Fire Events, Violence and Abandonment Scenarios in the Ancient Andes: The Final Stage of the Aguada Culture in the Ambato Valley, Northwest Argentina

Disuse of Spaces and Discard of Artefacts During the Abandonment of Erimi-Laonin Tou Porakou

“…Abandonment studies stress the recurrence, in various areas of the world, of a deliberate use of fire to voluntarily destroy structures or part of a settlement. This action would be performed by those who lived at a place at the end of a sequence of practices linked, in most cases, to funerary rituals (Cameron 1990;Lindskoug 2016;Schiffer 1985.29;Schlanger, Wilshusen 1993;Verhoeven 2000;Wilshusen 1986.246). In addition, other cases of destruction by fire are represented by unexpected natural catastrophes or enemy attacks, and by sites which were affected by closure practices performed by the inhabitants (Cameron 1991;Chapman 1999;Lightfoot 1993;Stevanovi≤ 1997).…”

Repensar la arqueología de Piedras Blancas: cosas, espacios, personas y tiempos en relación (valle de Ambato, Catamarca, Argentina; s. VI-XI d.C.)

“…El sitio arqueológico Piedras Blancas, en el valle de Ambato, Catamarca (figura 1), ha sido objeto de trabajos de excavación y análisis en distintas oportunidades desde 1996 hasta 2008. Ese corpus de información, fue abordado a partir de diversas líneas de indagación, interpretaciones y planteos teóricos, a la par de distintas implementaciones metodológicas, que fueron volcadas en numerosos artículos y tesis de distintos autoras y autores que formaron parte del equipo (Juez 1991;Cruz 2004;Assandri 2006;Laguens et al 2007;Bonnin 2010;Figueroa 2010;Gastaldi 2013;Dantas et al 2014;Marconetto et al 2014;Pérez Gollán et al 2014;Lindskoug 2016), conformando en conjunto un estado de conocimiento que sirve de sustento al planteo de nuevas aproximaciones al sitio y sus contextos, y en los cuales se basa este escrito. Dichas aproximaciones estuvieron articuladas en torno a preguntas en común referidas a las desigualdades sociales, su emergencia y reproducción a lo largo del tiempo en el contexto de las sociedades Aguada (González 1964;1998), desde una perspectiva centrada en el rol de lo material y las relaciones entre ambiente, espacios y personas.…”

Rain-fed agriculture thrived despite climate degradation in the pre-Hispanic arid Andes

“…The adaptation of human populations to extreme environments has been the subject of numerous studies in cultural ecology and environmental anthropology, notably in the Andes where human occupation is ancient but also vulnerable because of the highly variable, often stark, mountain environment (1,2). Whether environment or man was the main determinant of the shifts in human-nature relationships reported in the Andes remains controversial, even in the case of the indisputable agrarian collapses that occurred in the region (3)(4)(5)(6)(7)(8). The controversy is partly resolved by Contreras' suggestion that we consider the Andean highlands to be a mosaic of structuring, modified, and sacred environments, with structuring milieus shaped by environmental factors, whereas anthropogenic changes associated with subsistence activities dominate in modified landscapes, and ritual or ideological dimensions do so in sacred places (2).…”