Abstract

IGARETA, Ana; MARIANI, Roxana; VARELA, Graciela  and  TEILECHE, Thelma. INSECTS IN URBAN CONTEXTS: THEIR ROLE AS EVIDENCE IN A NINETEENTH CENTURY CASE OF OBJECTS REUSE. Comechingonia [online]. 2019, vol.23, n.2, pp.1-10. ISSN 1851-0027.

During an excavation of the remains of a nineteenth-century latrine and garbage pitlocated in the city of Buenos Aires (Argentina), several meters below the current surface of the land, dozens of glass bottles perfectly preserved, originally used as containers for alcoholic beverages, were recovered. Inside one of them is the presence of numerous pupae and empty pupariaeof flies whose analysis revealed that they were saprophagous species (that feed on decaying organic matter)and an adult beetle predator of them, all usually used for the interpretation of funerary archaeological contexts. The preservation of the remains inside a glass bottle makes it necessary to consider why the content of that particular bottle attracted these insectsand enabled the development of their life cycle and satisfy theirtrophic requirements, and also estimating which process of reuse was involved the piece to be associated with the entomological record.

Keywords : urban archeology, entomofauna, Buenos AiresXIX^thCentury, reuse.

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