Late Prehispanic landscapes in San Juan Mayo (Argentine-Bolivian border)

Abstract

We discuss the changes that took place in the landscape of a portion of the Río Grande de San Juan basin (sub-region San Juan Mayo, Jujuy Province, Argentina-Department of Potosi, Bolivia) during the late pre-Hispanic period. The discussion is based on the analysis of more than one hundred sites recorded through systematic survey in different environmental strata, on excavations conducted in six residential sites, and on the preliminary results of the study of the assemblages recovered. We propose a shift from a landscape centered on the reproduction of loosely integrated domestic groups (houses surrounded by gardens and grazing areas), to one formed by supra-domestic territories, with functionally differentiated places (residential conglomerates, farming areas, chambers in rock shelters, etc.), separated from each other but integrated by economic strategies designed to take advantage of vast areas through a labor force organized at a community scale. This part of the valley seems to have been abandoned during the Inka Period, to be gradually repopulated during Spanish-Indigenous times. On the basis of these data, hypotheses concerning the multi-ethnic character of the region are evaluated.