Inferences on mobility and subsistence patterns from degenerative joint disease and entheseal changes. Trends in the farmer/forager border (Central-Western Argentina)

This study tests the hypothesis that the incorporation of cultigens about ca. 2000 years BP substantially changed hunter-gatherer subsistence and mobility in the Atuel River valley (Central-Western Argentina), where the frontier of pre-Hispanic domesticated resource dispersion was defined. Degenerative joint disease and entheseal change markers were analyzed on skeletal remains from Cañada Seca-1, a burial archaeological site with commingled skeletal remains dated about ca. 1500 years BP (MNI = 24). The results show lower mobility in comparison with hunter-gatherer remains from the neighboring Pampa region and quite different manual activities compared to low-level producers. These trends are explained as a result of a mixed subsistence strategy and mobility in an area where the incorporation of domesticated plants was neither a linear nor a fast process, and a stereotypical view proves to be insufficient to understand it. Although further information is required for future discussions, the present research highlights the potential of commingled skeletal remains for this kind of study.