal feeding behaviour have not been considered extensively in South America. In this paper we discuss the interpretation of the δ13C values in camelid bone specimens on the basis of published and new data from the southern Andes (northwestern Argentina). The temporal frame is mainly focused in the first millennium AD (part of the local Formative Period – 400 BC to 600 AD – as well as the Regional Integration Period at 600–1000 AD, and the Late Period at 1000–1500 AD) which for this area implies a time of great social changes. Samples from modern Camelidae family were used to compare with those from archaeological sites, interpreting two different patterns that can be associated with distinctive animal feeding strategies. We suggest that these strategies can be associated with human management rather than free-range camelid feeding behaviour. Thus stable isotopes become an innovative strategy to segregate domestic from wild camelids, complementing those results achieved by osteometric and statistical analyses. Moreover, they allow for camelid management interpretation in three different localities of the area from the above-mentioned different periods. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.