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We present the results of the first approach that included visits to the archaeological sites and contact with the people of Rodeo Gervan. This location is situated in the last high valley area in western the Catamarca, before the Puna. It is the first research intervention of our team at the area, following the local resident's requests and invitation. Rodeo Gervan is a narrow high valley, with geographic, weather and geomorphologic features which difference it of bordering valleys of the local area. Its local and peasant population is currently settled in six points that are placed throughout the valley and shows a particular way of living. The importance of this report is that is the first in an area that was not explored before from the archaeological perspective. Data that we provide are promising for further anthropological, archaeological and paleoenvironmental studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to present the first systematic archaeological investigations conducted in the Balcosna Valley, Catamarca Province, NW Argentina. This valley located in the end of the foothills of the Yungas, has not extensively been mentioned in the archaeological literature. Therefore, our main objectives were understanding and interpreting the social construction of landscape in the valley. This is to say, which was the role it played regionally, in connection with the available information of the surrounding valleys. Methodologically, we conducted surveys following the paths that still exist in the valley, along with the implementation of stratigraphic test pits to delimit the different contexts of use of the identified structures. The results presented here are more than promising since we have recorded a great variety and number of archaeological sites of various shapes and sizes, together with complex systems of terraced fields and reservoirs for water storage. Thus, we interpret this valley as a place where the landscape was in constant re-creation. People who lived there probably had a permanent settlement which in turn conformed a network system interconnected with paths that are used today and, possibly, in the past. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]