Subsistence and use of fauna resources in hunting-gathering economies of the Atacama puna, northern Chile

Abstract

Two quantitative samples of organic remains from the late Preceramic camps Tulán-52 and Puripica-1, located in the Puna of Atacama, chronologically dated between 2,100-2,300 years BC, were evaluated, valuing the bone evidence as process indicators based on capture procedures, consumption habits and stratigraphic distribution. From this information, the conditions and character of the adaptation to arid and semi-arid areas of populations that occupied the environments of the Puna and the Atacama Salt Flat during the Late Archaic Period are inferred.