Abstract

MANGE, Emiliano; PRATES, Luciano; GONZALEZ VENANZI, Lucio  and  DI LORENZO, Maitén. The faunal record from Negro Muerto 3 site (Río Negro province, Argentina): taphonomy and exploitation patterns. Comechingonia [online]. 2016, vol.20, n.1, pp.231-252. ISSN 1851-0027.

Negro Muerto 3 archaeological site is located in the middle Negro river valley and consists of human burials and various archaeological cultural evidence (such as lithic, pottery sherds, and faunal remains). The site was interpreted as an area used both as residential base camp and as mortuary area, and was dated to the late Holocene. In this paper the results of the analysis of fauna (fresh water shells, eggshells and vertebrate bones) are presented. The vertebrate bone assemblage includes specimens of fishes, reptiles, birds and small, medium and large sized mammals. Several lines of evidence (presence of burning, cut marks and crushed bones) have been identified. The analysis of weathering indicates a short-term superficial exposure of the ensemble, and a high incidence of carbonate precipitation and root marks. Though main results of faunal analysis of NM3 show a similar pattern than emerged from other sites of the same region (e.g. high diversity of low-sized prey, and predominance of riverine species), large-sized mammals seems to have been relatively more significant. The new information generated in this paper is integrated with previous archaeological models and, on this basis, new questions and hypotheses regarding to the human exploitation of fauna are raised.

Keywords : Faunal remains; Hunter-gatherers; Negro river valley; Final late Holocene.

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