Daily practices, levels of physical activity, and ways of life in populations of the southern sector of the Pampas mountains during the late Holocene

The objective of this study is to examine the archaeological populations that inhabited the southern sector of the Sierras Pampeanas and the northwest of the Pampean Region during the late Holocene, from a bioarchaeological perspective. More specifically, the research focuses on the study of levels of physical activity as a way of approaching the daily practices carried out by the pre-Hispanic populations that inhabited these regions.

We are interested in understanding the uses of the body, which are related to the daily practices carried out by people—in particular, those practices linked to subsistence, craft, and mobility activities, which can be inferred from bone markers—as well as estimating the influence that processes such as plant domestication, sedentary life, or social grouping may have had on these practices.

To this end, three groups of bone indicators were taken into consideration: degenerative changes, enthesial changes, and extra facets, impressions, and joint extensions. The results obtained indicate, on the one hand, that there would have been a change in physical activity levels over time, with a decrease in the late Holocene, which is not consistent with what is expected from data provided by other bioindicators and the archaeological record.

On the other hand, the regional differences detected suggest that in the Plains area, the higher frequencies of the markers analyzed from an early age would refer to more marked physical wear and tear compared to that recorded in the Mountains, which in turn may suggest issues of mobility and travel (over greater distances or involving greater physical effort) linked to the procurement of foreign raw materials.