20235501(en)/1 - Fragmentary Neolithic Changes in the Argentine Andes: Regional Trends in Radiocarbon Dates, Paleoclimate and Lithic Material in Mendoza’s Uspallata Valley

Erik J. Marsh, Silvina Castro, Valeria Cortegoso, Kristin Carline, Savanna Buehlman-Barbeau y Jennifer De Alba

In the central Argentine Andes, the earliest evidence of domestic crops, pottery, cemeteries, domestic camelids, and the bow and arrow dates from approximately two thousand years ago. In contrast to traditional expectations, these Neolithic changes did not occur together. To evaluate the synchronic or diachronic nature of these changes in northern Mendoza (Argentina), we parsed six phases with 92 published dates, five of which are unpublished, and four paleoclimatic proxies for the time span of 3790–1010 cal BP. We refined the phases with archaeological data from the Uspallata Valley around Cerro Tunduqueral, which is known for its rock art. The lithic analysis of the Alero Tunduqueral site provides evidence of mainly expeditious strategies, direct provisioning of local resources, and embedded mobility to acquire more distant raw materials. We estimate the cost of acquiring raw material with a friction surface of walking hours using a GIS. These data allow us to propose a phase without Neolithic elements (phase 1), followed by an early presence of domestic crops during a neoglacial advance (phase 2). The latter led to a population displacement to the lower areas associated with the first ceramics and houses (phase 3), before there was a return to the higher areas (phases 4-6), coinciding with increased regional precipitation.

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