El ser humano y la le ña en la cordillera de Mendo za (Argentina) a lo largo del Holoceno: Sitio ar queol ógico Arroyo Malo 3

Abstract

The objective of the present paper is to characterize quali-quantitatively the anthracological record of the archaeological site Arroyo Malo 3, located in the valley of the Atuel river, Mendoza, whose temporal sequence comprises from the Early to the Late Holocene. We intend to establish if the intensification process proposed for the last 2200 years of the human occupation of the region is reflected, from one or another manner, in the firewood record of the woody plants of the area. From the 6650 wood charcoal remains recovered from the B-1 grid of the site, one subsample of each of the 40 archaeological levels excavated was selected. A total of 701 remains was analysed. Charcoal was identified by comparison with the reference collection previously made by the authors for the area. The following taxa were identified: Adesmia, Anarthrophyllum, Berberis, Colliguaja Chusquea, Chuquiraga, Ochetophila, Ephedra, Junellia, Lycium, Mulinun, Schinus, Senna and Prosopis. Results showed changes in presence/absence and relative frequence values of the different genera along the temporal sequence of the site, which tend towards a taxonomical diversification, and also to the incorporation of foreign wood (i.e. Chusquea), during the late Holocene.