Nuevas investigaciones del Túmulo de Malacara (Partido de Lobería, provincia de Buenos Aires)

Abstract

The Túmulo de Malacara was discovered in 1913 by Luis María Torres and Carlos Ameghino on the Buenos Aires Atlantic coast. This article reexamines the bioanthropological and archaeological collection from this emblematic site of Pampean archaeology, aiming to understand the indigenous societies in the region during the late Holocene. Human remains of at least 13 individuals, the sediments surrounding these burials, 57 beads made from mollusk exoskeletons, and 104 lithic artifacts housed in the La Plata Museum were analyzed. Additionally, three new radiocarbon dates ranging between 2550 and 2750 14C years BP and 32 stable isotope data of C and N were presented, indicating a diet primarily reliant on terrestrial resources—both animal and C3 plant-based. In this comprehensive study, the early 20th-century fieldworks were also contextualized using archival documentation. Alongside analyzing the collection and historical photographs to address primary and secondary burial practices, lithic technology, and ornamentation on perforated shells, satellite and drone flights imagery, and new recent fieldwork between the right bank of the La Malacara stream and the nearby mobile dunes were done. These efforts led to the identification of a geomorphological anomaly in the form of a ring with a central mound, where lithic artifacts were found, potentially corresponding to remnants of the excavation at this site discovered 110 years ago