Bone spearheads from the Late Prehispanic Period of Sierras of C órdoba (Argentina)

AbstractThe archaeological record of the Late Prehispanic Period of Sierras of C órdoba, Argentina (~1220-330 cal BP), has revealed a rich and highly developed bone industry. The worked bones are purported to include various types of hunting or warfare weapons such as arrowheads, knives and daggers or bleeders. However, most of the latter two tools can now be interpreted as spe ar or spear-thrower dart heads based on ethnographic and macro-wear studies. Thus, the aim of this article is to present the techno-typological and functional analysis carried out on the bone spearheads collected at the San Roque archaeological locality (Villa Carlos Paz, Argentina). Spearheads are defined as massive and strong pointed tools that are suitable for hafting to a shaft about 15 mm or more in diameter, which corresponds to ethnographic spears or darts. The tools were assigned to the Late Prehispanic Period based on their similarity with those recovered in neighboring sites and regi ons during the last 1500 years. The study supports the contention that Late Prehispanic people developed a variable and highly sophisticated set of weapons suitable for taking any animal resource when encountered, minimizing the cost of failure in the capture of the prey they depended on. However, w arfare and the use of spears in raids against other groups needs to be taken into account because evidence of physical interpersonal violence increases in the Late Prehispanic Period. Finally, it is proposed that mus...
Source: International Journal of Osteoarchaeology - Category: Science Authors: Tags: RESEARCH ARTICLE Source Type: research