Boris Santander

Este artículo da a conocer mediante una aproximación multidisciplinaria un grupo de 14 tubos con iconografía pintada, provenientes de contextos funerarios excavados en distintos cementerios de los oasis de San Pedro de Atacama, cronológicamente asignables al período Medio (ca. 400-1000 dc). Develamos aquí la especial iconografía de estos tubos, cuestión que nos permite entre otros aspectos: ampliar el círculo de las representaciones visuales del arte Tiawanaku y definir una nueva variante (venado andino o taruca) para el ícono conocido como “El Sacrificador”.

Se presenta el análisis zooarqueológico de los restos de guanacos (Lama guanicoe) recuperados de la ocupación Arcaica Tardía del sitio MAU085, emplazado en el valle de Mauro, Norte Semiárido chileno. Este análisis tuvo por objetivo entender la organización espacial del sitio, el cual corresponde a un campamento de cazadores-recolectores orientado al procesamiento de animales, entre otras actividades. El conjunto de análisis realizados apunta a una ocupación no estival y reiterada del sitio desde el 3.200 hasta los 2.500 años a.p., con una organización espacial relacionada a actividades de procesamiento, descarte y transporte principalmente de guanacos, junto a la confección y preparación de artefactos líticos de apropiación. Here we present the zooarchaeological analysis of guanaco (Lama guanicoe) remains recovered from the Late Archaic occupation in the MAU085 site, located in the Mauro Valley, in the semi-arid north of Chile. The aim of this study is to understand the spatial organization of this hunter-gatherer site mainly focused on animal processing activities. The results suggest a redundant seasonal (non estival) occupation of the site between 3,200 to 2,500 yr BP, showing a marked spatial organization related principally to guanaco processing, transport and disposal activities together with the elaboration and preparation of lithic appropriation artifacts.

Presentamos los resultados de la investigación arqueológica de un sitio fechado hacia el Holoceno Medio en los Andes del Norte Semiárido de Chile. La escasez de este tipo de evidencias pone de relieve la importancia de dar cuenta cabal del contexto estudiado y los conjuntos ahí recuperados. Las características del sitio como una estación de tareas de tipo avistadero hacen que Techo Negro se integre de forma significativa al conjunto de información regional disponible y permite confrontarla con el actual estado de algunos modelos de ocupación que incluyen la distribución diferencial de sitios y los cambios ambientales a escala de milenios. Palabras claves: uso del espacio, ocupaciones de cordones montañosos, Holoceno Medio, Norte Semiárido de Chile. We present the results of the archaeological research of a site dated to the Mid Holocene in the Andes in a Northern Semiarid region of Chile. The paucity of this type of evidence underscores the importance of fully describing the studied context and the assemblages recovered therein. The characteristics of the site as a logistic hunting stand type station integrate Techo Negro (black roof) significantly to the available regional information and allows confronting it with the current state of some models of occupation that include the differential distribution of sites and environmental changes on a millennial scale.

Presentamos los resultados de la investigación arqueológica de un sitio fechado hacia el Holoceno Medio en los Andes del Norte Semiárido de Chile. La escasez de este tipo de evidencias pone de relieve la importancia de dar cuenta cabal del contexto estudiado y los conjuntos ahí recuperados. Las características del sitio como una estación de tareas de tipo avistadero hacen que Techo Negro se integre de forma significativa al conjunto de información regional disponible y permite confrontarla con el actual estado de algunos modelos de ocupación que incluyen la distribución diferencial de sitios y los cambios ambientales a escala de milenios. Palabras claves: uso del espacio, ocupaciones de cordones montañosos, Holoceno Medio, Norte Semiárido de Chile. We present the results of the archaeological research of a site dated to the Mid Holocene in the Andes in a Northern Semiarid region of Chile. The paucity of this type of evidence underscores the importance of fully describing the studied context and the assemblages recovered therein. The characteristics of the site as a logistic hunting stand type station integrate Techo Negro (black roof) significantly to the available regional information and allows confronting it with the current state of some models of occupation that include the differential distribution of sites and environmental changes on a millennial scale.

Presentamos los resultados de la investigación arqueológica de un sitio fechado hacia el Holoceno Medio en los Andes del Norte Semiárido de Chile. La escasez de este tipo de evidencias pone de relieve la importancia de dar cuenta cabal del contexto estudiado y los conjuntos ahí recuperados. Las características del sitio como una estación de tareas de tipo avistadero hacen que Techo Negro se integre de forma significativa al conjunto de información regional disponible y permite confrontarla con el actual estado de algunos modelos de ocupación que incluyen la distribución diferencial de sitios y los cambios ambientales a escala de milenios. Palabras claves: uso del espacio, ocupaciones de cordones montañosos, Holoceno Medio, Norte Semiárido de Chile.

We present the results of the archaeological research of a site dated to the Mid Holocene in the Andes in a Northern Semiarid region of Chile. The paucity of this type of evidence underscores the importance of fully describing the studied context and the assemblages recovered therein. The characteristics of the site as a logistic hunting stand type station integrate Techo Negro (black roof) significantly to the available regional information and allows confronting it with the current state of some models of occupation that include the differential distribution of sites and environmental changes on a millennial scale.

A human femur diaphysis in the form of a burin was excavated from a secondary burial context containing osteological remains and industry in the Archaeological Complex of Perdigões (Portugal). The majority of these evidences are thermo-altered and highly fragmented. Radiocarbon dates for this context place it in the middle 3rd millennium BC. Typological analyses indicate that the human femur fragment is a burin and use-wear comparisons suggest that it was used to drill hide.

The article presents the results of a study conducted on an assemblage of archeofaunal remains from the
Copaca 1 archeological site, located on the arid coast of Northern Chile. The site corresponds to an
extensive shell midden that was used generally as an occupational site and specifically as a funerary one
by specialized marine hunteregatherers exclusively during the Archaic period.
The analysis of the faunal remains enabled a general description of the use of local fauna throughout
the site's cultural sequence, which range from 7866 to 5040 cal. BP. According to the results obtained,
marine and terrestrial fauna, including marine and terrestrial mammals, sea birds, pelagic and oceanic
fish, mollusks, crustaceans and equinoderms, were used as a source of both food and technological
implements during the Middle Holocene. This implies that the human groups that inhabited Copaca 1
accessed most of the ecoanthropic spheres of the Southern Cone of the Southwestern Pacific coast from
early times onward, an adaptation dated since 12,000 BP in the south-western coast from southern Peru
and northern Chile.

Pleistocene level TD6-2 of the Gran Dolina site (Sierra de Atapuerca, Spain) is the result of anthropogenic accumulation. Hominin groups occupied the cave as a home base, where they brought in, butchered and consumed the carcasses of ungulates and other hominins. In this paper, we reassess the role of carnivores in the formation and/or modification of the assemblage. We employed different methods to explore the scenario in which the TD6-2 assemblage was formed: (1) identifying the actor responsible for tooth marks; (2) determining the frequency of carnivore tooth marks and their distribution; (3) identifying the co-occurrence of modifications (butchering marks and carnivore tooth marks); (4) calculating the percentage of change and the epiphysis to shaft ratio. Carnivore tooth marks are scarce, as is the co-occurrence of hominin and carnivore modifications. However, not all tooth marks have been attributed to a particular agent due to the high equifinality between human and carnivore tooth marks. For these reasons, the frequency of tooth marks and the co-occurrence of modifications have been of little help in interpreting the role of carnivores.

Axial skeletal remains and the epiphyses of the long bones are in large part missing. The percentage of change and the epiphysis to shaft ratio suggest moderate carnivore ravaging activity. Our data indicate that the role of carnivores in TD6-2 seems to have had an impact on the original assemblage after hominins had extracted a large amount of nutrients from the carcasses. Cannibalized hominin remains showed no carnivore tooth marks and have a greater presence of low survival bones compared to ungulate remains. These findings point to a different taphonomic history suggesting that TD6-2 represents a succession of settlements having different characteristics.

Two archaeological assemblages from the Sierra de Atapuerca sites show evidence of anthropogenic cannibalism. These are the late Early Pleistocene level TD6-2 at Gran Dolina, and the Bronze Age level MIR4 in the Mirador Cave. Despite the chronological distance between these two assemblages, they share the common feature that the human remains exhibit a high frequency of anthropogenic modifications (cut marks, percussion pits and notches and peeling). This frequency could denote special treatment of bodies, or else be the normal result of the butchering process. In order to test these possibilities, we subjected a chimpanzee carcass to a butchering process. The processing was intensive and intended to simulate preparation for consumption. In doing this, we used several simple flakes made from quartzite and chert from quarries in the Sierra de Atapuerca. The skull, long bones, metapodials and phalanges were also fractured in order to remove the brain and bone marrow. As a result, about 40% of the remains showed some kind of human modification. The frequency, distribution and characteristics of these modifications are very similar to those documented on the remains of Homo antecessor from TD6-2. In case of the MIR4 assemblage, the results are similar except in the treatment of skulls. Our results indicate that high frequencies of anthropogenic modifications are common after an intensive butchering process intended to prepare a hominin body for consumption in different contexts (both where there was possible ritual behavior and where this was not the case and the modifications are not the result of special treatment).