Jimena Roldán

Mother Earth: soil and people relationships during the prehispanic period (Northwest Argentina)

Abstract The objective of this paper is to explore the relationship between agricultural soils, land and cult behaviour. We consider that soils, as they were modified by humans, contain key information for the reconstruction of past behaviour linked to super-structural beliefs, not necessarily visible through the conventional material record. In this sense, the manipulation of lands and soils in the Andean region represents the unification of ritual activities and beliefs focused on the Pachamama (Mother Earth). We present the results of a study to examine soil management at a prehispanic agricultural settlement in Northwest Argentina, together with other evidence related to the agricultural symbolic universe, which reveals evidence of land categorization and land use preferences.

LANDSCAPE EVOLUTION AND HUMAN AGENCY: ARCHAEOLOGICAL CASE STUDIES FROM DRYLANDS IN WESTERN SOUTH AMÉRICA AND AUSTRALIA

Landscapes represent a dynamic point of articulation between humans and the environment. While often dichotomized, humans are active participants in the environment and often play a pivotal role in its transformation over time. In this paper, we use case studies from western South America and Australia to illustrate the importance of studying long-term dynamics between humans and the environment. Such investigations can bring significant historical depth to environmental change and the role humans have played in altering courses of landscape evolution and species biodiversity. Humans comprise a critical element in environmental change, and collectively, our results hold strong implications for issues related to sustainability and effective management of our planet’s desert resources.

EFECTOS ANTROPICOS DE USO DE SUELOS DURANTE EL FORMATIVO EN EL VALLE DE TAFÍ (TUCUMÁN-ARGENTINA)

espanolLas escasas evidencias sobre la economia de subsistencia de la cultura Tafi (siglos I al IX d.C.) condujeron a la utilizacion de metodos provenientes de las ciencias geologicas, de limitada aplicacion en el campo de la arqueologia andina. Con el fin de determinar indicadores geoquimicos generados por el uso agrario sostenido de los suelos, se realizaron estudios quimicos y pedologicos en paleosuelos prehispanicos (habitacionales y agricolas) en el sitio Formativo El Tolar ubicado en el valle de Tafi (Tucuman-Argentina). Los resultados obtenidos muestran que dicho paleosuelo, contemporaneo a la ocupacion del sitio, presenta diferencias claras entre los suelos sometidos a actividades agricolas y aquellos propios de estructuras residenciales. Los analisis efectuados en los primeros senalan suelos bien desarrollados para la produccion agricola. Las concentraciones edaficas de fosforo organico y cobre indican la probabilidad del uso de fertilizantes EnglishThe scarcity of evidence about the subsistence economy of Tafi culture (I to IX century A.D.) indicated geochemical analyses, derived from pedological and geological science, which had previously seen little use in the archaeology of the Southern Andes. To identify geochemical signatures resulting from cultivation of Formative fields, at the site of El Tolar in the Tafi valley (Tucuman- Argentina), comparative chemical and pedological analyses were made of the agricultural and residential soils. The results show that agrarian and residential soils, from the same periods of use, differed markedly. Paleosols from the agricultural fields were well developed. High levels of organic phosphorous and iron probably reflect the deliberate application of fertilizers

Agricultura prehispánica en Yasyamayo (valle de Santa María, Tucumán, Argentina)

Fil: Roldan, Jimena. Universidad Nacional de Tucuman. Facultad de Cs.naturales E Instituto Miguel Lillo. Laboratorio de Geoarqueologia; Argentina