Leonor Adán
Universidad Austral de Chile, Dirección Museológica, Department Member
El siguiente trabajo resume las investigaciones arqueológicas sobre patrones de asentamiento y registro arquitectónico efectuado en las quebradas altas de la región cultural Pica-Tarapacá. La descripción formal de cinco aldeas edificadas... more
El siguiente trabajo resume las investigaciones arqueológicas sobre patrones de asentamiento y registro arquitectónico efectuado en las quebradas altas de la región cultural Pica-Tarapacá. La descripción formal de cinco aldeas edificadas en distintas cuencas hidrográficas durante el Período Intermedio Tardío (900-1.450 años DC) nos permiten proponer el desarrollo de una tradición constructiva de Tierras Altas con fuerte raigambre en los espacios agrícolas de altura, vínculos valle a valle y con el altiplano colindante, caracterizados por la segmentación social de sus comunidades con fines productivos y por la cohesión social expresada y promovida en el uso de arquitectura pública y la densificación de los espacios habitacionales en torno a ésta.
According to sixteenth and seventeenth century chroniclers, the indigenous societies of Tarapacá were equipped with light architecture, or with structures exhibiting the civilizing influence of settlers arriving from the Altiplano during... more
According to sixteenth and seventeenth century chroniclers, the indigenous societies of Tarapacá were equipped with light architecture, or with structures exhibiting the civilizing influence of settlers arriving from the Altiplano during the Early Formative Period (900 B.C.A.D. 200; Núñez 1971; Núñez and Moragas 1977). This viewpoint promotes the interpretation that the coastal groups were conservative and materially precarious, and had been passively integrated into the economic and cultural changes promulgated from interior farming and herding zones (Sanhueza 1985). In contrast, the study summarized here emphasizes the social complexity of Tarapacá’s coastal desert (running from approximately 19E55' to 21E43' south) by analyzing the architecture of sites located between the mouths of the Camiña and Loa Rivers, a north-south stretch of about 208 kilometers. In FONDECYT Project 1030923, “The Pica-Tarapacá Complex: Proposals for an Archaeology of the Societies of the South-Ce...
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
The study of plant macro-remains from archaeological sites provides substantial information on the activities occurring in a settlement and living conditions during its occupation. This article reports the plant macro-remains (charred... more
The study of plant macro-remains from archaeological sites provides substantial information on the activities occurring in a settlement and living conditions during its occupation. This article reports the plant macro-remains (charred seeds and wood charcoal) recovered from a rock shelter in the temperate forests of southern Chile (Latitude 39°S). The main goal of the study was to assess the potential of these remains to indicate collection, use and consumption of plant resources available in this ecosystem by hunter-gatherer groups during the Holocene. Remains from three cultural periods were collected using wet sieving and flotation techniques. Macro-botanical remains found in the rock shelter represented a variety of native trees, shrubs and herbs, both native and introduced. Charred seeds included 19 plant taxa, divided into three groups according to their source: collected foods, including pulses (1 species) and grains (3 taxa, 1 probably cultivated); seeds introduced with food items, including fruit stones and nutshells from several native shrubs and trees; seeds introduced with non-food items, mainly from tree species with no evident use. Wood charcoal fragments represented 28 different native taxa (26 dicotyledons, 1 monocotyledon and 1 gymnosperm), none with a specific identifiable use. Analysis of seed remains indicated the use of grains and, to some extent, collection of fruits and nuts over summer and autumn. The analysis of dispersed charcoal fragments and those accumulated in hearths were especially useful to describe the vegetation surrounding the rock shelter, infer successional events, and identify taxa undetectable in the seed record.
