Faunal assemblages from the Middle Holocene: Environmental and cultural variability in the western slope of the Puna de Atacama

Abstract

This paper attempts to explain the variability seen in Middle Holocene faunal assemblages from the western slope of the Andes in the Puna de Atacama, Chile. During this time, palaeoenvironmental factors, such as regional aridity strongly impacted the distribution and availability of resources, but also processes of growing socio-cultural complexity in local societies induced in an increasing sedentism, and domestication of camelids among others. Both environmental and cultural factors were involved in influencing variability in the region's archaeofaunal records. In order to understand this variability, osteometric data from camelid remains were compared. Materials were recovered from two areas of Chile's Salar de Atacama basin: Quebrada Puripica and Quebrada Tulán, located in the northeast and southeast areas of the basin, respectively. These Middle Holocene assemblages were analyzed within a wider temporal context, which also includes the Early and Late Holocene. Spatial variability was addressed through comparison with assemblages from the Loa basin. The variability observed in the archaeofaunal record of large size camelid remains is more related to the process of domestication than to the influence of environmental factors.