Taphonomy of a village: the early 20th century site of Mariano Miró (Chapaleufú department, La Pampa, Argentina)

The Mariano Miró archaeological site (Chapaleufú Department, La Pampa Province, Argentina) was a town of nearly 500 inhabitants, founded in 1901 and abandoned in 1911. From the Historical Archaeology perspective, this paper aims to reconstruct the taphonomic histories of surface artifact assemblages...

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Bibliographic Details
Authors: Landa, Carlos Gilberto, Pineau, Viginia, Montanari, Emanuel Guillermo, Doval, Jimena
Format: article
Status:Published version
Publication Date:2014
Country:Argentina
Institution:Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas
Repository:CONICET Digital (CONICET)
Language:English
OAI Identifier:oai:ri.conicet.gov.ar:11336/102404
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/11336/102404
Access Level:Open access
Keyword:GHOST TOWN
TAPHONOMY
HISTORICAL ARCHAEOLOGY
GIS
https://purl.org/becyt/ford/6.1
https://purl.org/becyt/ford/6
Description
Summary:The Mariano Miró archaeological site (Chapaleufú Department, La Pampa Province, Argentina) was a town of nearly 500 inhabitants, founded in 1901 and abandoned in 1911. From the Historical Archaeology perspective, this paper aims to reconstruct the taphonomic histories of surface artifact assemblages from the Mariano Miró ghost town. We analyze taphonomic processes at both the artifact and the assemblage level, considering multiple variables including size, thermal alteration, weathering, site topography, trampling, anthropic activities and burrowing animal activities. We use GIS to interrelate the selected variables and assess the roles of various taphonomic agents in shaping the characteristics and distributions of materials at Mariano Miró. The information pertaining to formation processes obtained from Mariano Miró is potentially useful for generating expectations for and understanding other sites in the region that exhibit similar taphonomic conditions.