La ocupación humana de las nacientes de la Quebrada de Humahuaca en el rango 3.000-1.000 A.P. : evidencias arqueológicas, discusión y perspectivas

Abstract

The development of village societies with herding-farming economy took place in the South Central Andes between 3000 and 1000 B.P. However, this process remains poorly understood in the area of Quebrada de Humahuaca and its surroundings. Unlike other parts of northwestern Argentina and northern Chile, only fragmentary evidence from a handful of sites is available for these two millennia, thus rendering the assessment of the particularities of this crucial cultural process in this specific area extremely difcult. In this paper we presentand discuss archaeological information from the northern sector of Quebrada de Humahuaca, where we are currently carrying out investigations, organizing it diachronically in three temporal segments (ca. 3000-2800 B.P.; ca. 1900-1800 B.P.; ca. 1600-1300 B.P.). We then contextualize it in a broader spatial picture, trying to piece together the available information to build a preliminary discussion of the cultural process that unfolded in the area in the two millennia considered. We emphasize along the discussion the fragmentary nature of the available archaeological evidence, and point out potential shortcomings of the theoretical models employed so far. We discuss how both factors prevent the development of a fine-grained chronology and a sophisticated characterization of the social landscapes of these two millennia.