<html>Redundant Guanaco (<i>Lama guanicoe</i>) Deaths in Southern Patagonia: Time-Averaging, Scales of Analysis, and Archaeological Implications</html>
Author(s): Maria Gutierrez
Year: 2025
Summary
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2025: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 90th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.
We present the results of actualistic taphonomic observations on modern guanaco deaths in the Coyle-Gallegos Interfluve steppe (Santa Cruz province, Argentina) and their implications for interpreting the archaeological record. We recorded massive deaths due to winter stress that occurred in the years 2020 and 2023. In addition, we also documented guanacos that died from other causes, such as entanglement in wire fences, predation by puma, and others from unknown reasons. The longitudinal taphonomic study of carcasses added in different years approached a controlled time-averaging sample and required a change in our register scale. The spatial overlap of deaths, the variation in the size and the limits of bone patches, the degree of disarticulation, and the weathering and mortality profiles of these assemblages are evaluated. Sectors with better burial opportunities are identified to construct analogous models for long-term scales, the usual ones of the archaeological record.
Cite this Record
Redundant Guanaco (Lama guanicoe) Deaths in Southern Patagonia: Time-Averaging, Scales of Analysis, and Archaeological Implications. Maria Gutierrez. Presented at The 90th Annual Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. 2025 ( tDAR id: 510668)
This Resource is Part of the Following Collections
Keywords
Record Identifiers
Abstract Id(s): 51822