Santander, February 19th-22nd 2008 - Aranzadi

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MIGUEL A. ZUBIMENDI
(Verneu and De La Vaulx 1902: 138). In 1922,
Torres said he found a tembetá –a button-like chin
ornament– made of an Adelomelon beckii columella
in San Blas Bay (1922: 517). Also an
Olivancillaria auricularia shell was found with a
perforation on its side, attributed to having been
used as a whistle (Bormida 1949). A similar purpose
was assigned by R. Brunet (1980: 121) to
three Odontocymbiola subnodosa large shells
presenting quadrangular perforations found on the
central coast of the Province of Chubut.
3.4. Malacologcal artifacts in human burials
Shell bead and recipient findings in chenques
–common Patagonian graves– deserve special
consideration. In the north of Patagonia, several
shell beads –some made from Pacific Ocean species–
have been found (for example Della Negra
and Novellino 2005: 169).
In burials with multiple individual in the coast of
Chubut, little Tegula sp. seashells were found, as
well as hundreds of shell beads considerably modified
(Gómez and Dahienten 1997-1998: 109). On
the north coast of Santa Cruz, a similar finding was
observed in a looted grave (J. E. Moreno com.
pers.). In the middle valley of Río Gallegos, in southern
Patagonia, a tubular Scaphoda mollusc fragment
of the Dentaliidae family was found (Ortiz-
Troncoso 1973: 133). Finally, in the west centre of
this province, in the Sierras Coloradas area, over
859 shell beads were found in several chenques
(Cassiodoro 2005: 259–260). In the first half of the
20 th Century some shell beads were found in graves
on the banks of the Santa Cruz River (Vignati 1934:
89) and on the Colhue-Huapi Lake (Bormida
1953–1954: 33).
On the other hand, in graves close to the
mouth of Negro River (Strobel 1867, Moreno 1874)
and of the north coast of Golfo San Matías, large
gastropod recipients were found arranged on individual
graves (Carcelles 1944, Deodat 1967).
4. FINAL COMMENTS
In spite of being a subject barely discussed on
Patagonian archaeological bibliography, the presence
of malacological artefacts requires a deeper
analysis. The great majority of artefacts are
shell beads and recipients. The former have been
distributed all across Patagonia, from the Province
of Neuquén in the north, all throughout the inland,
to the coastline area. Recipients are almost certainly
limited to the north coast of San Matías Gulf
and the area between this gulf and the middle and
lower valleys of Colorado River, where containers
and spoons have been found in residential as well
as in burial grounds. They can also be found,
though to a lesser extent, in the Deseado River
basin, in the North Centre of Santa Cruz.
With regard to human burials, in Patagonia,
most of them were performed with few grave
goods, if any at all. However, malacological
remains have been found in a great number of graves.
They consist generally of shell beads inland
and on the central coast; and of large shells of the
Volutidae family on the north coast
The spatial distribution of the malacological
artefacts defines a series of patterns that should
be considered. There is considerable evidence of
the presence of Pacific Ocean shells in Neuquén
and the west of Río Negro. Within this area there
are numerous passable tracks across the Andes,
which became rare and more difficult in the South.
There is no evidence of this kind of artefacts southwards,
up to the Chilean Magallanes region.
Probably the shell artefacts found in the Andes
area at the South of Neuquén, with the exception
of those made with fluvial molluscs like Diplodon
chilensis, have come from the Atlantic coast.
A considerable number of malacological
remains lack a temporal context. However, only a
few finds have been registered in the middle
Holocene, most of them belong to the late
Holocene. This could be correlated, according to
some authors, with a growth in Patagonian population
density, and with the emergence of large
interaction networks (Borrero 2001, Gómez 2007,
among others). Malacological artefacts have also
been found at later times, after natives established
contact with European sailors and travellers. In this
last historical period, many remains were found in
the Neuquén area. They come mainly from the
Pacific Ocean, thus reflecting the constant movement
of people on both sides of the Andes and the
occupation of this territory as a unity (Adan and
Alvarado 1999: 247).
Even when the presence of shells at inland
sites is not large in number, it is interesting that in
virtually all researched areas, malacological artefacts
or intact shells have been found in stratigraphy.
We can note a greater presence of this
kind of remains in the centre and west sides of the
Province of Santa Cruz. There have been found
species commonly consumed on the coast – such
as Aulacomya ater, Mytilus edulis and Nacella (P.)
magellanica (Gómez 2007, Zubimendi 2007)– as
MUNIBE Suplemento - Gehigarria 31, 2010
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