Provenience archaeological studies of ceramic raw material and artifacts using instrumental neutron activation analysis: the cases of chaschuil and bolson de fiambala (Catamarca, Argentina)

This paper deals with the archaeological aspects of the work that has been done under the Contract ARG 9393, part of the IAEA Co-ordinated Research Program (1997-2000). The proposed working plan is included in a frame project of the Archaeological School of the University of Catamarca: Chaschuil Archaeological Project (PACh). This is an interdisciplinary project of regional archaeology, which carries out research in the Argentine southern Puna. Its goal is to explain land use, focusing on the study of both environmental and artifactual variability. In order to accomplish these goals, the project comprises a variety of techniques, including paleoenvironmental, ecological, geomorphologic, geo archaeological, taphonomical and resource provenance studies. Together with archaeological data, they provide the basis for models about mobility and exchange among past societies in the southern Puna (Ratto 1997, 1998)