No abstract

ResumenLa excavación por muestreo estratificado en el asentamiento prehispánico de Rincón Chico -Sitio 1-, Departamento de Santa María, Provincia de Catamarca, perseguía entre sus objetivos, obtener información no sesgada sobre el conjunto de estructuras arquitectónicas, según forma y tamaño, y recuperar restos arqueobotánicos. Con tales propósitos, en las campañas de 1992 y 1995, se implementó el uso de la técnica de flotación por medios manuales. El presente trabajo presenta el análisis del conjunto de restos botánicos carbonizados que proceden de pisos de ocupación. De estos restos, se seleccionaron aquellos relacionados con el consumo alimenticio. Se dan los fundamentos del método, el modo en que se implementó y se discuten los resultados obtenidos. AbstractThe excavation using a stratified sampling strategy in the prehispanic settlement of Rincón Chico Site 1, Department of Santa María, Province of Catamarca, pursued, among its goals, to obtain unbiased information about the set of architectural structures, according to shape and size, and to recover archaeobotanical remains. With such purposes, in the campaigns of 1992 and 1995, the use of the manual flotation technique was used. This paper presents the analysis of the set of

In this paper, an interdisciplinary investigation was carried out to study if Santa María tricolor style vessels were used as culinary equipment in a 14th century AD domestic cooking space in El Colorado (Yocavil valley, Catamarca, Northwest Argentina) and to question the long-established idea that Santa María vessels were exclusively funerary objects. The combined use of gas chromatography (GC-FID), gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS), and high-performance liquid chromatography coupled to electrospray ionization and quadrupole time-of-flight mass spectrometry (HPLC-ESI-Q-TOF) to study residual lipids from Santa María style vessels provided valuable information on their ancient use. Also, an ordinary striated style ceramic pot with distinct visible soot marks, as well as sediments from the cooking area, was studied for comparative purposes. Fatty acid, sterol, and acylglyceride profiles were characterized, and markers of food sources were searched in the complex mixtures. We identified intact triacylglycerides (TAGs) in the archaeological samples, even unsaturated, indicating exceptional preservation of lipids in the ceramic matrixes. Cholesterol or cholesterol oxidation products were observed in all ceramic containers, as well as plant sterols (stigmasterol, sitosterol) in two containers. Markers for ruminant lipids, such as TAGs that contain odd-chain fatty acids, were found, supported by the identification of odd-chain and branched-chain fatty acids with GC-FID and GC-MS. This evidence contributes to the hypothesis that Santa María vessels were used for culinary purposes in this archaeological domestic cooking space.