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Since the declaration of the historic center of Cuenca as a World Heritage Site in 1999, urban interventions in El Barranco sector have emerged as strategies for the revaluation of heritage urban centers based on monumentalist conservation plans. These plans seek to promote touristification through the beautification and enhancement of urban infrastructure towards the internationalization of tourism in the city, gradually leading to the commoditization of the space and the loss of its community values. In the El Barranco area, these interventions have focused on the built heritage, excluding its final section known as archaeological area, a space of significant historical-cultural interest and pivotal in territorial configuration processes since pre-Hispanic times. This thesis addresses the development of an urban refunctionalization plan for the El Barranco sector of Cuenca, Ecuador, from the perspectives of urban archaeology and the social production of space. To this end, the topographical, archaeological, urbanistic, and social characteristics that have conferred upon this place a fundamental role in the history and understanding of the city in its various socio-temporal periods are examined. Under these methodological tools, archaeological sites and elements are recognized as relevant urban pieces in the historical and contemporary understanding of the site. Simultaneously, usage practices and social appropriation of these spaces are analyzed aiming to identify common characteristics that make it possible to clarify the connections between present and past dynamics over time. As a result, a series of strategies and guidelines are established to guide the planning of El Barranco towards the dignification of inhabiting public spaces in accordance with both current and historical expressions of use.

El objetivo de este trabajo es el de determinar el grado de alteración diagenética de cuatro conjuntos óseos provenientes de tres sitios de la localidad arqueológica Paso Otero, ubicada en la cuenca media del río Quequén Grande (Provincia de Buenos Aires, Argentina). Los sitios analizados tienen una cronología comprendida entre el límite Pleistoceno/Holoceno y los inicios del Holoceno tardío. Específicamente, se caracteriza el grado de modificación post-depositacional de cada uno de los conjuntos de acuerdo a la aplicación de parámetros diagenéticos que incluyen porosidad, cristalinidad (IRSF), presencia de carbonatos diagenéticos (C/P), integridad histológica, contenido total de proteína (%N) y calcita. Los resultados alcanzados indican que, a pesar de la similitud de los ambientes de depositación en los que fueron recuperados los conjuntos óseos (horizontes «A» de suelos enterrados en antiguas planicies de inundación), existe un patrón de preservación diferencial que se expresa, básicamente, en la macroporosidad y el %N. No obstante, existe una tendencia general cuando se considera el total de parámetros empleados ya que las diferencias se registran en la intensidad con la que actuaron ciertos procesos y no en la presencia de los mismos. Finalmente, se discuten las causas que provocarían las diferencias en los estados de preservación y se analizan qué variables (por ej. temperatura, humedad, acción de microorganismos, tiempo, tamaño de la muestra, porosidad de los huesos, etc.) ocuparían un lugar preponderante en la explicación de los resultados alcanzados., The main goal of this paper is to provide a taphonomic analysis related to the process of physical and chemical alteration of the bone structure caused by post-burial processes or diagenesis. Particularly, this research focuses on four archaeological assemblages from the Paso Otero archaeologicallocality (Buenos Aires Province, Argentina). The study of diagenetic parameters such as porosity, crystallinity (IRSF), diagenetic carbonate content (C/P), calcite, protein content (%N) and histology were applied to bone assemblages of archaeological sites recorded in «A» buried soil horizons located in ancient flood plains in the middle basin of the Quequén Grande River. The chronological span includes the late Pleistocene and the beginning of the late Holocene. The analysis of bone microstructure indicates a pattero of differential bone preservation even when the archaeological assemblages come from quite similar environmental depositional settings. Consequently, it is remarkable that every site has undergone a very particular taphonomic history regarding post-burial processes. The possible causes of theses differences are explored and discussed., SeCyT (UNCPBA), Graduate School of Texas Tech University, Depto. de Geodinámica, Estratigrafía y Paleontología, Fac. de Ciencias Geológicas, TRUE, pub