Pre-Columbian diet and subsistence strategies in the Aconcagua Valley of central Chile, from the Early Ceramic to Late Periods: Evidence from stable carbon (δ13C) and nitrogen (δ15N) isotopic analyses.

Summary

This research documents past diet and subsistence strategies of the pre-Columbian ceramic societies in the Aconcagua Valley of central Chile. We aim to characterize the late Holocene cultural, social and economic interactions of this geographically strategic zone between the semi-arid north and more fertile central Chile. Dynamic changes over the past two millennia include the establishment of culturally heterogeneous enclaves from the north alongside local populations. The broader region of central Chile was also the southernmost limit of the Inka Empire as well as part of the southernmost frontier of maize agriculture in the Americas. We are resolving variations in diet with complimentary analyses of dental palaeopathologies coupled with stable carbon (δ13C) and nitrogen (δ15N) isotopic analyses of bone using human skeletal remains from the collections of the Museo Histórico-Arqueológico de Quillota (MHAQ). These changes are evaluated in the context of the coeval economic and political transitions, including the adoption of new technologies and domesticates and the expansion of different cultural influences.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 82nd Annual Meeting, Vancouver, BC (2017)

Keywords

Spatial Coverage

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 16872