Isótopos de estroncio: Cría, circulación y apropiación de camélidos en Aguada de Ambato (Catamarca, Argentina)

In the valley of Ambato, Catamarca, between the sixth to the eleventh centuries AD a process of social differentiation and complexity led to the emergence of an unequal society characterized by the maintenance of economic and political inequalities, craft specialization and intensification in the exploitation of resources. In this context, camelids played an important role, not only from an economic standpoint, but also from different social and ideological aspects. However, there are a number of questions concerning the origin of the different species of camelids and areas of movement thereof. In this paper, we examine the modalities for obtaining and managing these resources through the analysis of radiogenic isotopes of strontium in samples from Aguada-affiliated archaeological sites. These data show that most of the analyzed specimens have values that are within the corresponding values of biologically available strontium isotopes in the valley of Ambato, allowing us to propose, first, that the most of the domestic camelids recovered in archaeological sites were bred locally and second, that wild camelids also come from neighboring or nearby valley sectors.