Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Pinniped Capture and Processing: A Comparative Analysis from Beagle Channel (Tierra del Fuego, Argentina)

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
Zooarchaeology in the Neotropics

Abstract

Pinnipeds were the most important food resource for the Beagle Channel hunter-gatherer-fishers throughout its occupational sequence. It was proposed that most of the identified preys were captured by foraging in the sea through the use of specialized technology (canoes and harpoons), and complete carcasses were transported to the residential areas. However, activities related to the exploitation of these sea mammals were not analysed in temporal scale. The main objective of this study is to identify and assess strategies in capture, processing and consumption of pinnipeds throughout the evidence of two archaeological sites of the north coast of the Beagle Channel (Tierra del Fuego, Argentina): the basal deposits of Imiwaia I site, dated to around 6000 radiocarbon years BP (uncalibrated), and the layer C of Ajej I site, dated on 1400 radiocarbon years BP (uncalibrated). Pinnipeds age, sex and anatomical profiles obtained for Imiwaia I are consistent with the exploitation of isolated individuals (adult males and subadults) of fur seals and complete carcass processing on the site. On the contrary, sexually matured females predominate in Ajej I, the representation of body parts is incomplete and we identified a high frequency of processing marks. While evidence from Imiwaia I agrees with the previously identified capture and transportation strategy from other Middle Holocene archaeological contexts, the exploitation of pinnipeds in the Late Holocene site displays differences in butchering activities and possible variations in capture strategies.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
eBook
USD 16.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 109.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD 109.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Ames K (2002) Going by boat. The forager-collector continuum at sea. In: Fitzhugh B, Habu J (eds) Beyond foraging and collecting: evolutionary change in hunter-gatherer settlement systems. Kluwer Academic/Plenum Publishers, New York, pp 19–52

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Bastida R, Rodríguez D (2003) Mamíferos marinos de Patagonia y Antártida. Vázquez Manzini Editores, Buenos Aires

    Google Scholar 

  • Behrensmeyer A (1978) Taphonomic and ecologic information from weathering. Paleobiology 4:150–162

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Binford L (1978) Nunamiut ethnoarchaeology. Academic Press, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Binford L (1981) Bones: ancient men and modern myths. Academic Press, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Cádegan Sepúlveda K (2013) Anatomía comparada del esqueleto apendicular de dos especies de otáridos, Otaria flavescens (Shaw, 1800) Arctophoca australis gracilis (Zimmerman, 1783). Dissertation, Universidad Nacional de Chile

    Google Scholar 

  • Campagna C (1985) The breeding cycle of the southern sea lion, Otaria byronia. Mar Mamm Sci 1(3):210–218

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Crespo E, García N, Dans S, Pedraza S (2008) Arctocephalus australis. In: Crespo E, García N, Dans S, Pedraza S (eds) Atlas de Sensibilidad Ambiental de la Costa y el Mar Argentino. Mamíferos Marinos, pp 1–9

    Google Scholar 

  • Egeland C (2003) Carcass processing intensity and cutmark creation: an experimental approach. Plains Anthropol 48:39–51

    Google Scholar 

  • Estévez J, Juan-Muns N, Martínez J, Piqué R, Schiavini A (1995) Zooarqueología y Antracología: estrategias de aprovisionamiento de los recursos animales y vegetales en Túnel VII. In: Estévez J, Vila A (eds) Treballs d’Etnoarqueologìa 1, Encuentros en los conchales fueguinos. CSIC/Universidad Autónoma de Barcelona, Barcelona, pp 143–238

    Google Scholar 

  • Fisher J Jr (1995) Bone surface modifications in zooarchaeology. J Archaeol Method Theory 2(1):7–68

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gifford-Gonzalez D, Sunseri C (2009) An earlier extirpation of fur seals in the Monterey Bay region: recent findings and social implications. Proc Soc Calif Archaeol 21:89–102

    Google Scholar 

  • Hawkes K, O’Connell J (1985) Optimal foraging models and the case of the !Kung. Am Anthropol 87:401–404

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hildebrandt W, Jones T (1992) Evolution of marine mammal hunting: a view from the California and Oregon Coast. J Anthropol Archaeol 11(4):360–401

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • King J (1983) Seals of the world. In: British museum (natural history). Oxford University Press, Oxford

    Google Scholar 

  • Lanata J, Borrero L (1994) Riesgo y Arqueología. Arqueología de Cazadores-Recolectores, límites, casos y apertura. Arqueol Contemp 5:129–142. Lanata J, Borrero L, editors

    Google Scholar 

  • Lyman R (1989) Seal and sea-lion hunting: a zooarchaeological study from the Southern Northwest Coast of North America. J Anthropol Archaeol 8:68–99

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lyman R (1992) Prehistoric seal and sea-lion butchering on the Southern Northwest Coast. Am Antiq 57(2):246–261

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lyman R (2003) Pinniped behavior, foraging theory, and the depression of metapopulation and nondepression of a local population on the Southern Northwest Coast of North America. J Anthropol Archaeol 22(4):376–388

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lyman R (2008) Quantitative paleozoology. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Marshall F (1993) Food sharing and the faunal record. From bones to behavior: ethnoarchaeological and experimental contributions to the interpretation of faunal remains. Occas Pap 21:228–246

    Google Scholar 

  • Martinoli MP (2015) Procesamiento y consumo de pinnípedos: el caso de las ocupaciones canoeras tempranas del sitio Imiwaia I (Tierra del Fuego, Argentina). Intersecciones en Antropología 16(2): 367–381

    Google Scholar 

  • Muñoz A (2011) Pinniped zooarchaeological studies in Southern Patagonia: current issues and future research agenda. In: Bicho N, Haws J, Davis L (eds) Trekking the shore: changing coastlines and the antiquity of coastal settlement. Springer, New York, pp 305–331

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Orquera L (2005) Mid-Holocene littoral adaptation at the southern end of South America. Quat Int 132:107–115

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Orquera L, Piana E (1999) Arqueología de la región del canal Beagle (Tierra del Fuego, República Argentina). Soc Argent Antropol, Buenos Aires

    Google Scholar 

  • Orquera L, Piana E (2000) Imiwaia 1: un sitio de canoeros del sexto milenio A.P. en la costa norte del canal de Beagle. In: Desde el País de los Gigantes. Perspectivas Arqueológicas de la Patagonia, vol II. Universidad de la Patagonia Austral, Río Gallegos, pp 441–453

    Google Scholar 

  • Orquera L, Piana E (2009) Sea nomads of the Beagle Channel in southernmost South America: over six thousand years of coastal adaptation and stability. J Island Coast Archaeol 4:1–21

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Piana E, Vázquez M, Álvarez M (2008) Nuevos resultados del estudio del sitio Ajej I: un aporte a la variabilidad de estrategias de los canoeros fueguinos. Runa 29:101–121

    Google Scholar 

  • Pickering T, Egeland C (2006) Experimental patterns of hammerstone percussion damage on bones: implications for inferences of carcass processing by humans. J Archaeol Sci 33:459–469

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • San Román M (2009) Anatomía económica de Otaria flavescens. In López P, Cartajena I, García C, F Mena (eds) Zooarqueología en el confín del mundo. Facultad de Estudios del Patrimonio Cultural de la Universidad Internacional SEK-Chile, Área de arqueología, Santiago de Chile, 169–180.

    Google Scholar 

  • Schiavini A (1990) Estudio de la relación entre el hombre y los pinnípedos en el proceso adaptativo humano al canal Beagle, Tierra del Fuego, Argentina. PhD dissertation, Universidad de Buenos Aires, Buenos Aires

    Google Scholar 

  • Schiavini A (1993) Los lobos marinos como recurso para cazadores-recolectores marinos: El caso de Tierra del Fuego. Lat Am Antiq 4(4):346–366

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Schiavini A, Raya Rey A (2001) Aves y Mamíferos Marinos en Tierra del Fuego. Estado de situación, interacción con actividades humanas y recomendaciones para su manejo. Informe preparado bajo contrato con el proyecto Consolidación e Implementación del Plan de Manejo de la Zona costera Patagónica, proyecto ARG/97/G31 GEF/PNUD/MRECIC CADIC-CONICET

    Google Scholar 

  • Sielfeld W (1983) Mamíferos Marinos de Chile. Ediciones de la Universidad de Chile, Santiago de Chile

    Google Scholar 

  • Sielfeld W (1999) Estado del conocimiento sobre conservación y preservación de Otaria flavescens (Shaw, 1800) y Arctocephalus australis (Zimmermann, 1783) en las costas de Chile. Estud Oceanol 18:81–96

    Google Scholar 

  • Tivoli A (2010a) Las aves en la organización socioeconómica de cazadores-recolectores-pescadores del extremo sur sudamericano. PhD dissertation, Universidad de Buenos Aires, Buenos Aires

    Google Scholar 

  • Tivoli A (2010b) Temporal trends in avifaunal resource management by prehistoric sea nomads of the Beagle Channel region (southern South America). In: Prummel W, Zeiler J, Brinkhuizen D (eds) Birds in archaeology: proceedings of the 6th meeting of the ICAZ Bird Working Group in Groningen, Groningen archaeological studies, vol 10. Barkhuis Publishing, Groningen, pp 131–140

    Google Scholar 

  • Tivoli A, Zangrando F (2011) Subsistence variations and landscape use among maritime hunter-gatherers. A zooarchaeological analysis from the Beagle Channel (Tierra del Fuego, Argentina). J Archaeol Sci 38(5):1148–1156

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Winterhalder B (1986) Diet choice, risk, and food sharing in a stochastic environment. J Anthropol Archaeol 5(4):369–392

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Zangrando A (2003) Ictioarqueología del canal Beagle. Explotación de peces y su implicación en la subsistencia humana. Sociedad Argentina de Antropología, Buenos Aires

    Google Scholar 

  • Zangrando A (2009a) Historia evolutiva y subsistencia de cazadores-recolectores marítimos de Tierra del Fuego. Sociedad Argentina de Antropología: Colección Tesis de Doctorado, Buenos Aires

    Google Scholar 

  • Zangrando A (2009b) Is fishing intensification a direct route to hunter-gatherer complexity? A case study from the Beagle Channel region (Tierra del Fuego, southern South America). World Archaeol 41(4):589–608

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Zangrando A, Orquera L, Piana E (2010) Diversificación e intensificación de recursos animales en la secuencia arqueológica del canal Beagle (Tierra del Fuego, Argentina). In: Gutiérrez M, De Nigris M, Fernández P, Giardina M, Gil A, Izeta A, Neme G, Yacobaccio H (eds) Zooarqueología a principios del siglo XXI: aportes teóricos, metodológicos y casos de estudio. Ediciones del Espinillo, Buenos Aires, pp 359–370

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank Francisco Zangrando and L. Orquera for reviewing earlier versions of this chapter. We also thank Sofia Tecce to help us with English corrections, the reviewers for their contributions, and especially we want to thank the editors for inviting us to write this article.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. CADIC-CONICET, Bernardo Houssay 200, 9410, Ushuaia, Tierra del Fuego, Argentina

    María Paz Martinoli & Martín Vázquez

Authors
  1. María Paz Martinoli
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Martín Vázquez
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to María Paz Martinoli .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Laboratorio de Zooarqueología y Tafonomía de Zonas Áridas (LaZTA), IDACOR, CONICET/Universidad Nacional de Córdoba, Córdoba, Argentina

    Mariana Mondini

  2. Laboratorio de Zooarqueología y Tafonomía de Zonas Áridas (LaZTA), IDACOR, CONICET/Universidad Nacional de Córdoba, Córdoba, Argentina

    A. Sebastián Muñoz

  3. Instituto Nacional de Antropología y Pensamiento Latinoamericano—CONICET, Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires, Argentina

    Pablo M. Fernández

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2017 Springer International Publishing AG

About this chapter

Cite this chapter

Martinoli, M.P., Vázquez, M. (2017). Pinniped Capture and Processing: A Comparative Analysis from Beagle Channel (Tierra del Fuego, Argentina). In: Mondini, M., Muñoz, A., Fernández, P. (eds) Zooarchaeology in the Neotropics. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-57328-1_2

Download citation

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation