Fire and Bones in the southern Border mid-and late nineteenth Century

Abstract

The aim of this work is to make a contribution to articulate information from various disciplines such as archaeology, ethnohistory and actualistic studies- Our purpose is to reconstruct the technological behavior that took place in the context of South Salt River (Buenos Aires Province), during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. This report details the results of fve experiments in order to produce a control series. Two experiences on bones that have been burned under natural conditions and those who have been burned intentionally. The other three experiences were implemented by burning bones, linking archaeological, ethnohistory and historical information provided by written documents, experiments and pottery technology. These studies were conducted in order to test whether or not there were differences in the effects on bones and pottery after simulating natural, intentional and different types of stove fres. Analysis of archaeofaunal materials recovered in the garbage dump of Fortin La Parva (FLP) in the district of General Alvear, in order to understand the different taphonomic processes affecting the bone, such as trampling and thermal alteration assembly is also made between others. Despite that
these fndings are preliminary, these are the frst steps for future studies of experimental and archaeological evidence, because “... there is still a great need for much experimentation under various conditions of burning ...” (David 1990: 66) to approach the interpretation of the record of the material culture produced in frontier settlements in the second half of the nineteenth century.