Fish and sea lions at Punta Odriozola and Arroyo Verde: Assessing the importance of marine resources along the western coast of the San Matias Gulf

Abstract

In this article, we present the first, marine vertebrate zooarchaeological results from the Punta Odriozola and Arroyo Verde sites, western coast of the San Matias Gulf (GSM), Río Negro. This area revealed a weaker and more discontinuous archaeological signal, when compared to the northern GSM coast. Due to this, no accurate faunal resource exploitation evaluations had been undertaken until the present study. Preliminary results indicate that, at least between 3,500 and 2,800 years BP, seafood was exploited complementarily with continental resources along this coastal sector. The diversity, and frequency, of fish and sea-lion remains, suggest the systematic and deliberate exploitation of certain coastal spaces. This would include, the rocky platform coast where many different kinds of coastal resources were available (sea-lions, fish, birds and mollusks, among others). This scenario invites us to re-evaluate the role of the west coast within the regional scheme, and to begin to understand a different coastal record to that of the north coast: one with less impact, but with great archaeological and paleoecological potential.