The zooarchaeological record of Monte León National Park (Santa Cruz, Argentina): a view from Cabeza de León 1 archaeological site

Abstract

Cabeza de León 1 archaeological site is a landmark in the Monte León National Park due to its varied and abundant archaeological record. The information gathered so far mainly derives from the study of surface materials. Previous studies were aimed at presenting a first approach to investigate the site archaeological richness as well as evaluating amateur’s impact on it. This paper presents the zooarchaeological analysis of bone material from stratigraphy in order to address two main issues. First it offers a complete zooarchaeological perspective on site stratigraphic materials and, second it analyses this data in relation to previous studies. The analysis shows that the bone assemblage is the result of abundant refuse of material debris, although not a continuous one. The resulting taphonomic signature is similar to other bone deposits which are not associated to mollusk refuse concentrations. Mammal bones display human bone modifications among which cut and chop are the most important marks. Hence bone disposal was mainly due to human activities which were related to carcass dismembering and defleshing.