Late Prehistoric High-Altitude Hunter-Gatherer Residential Occupations in the Argentine Southern Andes.

Test excavations were conducted at Risco de los Indios (RDLI), a site at 2480 masl with 29 residential features and a well-developed midden containing abundant floral, faunal, lithic, and ceramic materials. Analyses indicate the site was intensively usedca. 500cal b.p. as a residential base for groups focused on hunting guanaco, supplemented by locally-available wild flora and fauna as well as domestic beans transported from the lowlands. Ceramic and obsidian artifacts indicate these groups were highly mobile and in contact with groups on the eastern and western margins of the Andes. These patterns compare favorably to those seen in the region’s other high altitude villages. It appears that the development of these patterns began with population increase and economic intensification in the lowlandsca. 2000cal b.p.and that the move to slightly lower elevation settings like RDLI may have been conditioned by the onset of the Little Ice Age. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]