Taphonomy in Argentinian zooarchaeology during the last 20 years: occurrence in periodical journals and national academic meetings

Authors

  • Mariana Mondini Laboratorio de Zooarqueología y Tafonomía de Zonas Áridas (LaZTA), IDACOR – CONICET / Museo de Antropología, FFyH, Universidad Nacional de Córdoba
  • Sebastián Muñoz Laboratorio de Zooarqueología y Tafonomía de Zonas Áridas (LaZTA), IDACOR – CONICET / Museo de Antropología, FFyH, Universidad Nacional de Córdoba

Abstract

In this paper, the taphonomic investigations within Argentinean archaeology are analyzed for the 1990-2010 period. A bibliographic survey has been carried out of the main national scholarly periodical publications and proceedings of Argentinean archaeology conferences. The aim of the study is to assess the degree to which zooarchaeological papers have incorporated taphonomy, whether it is via the application or the generation of taphonomic principles, and whether the results are interpreted in terms of bias or other interpretations are provided that include the so-called positive contributions of taphonomy. Also, the representation of the different regions of the country in these publications is considered, as well as the variation of these approaches in time. The results show that during the period under study, the proportion of papers just applying taphonomic principles or dealing only with archaeological data has decreased, which can be considered a positive signal of the integration of both disciplines. Even though taphonomy is not yet a completely established field of research in Argentinean archaeology, the increase of naturalistic investigations and that of the representation of taphonomy in indexed publications, as well as the increasing number of taphonomic agents considered in each paper, all suggest a growth of these investigations.

Keywords:

Taphonomy, Zooarchaeology, Research, Argentina