Archaeobotanical remains found in a house at the archaeological site of Cardonal, valle del Cajón, Argentina: a view of food practices 1,800 years ago

• Published in: Vegetation history and archaeobotany Vol. 23; no. 5; pp. 577 - 590
• Main Author: Calo, C. Marilin
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Berlin/Heidelberg Springer-Verlag 01-09-2014; Springer; Springer Berlin Heidelberg; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Agricultural practices; Agriculture; America and Arctic regions; Anthropology; Archaeological sites; Archaeology; Beans; Biogeosciences; Chenopodium; Climate Change; Corn; Cotyledons; crops; Earth and Environmental Science; Earth Sciences; Endocarp; Environmental studies; Flora; Flotation; Food; food plants; foraging; Fruits; Geoffroea; Historic buildings & sites; Historic sites; Historical buildings; Methodology and general studies; Original Article; Paleontology; people; Phaseolus vulgaris; Planting density; Plants; Prehistory and protohistory; Prosopis; Prosopis pallida; Residential density; Sediments; Seeds; Social networks; Social organization; South America; Staples; Taxa; wild plants; Zea mays; Formative; Argentina; South America; America; Formative period; Food practices; Northwestern Argentina; Archaeobotany; Domestic areas; Food plant; Carpology; Archaeometry; Palaeobotany; Wild plant
• ISSN: 0939-6314; 1617-6278
• DOI: 10.1007/s00334-013-0406-2

This paper explores food and daily activities in domestic areas at the archaeological site of Cardonal, Provincia de Catamarca, Argentina. It is based on archaeobotanical carpological macro remains recovered by flotation techniques in a residential compound. A set of five taxa including wild plants such as Geoffroea decorticans (chañar), Phaseolus vulgaris var. aborigineus (wild bean), Prosopis sp. (algarrobo) and the crops P. vulgaris var. vulgaris (domesticated bean) and Zea mays (maize) were identified. These well-known staples of ancient communities in this area suggest that the Cardonal people combined agriculture with foraging practices, taking advantage of a diversified environment and extensive social networks. The most abundant plant food remains were bean cotyledons and maize cupules, which were densely concentrated in the “kitchen”, near the hearth. Conversely, chañar endocarps, algarrobo seeds and also Chenopodium sp. seeds were almost exclusively confined to the “patio”, in the hearth area. As a result, two distinct food-related activity areas could be identified, defined by the relative density of plant remains, occurrence of plant taxa and the different practices of processing and consumption which they evoke.