Jordi Estévez

Integrated Archaeozoological Research of Shell Middens: New Insights Into Hunter-Gatherer-Fisher Coastal Exploitation in Tierra Del Fuego

ABSTRACT Shells of Nacella magellanica are abundant in archaeological shell middens distributed along the Beagle Channel. In this study we analyzed the oxygen isotopic composition of shells of this species to obtain information on its seasonal exploitation patterns by hunter-gatherer-fisher groups in this region during the nineteenth century. Oxygen isotopic data from shells recovered from Lanashuaia and from some occupations of Túnel VII (both contact sites) indicate that N. magellanica was gathered in different seasons. Our data agree with fauna-derived seasonal reconstructions, and collectively these data provide more detailed economic scenarios. Comprehensive results confirm that in the nineteenth century, Yamana people continuously occupied the coast of the Beagle Channel by means of short-lived campsites.

Ethnoarchaeology in the Uttermost Part of the Earth

Our ethnoarchaeological research projects since 1986 have focused on testing and developing archaeological theories, inference systems, and methodologies for recovery and analysis of prehistoric European hunter-gatherer societies. The research began by contrasting the ethnographic image of the Tierra del Fuego gatherer-fisher-hunter groups with the archaeological record from sites attributable to the people defined as “Yamana” and “Selknam” in ethnographies. The research dealt with the variability of the resources and space management strategies and their links to the social organization of these groups. We excavated settlements as well as burial and ritual places. As a result of the research we argue the necessity of using analytical categories of social significance related to work processes, absolute value, and the distribution and consumption of goods. Working with such categories is productive but requires one to rethink some of the general analogies and common a prioris in the study of prehistoric societies.

Introduction: Tops of the World (TOW): The Dawn of a Concept

It was at the 1998 Computer Applications in Archaeology (CAA) conference in Barcelona that we fi rst met—Juan Barceló (the CAA organizer), Jordi Estévez, Assumpció Vila, and Hans Peter Blankholm. We did, of course, know of one another’s work, but had never before had the opportunity to sit down and discuss topics of mutual interest— the archaeology of Patagonia and Tierra del Fuego and comparative Arctic, Subarctic, and Subantarctic prehistory. As it was, Assumpció, Jordi, and Juan had for more than a decade been actively involved in Tierra del Fuego’s hunter-gatherer archaeology and had conducted several research projects and excavations in America’s southernmost archipelago together with an Argentinean research team. The main aim of this ethno-archaeological research was to test and develop new theoretical and methodological approaches to hunter-gatherer archaeology. Hans Peter, working on northern Fennoscandian Subarctic hunter-gatherer archaeology, had also for some time been looking into the prospects of comparative analyses with similar areas in southern South America. During this fi rst meeting, common points of view on a series of issues arose. We were really surprised about the similarities of the landscapes at both extremes of the World and struck by the astonishing parallels and differences in the social and technical strategies of the fi rst indigenous societies in these extremes. We agreed that a series of fundamental archaeological questions must be answered considering as a whole both geographical extremes: why, how, and when did people venture into those parts of the world? Why did people migrate to the cool climates in the Arctic, Subarctic, and Subantarctic so soon after the last deglaciation? How did they manage and how did they organize successful strategies to survive? Readers of this journal are familiar with the long history of comparative anthropological and archaeological research on cultural variation in the northern circumpolar zone. Lacking archaeological data, early studies were based on an anthropogeographic adaptive perspective combined with diffusionist principles in historical ethnology. Scholars constructed speculative historical sequences using the geographical distributions of ethnographic

Ethnoarcheology of Tierra del Fuego hunter-fisher-gatherer societies. The site of Lanashuaia

Since 1988, a Spanish‐Argentinian team has been developing ethnoarcheological projects in Tierra del Fuego (Argentina). Our objective was to develop a methodology and conceptual instruments in order to go further in the study of prehistoric hunter‐gatherer societies. In the frame of these projects, we excavated some archeological sites corresponding to the period of the European contact with native societies (nineteenth century). Lanashuaia was one of the excavated archeological sites. Prof. Jiri Svoboda participated in the fieldwork carried out during 1996. In this paper we present some of the results obtained of the study of Lanashuaia.