Activity Areas in Formative Sites from Northwest Argentina

25Activity Areas in Formative Sitesfrom Northwest Argentina

M. M. Sampietro1 and M. A. Vattuone2

1Instituto de Geociencias y Medio Ambiente, Facultad de Ciencias Naturales, España 2903,4000 San Miguel de Tucumán2Instituto de Estudios Vegetales “Antonio R. Sampietro”, Facultad de Bioquímica Química yFarmacia - Universidad Nacional de Tucumán - Argentina –Contact e-mail: [email protected]

Keywords

formative, activity area, Argentina, Tafí culture

ABSTRACT

Tafí valley, located between 26◦ 45’ and 26◦ 58’ south latitude and 65◦ 39’ and 65◦ 48’west longitude, is a very rich archaeological area from the Northwest of Argentina.

It was occupied by an important culture called Tafí culture. This culture representsone of the earliest agricultural settlements of the region and it had a long occupationalperiod. This period was dated between 360 BC and 800 AC.

Previous archaeological works have never considered the possibility of making parti-tions within the big spaces into specific activity areas.

The purpose of our work was the determination of activity areas in a patio of a domes-tic unit. The nature of these activities is discussed.

We took into account two major lines of evidence: chemical (floor phosphorous con-tent, pH concentration) and macroscopic (ceramic fragments and bone concentration)together with the unit contextual information.

The distribution analysis of macroscopic remains together with the floor samples al-

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338 Activity Areas in Formative Sites from Northwest Argentina

lowed us to conclude that there were two major activity areas: one on the south ofthe patio that is related with stored goods in ceramic pottery and another related withflesh handling in the north of the same unit.

Chemical results show that these two main activity areas could be complemented witha third one related to rituals according to the association with subterranean burials.

25.1 INTRODUCTION

Tafí valley, located between 26◦ 45’ and 26◦ 58’ south latitude and 65◦ 39’ and 65◦ 48’west longitude (Figure 25.1), is a very rich archaeological area from the Northwest ofArgentina.

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0 1 2 K m

26º45' S

26º58' S

65º52' W 65º37' W

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Tucumán

50 Km

TucumánSan Miguel de

Valle deTafí

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28º S

66º W 65º W

26º S

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Figure 25.1: Geographical location of study area.

During the Formative period, it was occupied by an important culture called Tafí. Thisculture represents one of the earliest agricultural settlements of the region and it had along occupational period. This period was dated between 360 BC and 800 AC (Berber-ián et al., 1988).

The typical houses of this culture were composed of central circular patios (15 to 20meters diameter) surrounded by other circular smaller rooms (6 to 2 meter diameter)(Figure 25.2). They generally appear isolated or in a relationship with agricultural areas(González and Núñez Regueiro, 1960). In some areas of the valley they are agglutinatedforming a sort of village without urban planning.

Australasian Connections and New Directions

Sampietro and Vattuone 339

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Walls

Excavedareas

B1

B2

B3

B2Burial

Figure 25.2: Typical archaeological unit from Tafí culture and burial distribution.

Proceedings of the 7th Australasian Archaeometry Conference


There are also many terraces and square constructions, both kind of structures wererelated to agricultural activities (Sampietro and Sayago, 1998).

Drawing upon the major contextual evidence many archaeologists have proposed thatmost of the human activities (domestic and ceremonial ones) were performed at thepatios (González and Núñez Regueiro, 1960). In their excavations they have found,in some cases, menhirs located on patios together with other kinds of material evi-dence of subsistence activities (like stone mortars and ceramic potsherds). However,they have never considered the possibility of making partitions of the big spaces intospecific activity areas.

The purpose of our work was the determination of activity areas within a patio of adomestic unit as a first example of possible differences. The nature of these activitiesis discussed.

25.2 METHODS

A typical residential unit from Tafí culture was selected. It is situated over a cone glacis(Sayago and Collantes, 1991) on the eastern side of Aconquija mountains. The place isnamed El Tolar.

Fifty seven % of the patio surface was excavated (Figure 25.2). The floor surface wasdivided into 1m squares and soil samples were collected from each corner. A total of107 samples were obtained.

Two major evidence lines were taken into account: chemical evidences (floor phospho-rous content, pH) and macroscopic evidence (ceramic fragments and bone concentra-tion) together with the unit contextual information.

Figure 25.3: Burial view.

Floor samples were dried at room temperature, ground in a mortar and stored untiluse.



pH determination

Samples (0.4 g) were suspended in 5 ml of distilled water. After three minutes ofagitation, samples were centrifuged, decanted and the pH was determined in the su-pernatant with a glass pHmeter.

Phosphorous determination

Phosphorous was determined by the molybdenum blue method. Total phosphorouswas determined after phosphorous was extracted from samples by digestion with anoxidizing agent (conc HNO3). The difference between inorganic phosphorous contentand total phosphorous was taken as an estimate of the organic phosphorous contentof the sample.

Ceramic analysis

All ceramic potsherds were collected taking into account their location in x, y and zcoordinates. For this analysis we used all of the ceramic potsherds that were recog-nized lying in the ancient floor surface or incorporated in the most superficial part ofit. After that, all of them were classified according to their typology.

Animal bone distribution analysis

A pattern of bone distribution was established taking into account all animal bonesamples collected from ancient floor surface.

All chemical and macroscopic data were incorporated into a geographical informationsystem (using ILWIS 2.1 software) to calculate interpolated continuous surfaces foreach subject.

A carboniferous sample was taken from a fireside of a room in the same archaeologicalunit for an AMS radiocarbon determination.

25.3 RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

The residential unit chosen for our study is located in Tafí valley, an intermountainvalley from the eastern side of Aconquija mountains, Tucumán, Argentina.

A typical Formative residential unit from the place named El Tolar was selected for ourstudy. Area selection was made on the base of systematic aerial photointerpretation ofthe whole valley. Afterwards, pedestrian prospection of the specific geomorphologicalunit was made.

The residential unit selected dates to 1560±60 BP, consequently, it belongs to theconsidered chronological period. Moreover, the collected archaeological materials arealso typical of Tafí culture. This material is characterized by crude pottery types usinga coarse grit.



The walls of the residential unit under study were made with stones cemented withmud. Three main structures were found under the floor surface: B1, B2 and B3 (Fig-ure 25.2). They had similar structural patterns: they were dug in the primitive soil,entire walls were covered with stones and they were covered with a solid stone roof,like a false vault.

B1 and B3 (Figure 25.2) each contained a single body. In both cases an air space was leftbetween the body and the stone roof (Figure 25.3). B2 was found opened and emptywithout any trace of archaeological material.

In all cases the upper part of these false vaults were coincident with the floor surfacelevel.

As it was expected most ceramic potsherds are of crude types using a coarse grit. Adifferent distribution of ceramics and animal bones was observed (Figure 25.4 and 5)in the patio. High ceramic concentrations were found in the south side of the unit

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Figure 25.4: Ceramic distribution.

while animal bones were concentrated by the north side.

Inorganic phosphorous concentrations (Figure 25.6) showed correlation with bone dis-tribution (Figure 25.5) while ceramic distribution (Figure 25.4) was more related withorganic phosphorous (Figure 25.7).

We also found some other correlations between organic phosphorous (Figure 25.7) andthe location of the tombs (Figure 25.2).



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Figure 25.5: Bone distribution.



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Figure 25.6: Inorgainc phosphorous concentration.



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Figure 25.7: Organic phosphorous concentration.



We could not find any pattern for pH distribution (Figure 25.8).

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Figure 25.8: pH distribution.

Some other points are worth discussing. It was impossible, due to the exposed floorsurface, to establish the main entrance to the residential unit, or the communicationdoors among the patio and rooms. An understanding of these elements could intro-duce new insights in the interpretation of the results, due to the inference of possiblecirculation areas.

Previous papers assigned all domestic activities to these patios, but there is also a gen-eral consensus that this society developed its religious activities in a major domesticcontext. Taking into account tomb and organic phosphorous distribution it is possibleto interpret new aspects of their ritual practices that are unknown until the present.The enrichment of organic phosphorous in soil samples taken from the upper part ofroof tombs could be related to offerings made to the dead.

Storage units were not described in previous papers but the relationship betweenceramic and organic phosphorous concentration in addition to the absence of fireresidues permits us to suggest that these ceramic pots could be used for storage ofdifferent kind of things.

Animal bones are not yet identified. Nevertheless, on some of them, it is possibleto recognize cut marks showing that they were incorporated in the floors by the Tafípeople.



Ultimately, no disturbance were observed on the ancient floor surface suggesting thatthere was just one occupational period.

25.4 CONCLUSIONS

The residential unit under examination has all the expected characters to define it asbelonging to Tafí culture. It was dated to 1560±60 BP and all the recovered archaeo-logical materials belong to this period.

The distribution analysis of macroscopic remains suggest two defined and differentareas associated with different kind of activities. The north part, could have been usedfor flesh handling, because of the high concentration of animal bones in this area.Otherwise, an important concentration of ceramics was found in the south sector inassociation with a relatively high concentration of organic phosphorous.

This results are partially corroborated with chemical analysis. In fact the differencesin inorganic phosphorous concentration looks similar to animal bone distribution. Onthe other hand, the distribution of organic phosphorous is similar to ceramic potsherddispersion but in this case it is possible to observe some interesting spots that couldbe associated with subterranean structures, the tombs.

The complementation between chemical and macroscopic information allowed us todefine three major activity areas related to three different activities. The first one,located in the north side of the structure could be related to animal flesh handling;the second one, situated in the patio south, would be associated with storage andmanagement of other kind of organic resources; and the last one, related with ritualceremonies involving probable ceremonial offers.

Other organic analysis could complement these preliminary data. The application ofthese techniques to the archaeological prehispanic record promises to be an importantsource of complementary information to that provided by traditional methods.

AKNOWLEDGEMENTS

We are grateful to Dr. J. M. Sayago and to the Consejo Nacional de InvestigacionesCientíficas y Técnicas, Buenos Aires, Argentina, for financial support.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Berberián, E., Nielsen, E., A.E.and Arguello de Dorsch, Bixio, B., Spalletti, L., Salazar, J.,and Pillado, E. L. (1988). Sistemas de asentamiento prehispánicos en el Valle de Tafí.Comechingonia, Revista de Antropología e Historia, Cordoba, Argentina.

González, A. R. and Núñez Regueiro, V. A. (1960). 1960 Preliminary report on ar-chaeological research in Tafí del Valle N.W. Argentina. In Akten del 34 InternationalenAmerikanisten Kongresses, pp. 485–96.

Sampietro, M. M. and Sayago, J. M. (1998). Aproximación geoarqueológica al



conocimiento del sitio arqueológico "Río Blanco", Valle de Tafí, Tucumán (Argentina).Cuadernos del Instituto de Antropología y Pensamiento Latinoamericano, 17:257–274.

Sayago, J. M. and Collantes, M. (1991). Evolución paleogeomorfológica del valle deTafí (Tucumán, Argentina) durante el Cuaternario Superior. Bamberger GeographischeSchriften Bd., 11:109–124.


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Activity Areas in Formative Sites from Northwest Argentina